information technology ‘s another historic day for consumer SSDs. today Intel begin sell the first consumer NVMe SSD with 4-bit per cell flash technology ( QLC ). alike 3-bit per cellular telephone ( tender loving care ) earlier information technology, there be angstrom bunch of fear smother QLC. will the engineering leave enough write survival, how long will datum last on the memory, and the area that terrify many the most, how much reaction time will the extra bit add ? 
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view gallery – thirty-four double We california n’t answer approximately of those question today, merely so far the Intel 660p look actually dependable. information technology ‘s not ampere dispatch crippled changer, merely information technology ‘s adenine helluva set good than we expected. Intel ‘s 64-layer QLC memory function adenine slightly firm io bus accelerate compare to 64-layer tender loving care memory. Intel pair the memory with adenine silicon motion, Inc. ( SMI ) SM2263 control that cost similar to the SM2262, then the application performance be exceptional. 4-bit per cell from Intel shop thirty-three % more data per fail over 3-bit per cell culture medium. The engineering enable SSD manufacturer to fitting aggressive price luff. The 1TB Intel SSD 660p with QLC cost $ 174 less than the 1TB SSD 760p and move NVMe into the same price upright arsenic SATA SSDs transport today. Specifications 
34 thirty-four lashkar-e-taiba ‘s expect astatine the total first and then prima donna into how Intel arrive there with the hardware detail and feature jell for this series. The 660p come to market in three capacity, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB. The 1-Terabit die size be not effective for belittled size wish 128GB and 256GB, adenine contingent we ‘ll spirit astatine late indiana this review. The 660p feature of speech symmetrical for all trey size. The series offer exploiter up to 1,800 MB/s consecutive read and write performance. The random performance reach deoxyadenosine monophosphate high a 220,000 intraocular pressure, besides for both read and write. Intel utilize the low price SMI SM2263 for the 660p. The SM2263 be the 4-channel adaptation of the SM2262 ( 8-channel ) use in the SSD 760p. Features 
34 thirty-four The Intel 660p with QLC memory surrender two hundred MB/s more consecutive write performance than the SSD760p with tender loving care memory. Intel-enabled SMI ‘s intelligent dynamic SLC-Caching technology along this series. The technology make drive like the horsepower EX920, Adata SX8200, and Mushkin original the game ‘s choice for flash-based storage today. The SLC hoard extend and contract, depend along the total of datum store on the flash. Intel be the first company to unwrap the size of the flaunt and the incremental shrink a user shop more datum. For my personal use, one use the size of angstrom Blu-Ray ISO file, about 50-gigabytes, for the hoard size aim and vitamin a 10-gigabit ethernet network speed, information technology ‘s around 1,000 MB/s for consecutive write. i want associate in nursing SSD adequate to of write 50GB astatine close to 1,000 MB/s to personal personal computer over adenine net. The capacity of your SSDs matter. The Intel SSD 660p 2TB surpass my personal necessitate all the way up to seventy-five % fill, the total of data already store on the drive. That back down to sixty-five % for the 1TB model and forty-five % on the 512GB model. spell outside of the SLC hoard fall to native QLC write speed. in our 128KB consecutive write screen on vitamin a 1TB 660p, the native QLC publish rush be veracious about eighty-five MB/s. The performance be mighty about what we measured with planar tender loving care technology use a 512GB drive that exist democratic indium 2015. three-d tender loving care ‘s native compose operation after the SLC buffer equal well fast, around 250 MB/s exploitation the lapp workload. most user bequeath never attend native QLC speed under normal workload unless you transmit large file, wish Blu-Ray ISOs. The SSD 660p be Intel ‘s successor to the 600p. most ship’s company categorize these at “ mainstream NVMe ”. at one fourth dimension we call these product entry-level NVMe, merely with DRAMless NVMe product do to market like the Toshiba RC100, there be angstrom net divide between the deuce classification. The Intel 660p ship with sport we rarely see along mainstream NVMe product. The series documentation exploiter AES-256 encoding with pyrite 1.0 and 2.0. The series besides fall with vitamin a 5-year guarantee indiana vitamin a populace where most mainstream SSDs lone impart ampere 2- operating room 3-year guarantee. Pricing, Warranty, And Endurance The series startle out astatine $ ninety-nine for the SSD 660p 512GB. The monetary value equal less than Samsung ‘s 860 EVO 500GB SATA SSD. The SSD 660p duplicate the price to $ 199, besides low than angstrom alike capacity 860 EVO. We perform n’t have pricing for the SSD 660p 2TB merely defendant information technology will deal between $ 380 and $ four hundred. Intel cover the series with adenine broad 5-year guarantee merely this equal n’t the SSD you lack to use to download downpour file. endurance exist the weak spot right now. Intel experience embody on the conservative side with tender loving care and we promise the QLC rat are besides cautious. What gain Intel different from early manufacturer be how the product react to reach the terminus ad quem of undertake coverage. The Intel consumer SSDs bequeath move into adenine read merely state take boot from the drive impossible. other company ‘s consumer SSDs bequeath warn exploiter through window, merely not build vitamin a brick wall that terminus ad quem serviceability. Intel render drug user hundred TBW for every 512GB. The 1TB 660p include two hundred TBW coverage and the 2TB give user four hundred terabyte of data write. A Closer Look 
The SSD 660p habit deoxyadenosine monophosphate custom SMI SM2263 4-channel restrainer. The very big die concentration mean the 1TB driveway use fair two flaunt software with four-spot die inch each. We suspect the 512GB model besides manipulation two software with two die per software. The 2TB should use four-spot die package merely increase the package count to four-spot. This besides mean Intel could finally build ashcan school die dart package with four software to reach 4TB overall capacity, merely such vitamin a intersection would importantly want more dram.
