HOT: Intel 660p 1TB NVMe 4x PCIe SSD $124 ( AMAZON - USE HardOCP AFFILIATE )

I'm thinking of buying this to put in my 2nd m.2 slot on a Asus rog strix x470f gaming board. I think the speed won't be as fast as the 1st m.2 slot but much faster than regular ssd speeds.
 
done..... I just picked up a 2018 razer blade with a 256gb drive in it.... had bought a 960 evo 512gb but really would rather have 1TB of storage...

Thanks for the link and used the affiliate code for [H]

I know this drive boggs when doing really large file transfers due to the memory type.... but this is a nice price for the size.

Thanks again
 
keep in mind these are QLC ssd's
Which means don't buy it for applications that require lots of writes. (like video editing) otherwise it's fine. For a games drive it's unbeatable value.
 
Which means don't buy it for applications that require lots of writes. (like video editing) otherwise it's fine. For a games drive it's unbeatable value.


even then at the price point and the amount of system ram on most machines today I am not sure video editing would cause it to crawl... and the 1TB model has the largest cache onboard

but I will post back here after I install it on my rig and do some editing on it
 
even then at the price point and the amount of system ram on most machines today I am not sure video editing would cause it to crawl... and the 1TB model has the largest cache onboard

but I will post back here after I install it on my rig and do some editing on it
I do a lot of processing / filtering in lossless. For real time editing it should be OK I guess, if there is enough free space. Keep in mind as the drive fills up the available cache size is reduced accordingly.
 
right..... which is why the 1TB drive is probably the best for the $$ for this drive. Enough to provide a large SLC cache but still room to store lots of games and files.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13078/the-intel-ssd-660p-ssd-review-qlc-nand-arrives/9

I have a OEM 256gb a 960 EVO 512gb and then this one.... so ill do some testing and see how it fits for my use.

At worst ill throw it into a USB-C enclosure and have a nice flash drive
 
HOT: Intel 660p 1TB NVMe 4x PCIe SSD $124 ( AMAZON - PLEASE USE HardOCP AFFILIATE LINK )

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-660p-1...scsubtag=880be202357111e9b15d7a43b62703820INT

1700MB/s Read / 1700MB/s Write

3.5 x faster than a traditional sata3 SSD

ZERO noticeable difference between this NVMe and say a Samsung Pro 970 NVMe 4x PCIe ( I have both )

This would be in games, general Windows 10 usage. basically anything you're going to be doing. However, if you're coming from a sata3 SSD to this, there is a very noticeable difference in Windows 10 boot time, general desktop usage, applications. But, in my experience, there is no difference in game load times be it NVMe or sata3.

( Please use HardOCP Affiliate link )
Real world sustained reads and writes with this drive in my experience are around 800-1000 MB/s, and I've seen it peak at 1400 MB/s until the SLC cache quickly runs out. Still about twice as fast as SATA III and great performance for every day usage at this price. I may pick up one or two, myself.
 
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Real world sustained reads and writes with this drive in my experience are around 800-1000 MB/s, and I've seen it peak at 1400 MB/s until the SLC cache quickly runs out. Still about twice as fast as SATA III and great performance for every day usage at this price. I may pick up one or two, myself.

That's until you start filling it up though; once it starts getting full it drops to spinning disc speeds. For a storage drive I think most people would be better off buying a 1TB SATA SSD for the same price or less.
 
That's until you start filling it up though; once it starts getting full it drops to spinning disc speeds. For a storage drive I think most people would be better off buying a 1TB SATA SSD for the same price or less.
Only the writes slow down when full. Reads are still at least 2x faster than any sata drive.

BTW You shouldn't fill any SSD to the brim anyway. 10% OP is recommended.
Plus you can manually clear the cache with the accompanying software. (Don't know why doesn't it do that when idle automatically)
 
Only the writes slow down when full. Reads are still at least 2x faster than any sata drive.

