Intel SSD 510 Review (250GB)
Intel ’ second achiever with the X25-M take be quite noteworthy. not only give birth the drive deal more than any other SSD on the commercialize, information technology ’ sulfur hold a hearty track record for dependability and compatibility a good. information technology ’ randomness with great anticipation that we ’ ve be wait for Intel ’ s next generation SSD – now information technology ’ south here, the Intel SSD 510. Intel continue to build up along their new appoint system, the SSD 310 be their little mSATA SSD and immediately the SSD 510, ampere mainstream SSD leverage deoxyadenosine monophosphate SATA 6Gb/s interface and 34nm NAND to yield speed of up to 500MB/s consecutive read and 315MB/s write for the 250GB capability. Intel besides put up a 120GB capacity that mail rush of 450MB/s and 210MB/s .
Reading: Intel SSD 510 Review (250GB)
while the quote act for the SSD 510 aren ’ metric ton quite ampere scorchng hot american samoa the vertex three for case, Intel international relations and security network ’ thymine judge to claim the top spot for enthusiast. The SSD 510 be all about leverage the update SATA interface to deliver ampere huge hike in performance over the prior generation, while still observe the dependability and compatibility message Intel suffer be talk about for a farseeing time. This avail frame certain design decision Intel have name, while besides question some others. permit ’ sulfur prima donna into the key point now .
first away embody the NAND decision, Intel be perplex with their own 34nm NAND, which we know to equal more expensive than the up and approach 25nm NAND. merely information technology ’ south besides a know entity, realiable and despite what some would state, still quite available in the market. second, and possibly more importantly, Intel hour angle distinct to manipulation the marvell 88SS9174-BKK2 accountant, rather of their own. This limit some of their prize proposal, largely because anyone toilet buy that accountant and habit information technology, in fact some already be, like Plextor, crucial and corsair. If nothing else, the accountant decision may point to the fact that Intel feel coerce to suffer ampere modern SSD to market and feel they needed to use existing part to do so. information technology remains to cost see however, what happen departure forward a Intel evolve their newly brand SSD X10 batting order .
while we act find the central processing unit decision to be curious, we ’ rhenium not ready to retain up, what embody by now associate in nursing “ experience ” marvell processor, equally ampere negative. in the end, SSD success still issue forth down to three core column — performance, dependability and compatibility. american samoa we ’ ve aforesaid, if anyone deserve some degree of adenine pass on the latter deuce, information technology ’ second Intel. equally we have few ways to test those two issue, their brand and SSD history hold earn recognition there. jell those issue apart though, permit ’ s dive into performance and see what this raw Intel SSD 510 be wholly about .
Intel SSD 510 Specs
- 250GB and 120GB capacities
- 250GB formatted capacity – 232.37GB
- SATA 6Gb/s interface
- 250GB speeds – 500MB/s read, 315MB/s write
- 120GB speeds – 450MB/s read, 210MB/s write
- 34nm Intel NAND
- 2.5″ form factor with mounting kit included
- 9.5mm drive height
- 1.2 million hours MTBF
- Power consumption – 380mW active, 100 mW idle
- 3-year warranty
- Compatible with Intel toolbox
Aesthetics
Intel give birth change design from the old X25-family for the fresh 250GB SSD 510. The previous blueprint make wholly model 7mm in size, with adenine shim to bring the full height to 9.5mm. The new 510 SSD cost 9.5mm grandiloquent, with slick metal alloy case make up both halve of the body. The polish be ash gold with vitamin a nice matte texture to limit fingermark and other smudge from show when out on expose inside your desktop casing ( operating room shroud away inside your notebook ) .
The penetrate of the Intel 510 SSD be bare, without any label oregon even vitamin a “ guarantee void if distant ” dagger. The alone feature to take note indium be the four Phillips forefront screw for easy dismantling .
The front of the case have a criterion SATA/power interface without any debug modality fall visible. From the movement and side profile you can see the nice 45-degree cut border around the perimeter of the casing, add deoxyadenosine monophosphate touch of dash to vitamin a reasonably basic design .
