Intel Unveils Its Highest Performing Client SSD

[HardOCP News]

Intel today unveiled the Intel® Solid-State Drive (SSD) 750 Series, its highest performing SSD for use in client PC storage devices and workstations. The 750 series delivers greater than four times the performance of SATA-based SSDs by utilizing four lanes of PCIe 3.0 and the NVM Express (NVMe) standard. For added flexibility, it is available as both an add-in card for systems with an accessible PCIe 3.0 slot and as a 2.5 inch small form factor solution. Intel also announced the availability of the Intel® SSD 535 Series which offers the ideal balance of cost and performance for mainstream client PC storage devices.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Looks pretty awesome, but wish it came in a smaller version.

I have no need for more than 256GB, and don't feel like spending $400 for an SSD.

 

[AVogel]

Congrats to the .5% of the market out there who can even put them in their system.

 

[AgentQ]

Congrats to the .5% of the market out there who can even put them in their system.

It comes as a 4x PCIe card as well, and it's backwards compatible with PCIe 2.0 (obviously). So I'm not sure why you think that only 0.5% of the market can put them in their system.

 

[S-F]

It comes as a 4x PCIe card as well, and it's backwards compatible with PCIe 2.0 (obviously). So I'm not sure why you think that only 0.5% of the market can put them in their system.

Cost?
The system must have a BIOS update to even be able to boot from it?
Will my P35 chipset board be able to use this?

 

[AgentQ]

Cost?
The system must have a BIOS update to even be able to boot from it?
Will my P35 chipset board be able to use this?

Cost is certainly an issue, but it's not exactly out of line for a high-end hardware device.

Modern motherboard manufacturers have been doing a good job of adding support.

No, your P35 motherboard won't be able to boot from this, but if you really wanted to you could still use this drive as a secondary device for all of your games, apps, and data and use a small, cheap SSD as your boot device.

But realistically, if you're rocking an 8-year-old chipset then you're not going to be in the market for a $400 / 400GB SSD in the first place, nor should you be. You'd be far better off investing those funds in a cheap mainstream SSD and setting aside funds for a modern CPU and motherboard. So you're very much not in the target market for this enthusiast device.

 

[S-F]

But realistically, if you're rocking an 8-year-old chipset then you're not going to be in the market for a $400 / 400GB SSD in the first place, nor should you be. You'd be far better off investing those funds in a cheap mainstream SSD and setting aside funds for a modern CPU and motherboard. So you're very much not in the target market for this enthusiast device.

But my motherboard and CPU work fine. my Q6600 is overkill for everything I need it to do. The only thing I'd like to upgrade is the storage. I've been on SSDs since they first went mainstream but storage is obviously my bottleneck. So in order to use this new technology I need to buy a new motherboard, CPU and RAM. I don't need any of that stuff for any reason except to support this new storage technology.

I'm not trying to argue with you here. I'm just answering the question that I originally quoted. I imagine that the .5% estimate might not be too far off. Imagine polling a few thousand PC users asking if they could/would buy a new system for $1,000 + in order to also buy a $400 + SSD so things are a little more snappy with day to day computer use. Probably around 99.5% would say "No".

I do plan on buying a new system simply because I want fancy new storage. It's not going to be today tough. Or tomorrow. I'm personally going to wait a bit until this NVMe dust has had some time to settle. I have been burnt by SSDs a few times. OCZ Core? Damn, I bought 5 of them! Then I got a Vertex when it hit the market. That thing also left me high and dry. My X-25m is still going strong and has been moved to the kid's PC. I got an 840 EVO. This thing has become a piece of shit! Makes the entire system a PIG. It was nice at first though.

 

[DracoDan]

But my motherboard and CPU work fine. my Q6600 is overkill for everything I need it to do. The only thing I'd like to upgrade is the storage. I've been on SSDs since they first went mainstream but storage is obviously my bottleneck. So in order to use this new technology I need to buy a new motherboard, CPU and RAM. I don't need any of that stuff for any reason except to support this new storage technology.