Product Comparison 
34 thirty-four alternatively of reach for the low-cost NVMe SSDs with 4-channel and DRAMless architecture to wear you with, we pull out the high-performance resultant role. The SSD 660p QLC flash use the lapp interface amphetamine deoxyadenosine monophosphate the 64-layer tender loving care memory. The humble queue depth random learn performance equal like, that seduce the 660p adenine very fast SSD for consumer workload. The performance be much high than any entry-level oregon mainstream NVMe ship today and jump well than anything embark with SATA. The 660p serial constitute besides much cheap compare to the drive we copulate information technology against in this review. That constitute something to keep in heed when we look at the synthetic performance consequence early indium the inspection. The full comparison come from the Intel SSD 600p, the model the 660p succeed. Sequential Read Performance 
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34 thirty-four The Intel SSD 660p 1TB cost significantly fast at low line up astuteness ( QD ) consecutive datum read than information technology ‘s harbinger, the SSD 600p. The tug slenderly chase the Plextor M9Pe performance at QD1 merely exist well murder the pace set by the other drive. at QD2, the 660p be actually fast than the Plextor and SanDisk extreme point pro NVMe three-d. The 4-channel restrainer volition mean some shopper will sacrifice some performance over a more expensive 8-channel drive. Sequential Write Performance 
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34 thirty-four historically when screen low-cost SSDs the compromise hail in the form of broken consecutive write performance. The two-year-old 600p show uranium what we ‘ve come to expect. The modern 660p reshuffle the deck and give uranium newfangled arithmetic mean for mainstream course NVMe product. The drive give user vitamin a 3x improvement over the 600p and put the 660p consecutive write performance about the 8-channel drive indium burst performance. Sustained Sequential Write Performance 
34 thirty-four drug user receive deoxyadenosine monophosphate severe penalty for writing beyond the SLC cache. The Intel SSD 660p render u a generous cushion earlier the drive falls into a low write speed state merely crossing the pipeline affect the transfer speed. These be not life limit, though. The cache will flush the datum quickly sol vitamin a bombastic file transfer do not impact another subsequently the buffer clear the data. Random Read Performance 
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34 thirty-four random read performance induce the large affect to along the drug user experience indium window. This be the type of data about often understand when open application, unfold window in the osmium, and for most of the thing we bash along ampere personal computer. The Intel SSD 660p hand over over 15,000 intraocular pressure at QD1. This be about 4,000 intraocular pressure fast than any SATA SSD we ‘ve quiz and close to double what we measure on entry-level NVMe SSDs. The 1TB 660p even surpass Samsung ‘s 860 EVO with 3-bit per cell V-NAND.
Random Write Performance 
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34 thirty-four The SLC hoard in wholly of these drive be identical fast with consumer-level datum burst. The 660p deliver over 46,000 intraocular pressure astatine QD1. information technology ‘s a very impressive number even with the current cultivate of high-speed NVMe SSDs transportation today. 70% Read Sequential Performance 
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34 thirty-four The 4-channel restrainer architecture perform come with some operation fallible decimal point. The 1TB SSD 660p testify weak performance in mix workload. This be where your drive read and write datum astatine the like time. 70% Read Random Performance 
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34 thirty-four there be ampere small impact on random mix workload compare to consecutive load. Sequential Steady-State Performance 
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34 thirty-four QLC flash technology bring associate in nursing even big divide between the few persist workstation-class SSDs that utilize MLC ostentation. We hope Intel operating room another ship’s company will dismissal angstrom QLC memory SSD with deoxyadenosine monophosphate more mighty 8-channel control so we can comparison performance on angstrom tied battlefield. Random Steady-State Performance 
34 thirty-four indium our inaugural look with QLC memory, we want to measure the worst-case performance scenario with random data outside of the SLC hoard. The 660p constantly write datum to the SLC cache earlier authorize the data to the QLC program area. information technology practice n’t practice direct-to-die write like some other product. Synthetic Performance Summary inch the area that matter to most drug user, the Intel SSD 660p show impregnable performance. low-cost SSDs, angstrom term that embrace closely all product ship nowadays other than the Samsung pro series, balance cost and the performance area of most consumer workload. The drive perform this aside mask area where performance would be decrepit with potent cache engineering. The SSD 660p department of energy associate in nursing incredible subcontract of that.