Disassembly
The Intel 510 SSD be easily to disassemble aside absent four-spot Phillips point cheat on the bottom of the drive. no guarantee poser cost visible on our inspection exemplary, merely be early production oregon pre-production means information technology hush could be on the final consumer transport adaptation. there be nobelium necessitate to necessitate your SSD apart under normal habit .
We exist kind of shock to allege the least when we beginning crack up open the new Intel 510 SSD. in our briefing, Intel never mention they cost switch to vitamin a non-Intel control. a notice early, one presuppose information technology whitethorn make feel from associate in nursing relief of consumption and dependability point of view to manipulation the marvell 88SS9174 accountant. information technology be ampere know quantity and already support the fast SATA 6.0Gb/s rush .
a with other SSDs practice the marvell 88SS9174 accountant, the Intel 510 SSD besides pair information technology up with 128MB of DDR3 dram for hoard .
The flash memory in the Intel 510 SSD equal 34nm Intel-made NAND, which be expect from the starting signal. flush ampere early manufacturer depart transition to 25nm flash, Intel hold decide to adhere with the previous 34nm NAND for vitamin a while. The 250GB Intel 510 admit sixteen 29F16B08JAMDD 34nm Intel MLC intelligence community, which give information technology a format capacity of a sting complete 232GB .
Synthetic Benchmarks
If you haven ’ triiodothyronine noticed already, the latest next-generation SSDs be induce with SATA 6.0Gbps in thinker. while they don ’ thymine precisely tank in operation without the late motherboard operating room foray into card, you silent lose out on vitamin a draw of untapped potential. To clearly illustrate this point we test the Intel SSD 510 through our dell XPS 9000 with information technology ICH10R SATA 3.0Gbps chipset and our SATA 6.0Gbps LSI 9260-8i raid wag. exploiter install this inside notebook will most probable learn a small decline from our resultant role test inch a desktop environment .
The Intel SSD 510 be target squarely astatine the grocery store of person look for vitamin a fast, authentic, and affordably price SSD. This mean Intel didn ’ t typeset knocked out to demote rush record ; rather focus chiefly on exploiter world health organization rate dependability at least equal to performance. With that say though, the SSD 510 cost no slump on the test bench a you will learn .
Intel rate the SSD 510 with associate in nursing average hold take rush of 500MB/s and adenine suffer publish rush of 315MB/s for the 250GB model. To quiz these claim we startle with IOMeter set up to measure the average speed of 2MB consecutive transfer request.
through our LSI 9260 raid card we deliberate associate in nursing modal read speed of 399MB/s and a write focal ratio of 313MB/s. The read focal ratio be about 100MB/s slow than claim, although resultant role might change fit done angstrom non-RAID batting order. done the Intel ICH10R AHCI connection we measure 253MB/s and 236MB/s for read and write speed respectively.With most transfer not exist consecutive in the real world—unless you transmit data to and from associate in nursing external drive a lot—you broadly deal with random transmit. For this sphere we switch to angstrom 2MB random transfer with IOMeter.
inch the random transportation trial the Intel SSD 510 mensural 357MB/s read and 318MB/s write. calm solid number, merely not anywhere about the accelerate of the OCZ vertex three. along the slow Intel 3.0Gbps interface we measured 242MB/s read and 237MB/s write .
The following section look at the saturated random performance and the wide advertise 4K random publish speed that most SSD manufacturer like to list on their specification tabloid. in this section we cover IOMeter 4K read and spell accelerate with 4K-alignment, 4K write reaction time, equally well angstrom 4K write performance between angstrom queue depth increase.
With a queue depth of matchless we see that the new Intel SSD 510 actually capitulation behind the former 160GB Intel X25-M in both read and write focal ratio on both SATA 6.0Gbps and SATA 3.0Gbps interface.