I'm not trying to argue with you here. I'm just answering the question that I originally quoted. I imagine that the .5% estimate might not be too far off. Imagine polling a few thousand PC users asking if they could/would buy a new system for $1,000 + in order to also buy a $400 + SSD so things are a little more snappy with day to day computer use. Probably around 99.5% would say "No".

I do plan on buying a new system simply because I want fancy new storage. It's not going to be today tough. Or tomorrow. I'm personally going to wait a bit until this NVMe dust has had some time to settle. I have been burnt by SSDs a few times. OCZ Core? Damn, I bought 5 of them! Then I got a Vertex when it hit the market. That thing also left me high and dry. My X-25m is still going strong and has been moved to the kid's PC. I got an 840 EVO. This thing has become a piece of shit! Makes the entire system a PIG. It was nice at first though.

What you are missing is that YOU are the .5% exception! You are also not the type of person that HardOCP (and thankfully the hardware vendors) cater to. There's no way around the fact that SATA is too slow (especially your SATA2 controller) to relieve your self imposed bottleneck. So are you suggesting manufacturers stop trying to innovate because there are people like you stuck in the mud?

There's a lot more to upgrading a computer than the CPU performance. Storage technology (the bus) has make huge leaps in the past few years, and even if manufacturers had any interest in updating old BIOSes, the hardware can simply not handle the bandwidth and latencies needed.

Also, I love how you say your system is fast enough but the 840 EVO makes the entire system a pig... I have two 840 EVOs in use and I whole heartily disagree, it sounds like you thought an SSD would make your prehistoric pig of a system work like new - and for obvious reasons failed.

You remind me of the kind of people that used to argue that they didn't need to upgrade from Windows 95 and Netscape, because they met all your needs; instead it was the people creating those crazy websites that used CSS and tables that were causing the problems!

How's that flip phone doing for you? still plenty capable of making calls, right?

 

[ToddW2]

But my motherboard and CPU work fine. my Q6600 is overkill for everything I need it to do. The only thing I'd like to upgrade is the storage. I've been on SSDs since they first went mainstream but storage is obviously my bottleneck. So in order to use this new technology I need to buy a new motherboard, CPU and RAM. I don't need any of that stuff for any reason except to support this new storage technology.

I'm not trying to argue with you here. I'm just answering the question that I originally quoted. I imagine that the .5% estimate might not be too far off. Imagine polling a few thousand PC users asking if they could/would buy a new system for $1,000 + in order to also buy a $400 + SSD so things are a little more snappy with day to day computer use. Probably around 99.5% would say "No".

I do plan on buying a new system simply because I want fancy new storage. It's not going to be today tough. Or tomorrow. I'm personally going to wait a bit until this NVMe dust has had some time to settle. I have been burnt by SSDs a few times. OCZ Core? Damn, I bought 5 of them! Then I got a Vertex when it hit the market. That thing also left me high and dry. My X-25m is still going strong and has been moved to the kid's PC. I got an 840 EVO. This thing has become a piece of shit! Makes the entire system a PIG. It was nice at first though.

You're on the wrong forum.
You're commenting on the wrong thread.

This forum isn't about the "AVERAGE" PC user, or polling the masses... most people are fine with spinners and careless about SSD in general UNTIL they use one.

It's very clear these are beyond anything you would need if you're still on a Q6600.

I went from a Crucial M4 to a M2 Samsung that does 1GB/s+ and in day-to-day tasks I notice NO difference, and I consider myself a power user as I'm here all day for work with 3+ monitors doing various tasks.

So, for most people it's kind of pointless anyway even enthusiasts won't notice THAT much difference.

Guess what... in BF4.. I'm always WAITING for other people. I'm ALWAYS first 1or2 in now with this new M2 and have to wait f or others.

Give and take.

I just put in a Fusion IO drive in, and for the $ it's amazing.

 

[drescherjm]

I am actually very unimpressed with the few benchmarks that I looked at. I mean the real world benchmarks do not look like this drive is a good fit on the desktop.

