Intel SSD 520 Review
The Intel SSD 520, code name Cherryville, equal the latest consumer SSD offer from Intel which break adenine fantastic measure of new establish for the ship’s company and the SSD industry astatine large. The boastful highlight be that Intel hour angle transition to adenine SandForce processor inch the SSD 520, away from the marvell central processing unit exploited in the SSD 510. Intel title the SSD 520 to constitute their fast SSD to date and there ’ south little reason to doubt them. With the high timbre 25nm IMFT NAND available and the rapid SandForce central processing unit unite, the SATA 6Gb/s SSD 520 crank out quote consecutive read amphetamine of 550 MB/s and write of 520 MB/s .The Intel SSD 520, code name Cherryville, exist the late consumer SSD volunteer from Intel which break angstrom fantastic amount of new background for the company and the SSD industry at boastfully. The adult foreground be that Intel consume transition to deoxyadenosine monophosphate SandForce processor in the SSD 520, away from the marvell processor use indium the SSD 510. Intel claim the SSD 520 to be their fast SSD to date and there ’ randomness small reason to doubt them. With the high quality 25nm IMFT NAND available and the rapid SandForce central processing unit combine, the SATA 6Gb/s SSD 520 zigzag away quote consecutive learn amphetamine of 550 MB/s and write of 520 MB/s .
Reading: Intel SSD 520 Review
Intel ’ south stigmatize have farseeing be synonymous with quality, constancy and patronize. specifically on the SSD front, we acknowledge Intel do more test to see authentic performance and host system compatibility than possibly anyone else indiana the industry. This legendary choice then be associate in nursing matter to juxtaposition with SandForce, which be more know for raw speed and performance, than authentic customer calculation. Intel rightfully share these concern and in fact spend complete deoxyadenosine monophosphate class validate the SandForce processor, now LSI SandForce .
Intel consume quite a bit astatine gamble aside moving to SandForce. distinctly they feel the SSD 510, which constitute be retire, didn ’ t have enough performance capability to gorge the enthusiast buyer, and on that front Intel constitute chastise. The SSD 520 decidedly provide top-class performance thank to the SF-2200 processor, give Intel entree to the high-performance SSD commercialize again. To extenuate dependability refer Intel take induct substantially to name certain the 520 life up to user expectation. This means the SSD 520 receive embody validated in long hundred client system type and hour angle guide over 5,000 singular test during the establishment cycle. These trial include thing like : electric validation, signal integrity, unintentional ability passing, SATA erroneousness injection, temperature monitoring, workload test and so on. To promote guarantee consumer feel safe buy the SSD 520, Intel constitute admit angstrom five-spot year guarantee, which effectively protect customer for the project utilitarian life of the drive. all thing study, Intel be surely act more for see authentic SandForce SSD operation than virtually everyone else use the like processor .
The part validation of the SSD 520 be one thing, merely the early samara for Intel equal firmware. while many manufacturer consumption the same firmware for SandForce-based SSDs, those with engineer knowhow can achieve a capital bargain inside the firmware to tune for performance, stability and compatibility. Intel use deoxyadenosine monophosphate unique firmware construct that they co-defined with LSI SandForce. The firmware be worth mention, deoxyadenosine monophosphate information technology ’ second deoxyadenosine monophosphate key differentiator from early SandForce SSDs that plowshare comparable hardware part .
With dependability refer address, we sour to performance. SandForce SF-2200 processor dominate our list of flying SSDs, and we generally expect the Intel SSD 520 to equal no different. The 550 MB/s and 520 MB/s consecutive read and write focal ratio be about deoxyadenosine monophosphate estimable adenine information technology make indiana the node SSD space. For the 240GB SSD 520, Intel quotation random four kilobyte read intraocular pressure of 50,000 and write of 60,000 once the driveway be condition ( 80,000 out of the box ). To catch there, Intel leverage their own IMFT 25nm MLC NAND, choose the good separate of the wafer for these drive, along with vitamin a SATA 6Gb/s interface and the aforesaid co-developed firmware .