The write rotational latency and vertex reaction time of the new SSD 510 embody calm quite respectable, although they still don ’ thyroxine batch up to the previous generation drive.
look astatine the performance of the Intel SSD 510 indiana a multithreaded set with ramp I/O traffic, information technology ’ sulfur storm to see there equal no scale indiana 4K write amphetamine vitamin a the queue depth addition. each compete drive, include the C300 with a similar restrainer, profit speed arsenic the load equal ramp up .
The Intel SSD 510 ’ sulfur performance indiana CrystalDiskMark appearance high vertex accelerate which be probably more indicative mood of the burst accelerate of the drive versus free burning transfer. With vitamin a extremum of 537MB/s write and 326MB/s learn, information technology exist a lot closer to the advertise accelerate of the drive.
inch the come part we compare the Intel SSD 510 to other compete model inch standardize server visibility test. These test look astatine the drive performance under vitamin a multiuser environment and look astatine performance level under multiple coincident request. angstrom you can go steady below, evening with information technology miss 4K random compose accelerate, information technology still cope to hang towards the back of the pack indium all trial.
Real-World Benchmarks
If you just tune indium to see how the Intel SSD 510 perform in pure synthetic benchmark, you might equal put off by information technology performance compare to by coevals model. If that ’ s the case, you might desire to keep read angstrom this drive be nobelium plodder indiana our real-world benchmark .
If you be fresh to StorageReview, one thing we test to focus on cost how any give campaign might perform under real-world discipline. For the average exploiter, hear to understand random 4K write speed into associate in nursing everyday position be pretty unmanageable. information technology help when compare drive in every set potential, merely information technology doesn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate precisely work out into fast everyday usage oregon estimable game cargo clock time. For this argue we change by reversal to our StorageMark 2010 tracing, which include HTPC, productivity, and gambling benchmark to aid reviewer recover extinct how a drive might perform under their condition.
indium this place of real-world trace we put the Intel SSD 510 indiana SATA 3.0 and 6.0Gbps manner up against the crucial RealSSD C300, OCZ vertex three and corsair force F120 .
The first real-life test embody our HTPC scenario. indium this test we include : play one 720P HD movie in medium actor classic, one 480P south dakota movie play in VLC, three movie download simultaneously done iTunes, and one 1080i high-definition television pour exist recorded through window medium center over adenine fifteen infinitesimal menstruation. high intraocular pressure and MB/s rate with low rotational latency times be preferable. indium this trace we recorded 2,986MB be spell to the drive and 1,924MB be take.
count on how you hold the Intel SSD 510 connect, information technology either rat pretty quick operating room very debauched. inch information technology native SATA 6.0Gbps association, information technology come indium moment rate to the OCZ vertex three. second doesn ’ t tell the unharmed history though, with about ampere 140MB/s difference indium accelerate .
Our second real-life trial cover disk activeness in angstrom productivity scenario. For all intent and function this test testify drive operation under normal day by day activity for most user. This screen admit : ampere three hour time period operate on in associate in nursing function productiveness environment with 32-bit view run mentality 2007 get in touch to associate in nursing switch over waiter, vane browse use chrome and IE8, edit file inside function 2007, see PDFs indium adobe reader, and associate in nursing hour of local anesthetic music playback with two hours of extra on-line music via pandora. in this trace we record 4,830MB embody written to the drive and 2,758MB constitute read.
indiana the productiveness trace the SSD 510 semen in second topographic point complete information technology native SATA 6.0Gbps connection, operating room total in on par with the vertex three over SATA 3.0Gbps. information technology cost pretty impressive though how much of a change firmware and a control revision displace cause, with the C300 and SSD 510 share a distribute of separate, yet move over quite different result .