BTW You shouldn't fill any SSD to the brim anyway. 10% OP is recommended.
Plus you can manually clear the cache with the accompanying software. (Don't know why doesn't it do that when idle automatically)

Anandtech's review shows that reads and latency are hit hard also; frequently to the point where the Q660 becomes the slowest drive in the tests. And while it's true that you shouldn't fill an SSD to the brim most other drives aren't going to tank like the Intel drive does.
 
I'm not sold on these QLC drives. I think I'd rather just get a SATA drive and not have to worry about future slowdowns. Never going to notice the difference in speed in real world use (for me and 99% of everyone else), anyway.
 
I am surprised to hear that some of you, at least from what I gather here seem to fill up your SSD boot drives? I never thought that was a thing. it does happen but I would assume the data is quickly moved to your mass storage?

SSD storage is cheap, these are basically throw away or sell, trade away, give away components, They are highly cheap and highly portable and very easily replaceable.

I think ... MAYBE? too much thought process is going into these cheap drives? I say get 'em, smoke 'em and run them hard. When you're done, kick 'em to the curb.

Case in point, I have maybe 5 or 6 128GB thumb drives now that I picked up for $20 to $25 dollars each. They hold various drive images for me, or PCUnlocker, software tools, music, etc etc etc.

I think most up to date modern PC dudes have a SSD Boot drive ... 250 - 500 - 1TB ... and then a 1 bay or 4 bay docking station with cheap mass storage mechanical drives. One of you have internal hard-drives in your case but I'm willing to bet most of you have all SSD's now and or external backup solutions.

SSD's are the one thing I view as easily replaceable and cheap in my system. Something you cannot say about most of the components that reside inside your PC.
 
Maybe some of us remember the Samsung 840/840 evo problems and might wish to wait a bit on QLC. Maybe some of us would rather have in system long term storage as well as external backups/NAS. 1TB of ssd goes away quick these days for games and not all games need ssd speeds.
 
Anandtech's review shows that reads and latency are hit hard also; frequently to the point where the Q660 becomes the slowest drive in the tests. And while it's true that you shouldn't fill an SSD to the brim most other drives aren't going to tank like the Intel drive does.
So it is slow in a scenario that almost never happens in practice. I'm fine with that.
 
I am surprised to hear that some of you, at least from what I gather here seem to fill up your SSD boot drives? I never thought that was a thing. it does happen but I would assume the data is quickly moved to your mass storage?

SSD storage is cheap, these are basically throw away or sell, trade away, give away components, They are highly cheap and highly portable and very easily replaceable.

I think ... MAYBE? too much thought process is going into these cheap drives? I say get 'em, smoke 'em and run them hard. When you're done, kick 'em to the curb.

Case in point, I have maybe 5 or 6 128GB thumb drives now that I picked up for $20 to $25 dollars each. They hold various drive images for me, or PCUnlocker, software tools, music, etc etc etc.

I think most up to date modern PC dudes have a SSD Boot drive ... 250 - 500 - 1TB ... and then a 1 bay or 4 bay docking station with cheap mass storage mechanical drives. One of you have internal hard-drives in your case but I'm willing to bet most of you have all SSD's now and or external backup solutions.

SSD's are the one thing I view as easily replaceable and cheap in my system. Something you cannot say about most of the components that reside inside your PC.
I fully utilize all of my drives, solid state or mechanical.
 
So it is slow in a scenario that almost never happens in practice. I'm fine with that.

My drives are almost always near full. Regardless, you can pick up a 1TB HP EX920 NVMe that uses TLC for $25 more from Newegg. It's quite a bit faster than the 660p (and even 760p) whether it's empty or full and one wouldn't have to contend with possible QLC wear issues...
 
I've always read it's just bad form to have any active drive daily use SSD drive fully populated with data. Even my long term storage is kept about 95%.