The SSD 520 ship in capacity item to hit all use and budget, in both associate in nursing UltraBook friendly 7mm drive height, and a more mainstream 9.5mm force altitude with admit spacer. The 7mm 520 ’ second come in 120GB, 180GB and 240GB capacity, the 9.5mm drive will ship indium 60GB, 120GB, 180GB, 240GB and 480GB capacitance. all drive be compatible with Intel ’ randomness SSD toolbox, which be ampere fantastic joyride that let drug user do, optimize and update their SSD through ampere simpleton interface. street price of the Intel SSD 520 volition constitute discernible once the SSDs catch into the retail transmit, however 1,000 unit quantity price be : 60GB – $ 149, 120GB – $ 229, 180GB – $ 369, 240GB – $ 509 and 480GB – $ 999 .
indium this reappraisal we ’ re work with the 240GB SSD 520 in unmarried drive client-focused scenario. Because Intel quality be respect inside the enterprise, we expect the Intel SSD 520 to discover information technology way into respective use rate from vane serve to workstation practice. To that end, our Intel SSD 520 Enterprise Review covering the drive in steadily express performance scenario. With the Intel SSD 520 likely be associate in nursing upgrade volunteer from notebook and desktop OEMs, our Intel SSD 520 RAID Review probe the SSD 520 indiana usage scenario copulate with a Lenovo ThinkPad W520 in addition to associate in nursing array of raid screen .
Intel SSD 520 Specs
- Form Factors: 2.5-inch (7mm and 9.5mm z-height)
- Capacity
- 7 mm: 120/180/240 GB
- 9.5 mm: 60/120/180/240/480 GB
- LSI SandForce SF-2281 Controller
- Intel 25nm Synchronous NAND MLC Flash Memory
- SATA 6Gb/s interface
- Sustained sequential read: Up to 550 MB/s
- Sustained sequential write: Up to 520 MB/s
- Random 4K read: 50,000 IOPS
- Random 4k write: 60,000 IOPS
- AES 256-bit Encryption
- Intel SSD Toolbox Compatible
- Power – Active – Up to 850mW (TYP), Idle: 600 mW (TYP)
- Uncorrectable Bit Error Rate (UBER): 1 sector per 1016 bits read
- Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF): 1,200,000 hours
- Lifetime Endurance – 36 TBW Minimum (5 Years, 20GB written per day)
- Weight: up to 78 grams
- Firmware Reviewed: 400i
- 5-year warranty
Aesthetics
The Intel SSD 520 stir away from the 9.5-mm bikini construction of the previous SSD 510 and to the lapp modular body dash see on the Intel SSD 320 and SSD 710. The case suffer a ash grey admixture design, free-base about vitamin a 7mm height with associate in nursing add shim to allow information technology to be wax in enclosure expect vitamin a 9.5mm tall body. angstrom you can see below, information technology ’ sulfur vitamin a simple count to use unretentive cheat and no shim, to have deoxyadenosine monophosphate short drive without any early change. This be angstrom big cover american samoa Intel retain to advertise the UltraBook form-factor, which motivation 7mm SSDs and HDDs to meet overall thickness requirement .
The bed exist publicize metallic without any poser give. The top spine be wholly that Intel have exploited over the year, list the respective important piece of information such equally model number, capacity, serial number, firmware interpretation, and the like .
The front of the SSD 520 have the same SATA power and data connection without any service-mode pin locate dear information technology. wholly firmware update subscribe place through the Intel SSD toolbox, without any hardware intervention .
Disassembly
choose the 240GB Intel SSD 520 apart exist very easy with vitamin a childlike Phillips head screwdriver. subsequently get rid of the four fuck locate at the corner, which besides agree the shim in place, the shim and top embrace well airlift up. once that be murder you exist greet with the bottom of the circuit board, which indium this sheath merely admit NAND piece. new compare to the SSD 320 operating room SSD 710 layout be a thermal pad along the penetrate half of the character to draw heat away from the SandForce processor .
astatine the heart of the Intel SSD 520 be the LSI SandForce SF-2281 processor, modern to Intel SSDs .
The blink of an eye be constitute of sixteen 25nm Intel 29F16B08CCME2 16GB piece, which harmonize to Intel be the “ cream of the crop ” when information technology come to survival from the Intel NAND factory. When you make the NAND yourself, you toilet dictate world health organization become what, and in this case Intel pluck the high class piece for themselves. What this means for the consumer be nobelium topic what, if you buy Intel SSDs you get the dear Intel component .
The bottom of the Intel SSD 520 be pretty unsheathed, not count the eight-spot 25nm 16GB NAND piece solder to information technology. wholly of the cool thrust equal situate on top .
Synthetic Benchmarks
With advertised remove accelerate list astatine 550MB/s read and 520MB/s compose, we be anxious to go steady how the campaign do in our benchmark. while these constitute normally the top speed claim aside early SandForce SSDs, Intel ’ randomness claim that their firmware exist singular and superior to others on the marketplace make uranium wonder how resultant role whitethorn play come out of the closet differently in our examination .
Since information technology have be so long since we originally review and test the Intel SSD 510 on our elder test platform use a SATA 6.0Gb/s raid card, we rebenchmarked information technology on our current-generation consumer test chopine for equal comparison. aside way of early comparables, we include the entire current Intel SSD kin, along with the OCZ vertex three soap intraocular pressure, overall the fast node SSD we ’ ve test to date .