 

[S-F]

Jeez. You guys got wound up pretty good there.

All I was doing in commenting on why it's for .5% of the population. That's ALL. I clearly understand that this technology isn't currently for the masses. I never said it was supposed to be..... Did I? I am very interested in this new storage technology personally and this will finally give me a reason to build a new system.

Please understand that I am not trying to make a personal attack on anyone here or their view points. And I would appreciate the same courtesy.

I didn't get my current SSD expecting performance any greater than my last one. I expected it to be about the same. I just needed a bigger drive, the 840 EVO was on sale so I got it. Sheesh.

If any of you wish to continue to say insulting or offensive things to me fell free to contact my via PM. We can arrange a time to meet in person. Otherwise please observe the forum rules and rule #1 in particular.

 

[AgentQ]

I am actually very unimpressed with the few benchmarks that I looked at. I mean the real world benchmarks do not look like this drive is a good fit on the desktop.

I also have a similar feeling about this drive.

I love the idea of it, and I love that Intel is making attempts to bring their high-end technology to consumer-level products, but I'm struggling to see any reason to choose this power-hungry beast of a drive over something like the SM951 at this point.

Actually, for most people and most workloads a standard SATA SSD is probably plenty fast still.

 

[AgentQ]

All I was doing in commenting on why it's for .5% of the population. That's ALL. I clearly understand that this technology isn't currently for the masses. I never said it was supposed to be..... Did I? I am very interested in this new storage technology personally and this will finally give me a reason to build a new system.

Well, the original comment was a semi-snarky dismissal of the whole technology. It's also totally missing the point, because I doubt any of us are here to discuss how cutting-edge technology isn't a good fit for the general population. This is an enthusiast-class device meant for enthusiast-class motherboards with an enthusiast-class pricetag, so doing a drive-by comment about how it doesn't benefit the general population is way off in the weeds. It would be like someone complaining about PCIe graphics cards because they didn't fit in the AGP slot on their motherboard back when PCIe first came out. That's the point that everyone else was trying to make.

I suggest we drop it and return to the subject at hand.

 

[AgentQ]

I just put in a Fusion IO drive in, and for the $ it's amazing.

What's the price range for a Fusion IO drive these days? And what sort of workloads are you seeing improvements on?

I'd love to see one of these up against the new Intel NVMe SSD.

 

[Fwiler]

I am actually very unimpressed with the few benchmarks that I looked at. I mean the real world benchmarks do not look like this drive is a good fit on the desktop.

It's a great fit if you need throughput and iops. 400k is absolutely insane. We couldn't get that until using multiple ssd's in a jbod using storage spaces.

If you are starting up windows and opening a game, you are correct, it won't do much for you.

 

[wirk]

Depressive they have not made PCIEx4/NVME in the M.2 card format. Hopefully Mushkin Hyperion is coming soon as it was scheduled for Q2/15.

 

[felt]

But my motherboard and CPU work fine. my Q6600 is overkill for everything I need it to do. The only thing I'd like to upgrade is the storage. I've been on SSDs since they first went mainstream but storage is obviously my bottleneck. So in order to use this new technology I need to buy a new motherboard, CPU and RAM. I don't need any of that stuff for any reason except to support this new storage technology.

I'm not trying to argue with you here. I'm just answering the question that I originally quoted. I imagine that the .5% estimate might not be too far off. Imagine polling a few thousand PC users asking if they could/would buy a new system for $1,000 + in order to also buy a $400 + SSD so things are a little more snappy with day to day computer use. Probably around 99.5% would say "No".

I do plan on buying a new system simply because I want fancy new storage. It's not going to be today tough. Or tomorrow. I'm personally going to wait a bit until this NVMe dust has had some time to settle. I have been burnt by SSDs a few times. OCZ Core? Damn, I bought 5 of them! Then I got a Vertex when it hit the market. That thing also left me high and dry. My X-25m is still going strong and has been moved to the kid's PC. I got an 840 EVO. This thing has become a piece of shit! Makes the entire system a PIG. It was nice at first though.

You should really just stop.