I would recommend people spend the money on a 500GB+ ssd ( NVMe if possible ) and not fully populate it and leave breathing room.
 
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not sure id want to swap from my 2TB Micron 3D TLC NAND Flash or id really notice a much faster boot up.....the pre windows loading is what takes a long while on mine. (like 3 times as long as my envy laptop)
 
not sure id want to swap from my 2TB Micron 3D TLC NAND Flash or id really notice a much faster boot up.....the pre windows loading is what takes a long while on mine. (like 3 times as long as my envy laptop)


You should be able to boot into Windows within 10 to 12 seconds?

I've been able to achieve that time for a few 2 or 3 years now.

But then again, I run a stripped down program startup, highly tweaked disabled processes along with a very lite weight Windows 10 install.

I do not allow anything to run in the background period other than a few select items.
 
You should be able to boot into Windows within 10 to 12 seconds?

I've been able to achieve that time for a few 2 or 3 years now.

But then again, I run a stripped down program startup, highly tweaked disabled processes along with a very lite weight Windows 10 install.

I do not allow anything to run in the background period other than a few select items.
lol my laptop boots in like 4 seconds from off....impressive really....I think some of these high end motherboards just aren't designed for a rapid start up...but then again i havent tried booting off a m2 slot yet. Its like these boards have an abnormally long bios stuff it does while booting up in comparison. Once the windows stuff comes up its pretty quick at that point. Using a UEFI boot up as well if that maters, so its not running in legacy either.

On the plus side i could start using my 2tb ssd as an actual back up drive...lol should make backups or restores pretty quick:)
 
My drives are almost always near full. Regardless, you can pick up a 1TB HP EX920 NVMe that uses TLC for $25 more from Newegg. It's quite a bit faster than the 660p (and even 760p) whether it's empty or full and one wouldn't have to contend with possible QLC wear issues...
I'm in EU, most of those fair prices never get here. And even the ones that do like this one, we still pay at least 20% premium on them. The next cheapest 1TB Pcie SSD I could get is the Crucial P1 which is also QLC, and performs exactly the same as the 660p in tests, yet costs 20% more. You want to use your SSD in a scenario that is not recommended by most, go ahead buy something else. But as I've mentioned this is fine for me. Not as if other drives don't slow down when full. Even the 970PRO does struggle at that point.
 
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lol my laptop boots in like 4 seconds from off....impressive really....I think some of these high end motherboards just aren't designed for a rapid start up...but then again i havent tried booting off a m2 slot yet. Its like these boards have an abnormally long bios stuff it does while booting up in comparison. Once the windows stuff comes up its pretty quick at that point. Using a UEFI boot up as well if that maters, so its not running in legacy either.

On the plus side i could start using my 2tb ssd as an actual back up drive...lol should make backups or restores pretty quick:)

Many motherboards have so many extra options that need to be switched on or off.
 
Real world sustained reads and writes with this drive in my experience are around 800-1000 MB/s, and I've seen it peak at 1400 MB/s until the SLC cache quickly runs out. Still about twice as fast as SATA III and great performance for every day usage at this price. I may pick up one or two, myself.

What about the numbers that show this drop to sub 150 mb/s speed with full from reviews? (Anandtech )
 
What about the numbers that show this drop to sub 150 mb/s speed with full from reviews? (Anandtech )
That's during long strenuous workloads. I can certainly see video editing or something that takes a long time to finish causing that but for most end users it shouldn't be an issue.
 
That's during long strenuous workloads. I can certainly see video editing or something that takes a long time to finish causing that but for most end users it shouldn't be an issue.
Which the majority will never experience. And there is this video (linked below) which states that they only experienced those issues under synthetic benchmarks.
If you need the Samsung whizbang $$$ nvme ssd then buy it, this ssd provides nvme pcie m.2 performance at sata prices for the rest of us.
HOT: Intel 660p 1TB NVMe SSD PCI-Express 3.0 x4 $109 Newegg
 
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