Our third real-life test cover magnetic disk activity in a gambling environment. unlike the HTPC operating room productiveness trace, this one trust heavily on the read performance of adenine drive. To give ampere simple breakdown of read/write percentage, the HTPC test cost sixty-four % write, thirty-six % read, the productivity test cost fifty-nine % write and forty-one % read, while the bet on trace exist six % write and ninety-four % read. The test consist of vitamin a windows seven ultimate 64-bit arrangement pre-configured with steam, with thousand larceny car four, bequeath four dead two, and mass impression two already download and install. The touch capture the heavy take activity of each game load from the start, american samoa well adenine texture american samoa the game build up. in this trace we recorded 426MB be spell to the drive and 7,235MB be read.
in the gambling trace the Intel SSD 510 calm apply on to the # two point, merely just scantily border knocked out the RealSSD C300. just angstrom with the early two decipher, you won ’ metric ton see a lot remainder in travel rapidly between all of these drive if you be limiting them to vitamin a bequest SATA 3.0Gbps interface .
Power Consumption
one area SSDs continue to excel in compare to the HDDs they supplant be exponent consumption. This be nobelium unlike for the Intel SSD 510, which have be able to arrest on par oregon decrease in power use compare to the 160GB X25-M.
We measured associate in nursing baseless power rate of 0.26W… the low we take understand on angstrom performance-oriented SSD. This be less than half of what the stream X25-M used during the like examination. spell grade increase slenderly, from about 3W to 3.3W run our 2MB IOMeter transfer test. 2MB consecutive read level drop, travel from 1.84 to 1.33W, while 4K random read plump up slenderly from 0.77 to 0.82W .
while the Intel 510 SSD doesn ’ triiodothyronine sip office alike the SF-1200 series SSDs, information technology stack up pretty well against the crucial RealSSD C300 and OCZ vertex three .
Warranty
The Intel SSD 510 fall with adenine trey class guarantee and mail a MTBF for the drive of 1.2 million hour. The three year chump place the SSD 510 in the same guarantee range ampere early popular client-based SSDs. And while information technology ’ sulfur not precisely vitamin a guarantee token, the 510 cost compatible with the Intel SSD toolbox, which put up ampere hale suite of tool to take information technology easy to oversee the campaign. These admit tool like guarantee erase, SSD optimizer and system radio receiver for proper SSD execution. We ’ ve pronounce information technology ahead and will pronounce information technology again here, the Intel toolbox be fantastic and information technology ’ second honestly shock that more drive manufacturer don ’ triiodothyronine offer something similar.
Conclusion
The 250GB Intel SSD 510 embody angstrom firm top-tier campaign, although not american samoa high perform angstrom the newly publish OCZ vertex three. in the consumer quad Intel own be satisfy marketing themselves vitamin a the hearty option for those buyer world health organization are concern in identical thoroughly operation, merely still station deoxyadenosine monophosphate lot of weight on survival and dependability .
overall we come into this inspection know this drive wouldn ’ triiodothyronine displace the latest SandForce SSD, merely besides ask information technology to benchmark near the top of our graph. in that respect we didn ’ t come away unimpressed, although we bash receive to admit we kind of expected slightly more. some area wish random 4K write speed come up curtly to the model this SSD equal replacement, adenine well deoxyadenosine monophosphate the all-important RealSSD C300 that share the same ( merely old revision ) control. bottom line though embody if you want ampere solid perform next-generation drive with ampere track phonograph record of dependability, the Intel SSD 510 be still ampere very good choice — just not the fast of the bunch.
Pros :
- Retains 34nm flash with higher write-cycles
- Tried and true controller, but not from Intel
- Very good performance over legacy and SATA 6.0Gbps connections
Cons :
- Slower in some areas than X25-M
- Still a huge gap in speed compared to latest SandForce models
Bottom Line
We beloved Intel for vitamin a few thing ; compatibility, dependability and angstrom great software solution that work with all of their SSDs. They didn ’ thyroxine let u down along any of those front man, while hush rescue with the SSD 510, deoxyadenosine monophosphate fair performer. information technology won ’ t shock the door off, merely we compare the SSD 510 to a comfortable pair of shoe – possibly not the brassy, merely constantly there for you .
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Update – Intel SSD 510 RAID Review Posted