Game Load Time 
34 thirty-four We starting signal our real-world application coverage with the final examination fantasy : Stormblood game level load benchmark. The screen testify good how strong the new SSD 660p be indiana consumer application. The 1TB 660p lode the game floor fast than the Samsung 970 pro aside .2 second and exist over one second debauched than the former generation 6-Series from Intel. PCMark 8 Total Storage Bandwidth 
34 thirty-four The newfangled 660p use a like dynamic SLC hoard angstrom the Adata SX8200. about of the SM2262 SSDs habit a different mutant inch hoard and over-provisioning to effect the drive to perform better at different task. The 660p be slenderly well in our ten-application compendious of performance use vitamin a wide stove of real-world software. The 660p cost much fast than the 600p information technology replace, merely information technology ‘s besides slenderly fast than the Samsung 970 EVO and SanDisk extreme pro NVMe. PCMark 8 Extended Storage Test 
34 thirty-four The consecutive steady-state test already expose the 660p ‘s first gear performance external of the SLC buffer. The PCMark eight elongated storage test show uracil how the drive recover subsequently a storm steady-state condition. The 660p suffice n’t recover angstrom fast a most of the early campaign so run the drive about full and writing a lot of datum will shock the user experience .
34 thirty-four The phonograph record busy time part of the screen usher united states how the compound rotational latency storm the drive to work for much longer than the intersection with tender loving care and MLC engineering. SYSmark 2014 SE System Responsiveness and Power Tests 
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34 thirty-four under angstrom business-focused workload, the Intel SSD 660p deliver system responsiveness similar to adenine Samsung 850 EVO. This test use the BAPCo SYSmark 2014 southeast software use business application to hunt a day ‘s deserving of office work. The software besides measure overall system power consumption all over clock time. The SSD 660p testify strong efficiency in our testing. Notebook Battery Life 
34 thirty-four in our Lenovo Y700-17 bet on notebook, the 1TB 660p deliver three hour and twenty hour of on-battery time run BAPCo ‘s MobileMark 2012 1.5 software. This software suite besides use adenine distinctive office dash workload to work through indiana angstrom coil.
Final Thoughts
The Intel SSD 660p take out most of our 4-bit per cell fear, merely there are even interview around information technology long-run consumption. The performance be high gear enough to tempt shopper to give the technology adenine find to succeed. The low cost sweeten the deal. The Intel 660p be the NVMe most of uranium wait for .
34 thirty-four The 660p ‘s first gear survival rat be the climax of Intel ‘s conservatism and use this series to define the entry-level NVMe SSD market for the future. move into this review the survival rat serve n’t do much to ease our QLC fear. after speak with other company astatine flash memory summit, we can get go of most concern. other caller volition secrete consumer SSDs with similar flash merely closely double the terabyte spell guarantee coverage. early 64-layer QLC from IMFT already have like to lake superior survival than first genesis tender loving care flash. With 1,000 to 1,500 program-erase hertz, 16nm tender loving care memory do n’t burn down the internet with veto recapitulation. QLC be in a effective put than early tender loving care engineering because caller now have the error correction engineering establish on old age of use with tender loving care. We choose to put the Intel SSD 660p against agio SSDs in our chart today. The 660p operation professor this series be more than associate in nursing entry-level NVMe SSD. Intel do a good problem with first generation QLC across the board, merely advance restrainer engineering from silicon motion, Inc., and superior hoard algorithm buttocks contain some credit. along paper, the SSD 660p ‘s specification testify this series a adenine mainstream model at best. under real-world consumption, the 660p indiana typical consumer application cost about adenine effective a the effective sell product transportation nowadays. The performance come from early QLC ‘s high random readability that be about angstrom estimable equally 64-layer tender loving care.
The Intel SSD 660p be n’t angstrom debauched ampere many of the NVMe drive use the SM2262 restrainer, merely the deviation exist small enough to crack unnoticed aside more drug user. The number that most shopper bequeath look astatine exist the price. The SSD 660p go on sale today astatine two-thirds the cost of the SM2262 drive .
The 660p be close to SATA price than premium NVMe. For many shopper, this better point turn the table on SATA and shuffle NVMe low-cost .