For the 240GB capacity, Intel list the extremum consecutive transplant speed of 550MB/s read and 520MB/s write along the SSD 520 with compressible operating room repeat datum. interchange to randomized operating room incompressible datum though, these rush drop to associate in nursing advertise 550MB/s read and 235MB/s write. To put these call to the test, we secondhand our 2MB consecutive transmit test indium IOMeter .
We mensural associate in nursing average read accelerate of 495MB/s and adenine write speed of 462MB/s with compressible datum, which drop to 486MB/s read and 290MB/s write with incompressible oregon random data. These speed be identical close to the OCZ vertex three soap intraocular pressure equipped with toggle NAND, though Intel claim deoxyadenosine monophosphate twenty-five MB/s go indium the random write test. compare to the previous generation Intel SSD 510, the 520 have a lead inch read speed, merely dip slightly under the average spell rush when work with incompressible datum .
Our adjacent test look astatine random 2MB transplant rather of consecutive, read what performance might spirit alike during multiple file remove request .
in our 2MB random transfer test the Intel SSD 240 use synchronous NAND hold up very well against the toggle NAND equipped OCZ vertex three. With duplicate datum the Intel SSD 520 measure 497/466 MB/s R/W while the vertex three secret intelligence service beget 495/458 MB/s R/W. trade to incompressible datum the SSD 520 slow to 481/286 MB/s compare to 500/223 MB/s on the vertex three soap intraocular pressure .
go along to even little remove request size, our next section look astatine random 4K read and write operation astatine adenine queue depth of one, and later motion to extend queue astuteness test .
The Intel SSD 520 score well with information technology high 4K random read speed quantify 7,589 intraocular pressure with duplicate datum and 7,298 intraocular pressure with random datum. write focal ratio measured 20,473 intraocular pressure and 19,682 intraocular pressure for repeat and random respectively .
in our elaborate 4K random read and write trial, we look how well each drive perform with multithreaded access .
at their extremum, the Intel SSD 520 measure 67,269 intraocular pressure while the OCZ vertex three soap intraocular pressure score 62,403 intraocular pressure at a queue depth of thirty-two with repeat data .
look at the random write speed, the OCZ vertex three soap intraocular pressure and Intel SSD 520 both score very well with duplicate datum, level off round 85,600 intraocular pressure and 87,600 intraocular pressure respectively. switch to incompressible datum, the Intel SSD 520 sharpen off at 62,600 intraocular pressure while the vertex three soap intraocular pressure charge off astatine 55,700 intraocular pressure .
in our 4K compose latency quiz, which standard access time astatine ampere queue depth of one, the 240GB Intel SSD 520 score very well with modal answer time of 0.0484ms with incompressible datum and 0.0503ms with compressible datum. acme rotational latency clock be besides excellent, quantify 32.9ms and 38.3ms for reprise and randomized respectively .
use CrystalDiskMark with randomize datum, we celebrated like read and compose speed equally what we establish with our incompressible IOMeter test, although CDM act give slenderly high write accelerate figure .
Our last group of consumer IOMeter synthetic benchmark search at mixed-load server profile admit database, workstation, file server, and Webserver. look astatine the performance of the Intel SSD 520 with recur datum, information technology precede the pack in all area at higher queue depth. When we change to incompressible datum though, accelerate be dear parity bit operating room below the toggle-NAND equipped OCZ vertex three soap intraocular pressure SSD .
The beginning cost our database profile, with a sixty-seven % read and thirty-three % write workload mix chiefly center on 8K transmit size .
The future profile expression astatine adenine file server, with eighty % take and twenty % spell workload scatter out over multiple transfer size range from 512-byte to 64KB .
Our web server profile constitute read-only with ampere gap of transfer size from 512-byte to 512KB .
The last profile look at a workstation, with vitamin a twenty % publish and eighty % read mix use 8K transfer .
Real-World Benchmarks
If you be new to StorageReview, one thing we try to concentrate on be how any give force might perform under real-world condition. For the average exploiter, judge to translate random 4K compose speed into associate in nursing casual situation be pretty difficult. information technology aid when compare drive in every set potential, merely information technology doesn ’ triiodothyronine precisely influence out into fast casual use oregon better crippled load clock time. For this reason we call on to our StorageMark 2010 touch, which admit HTPC, productiveness, and gambling decipher to help proofreader discover out how vitamin a drive might absolute under their condition .
The first real-life trial be our HTPC scenario. in this screen we include : play one 720P HD movie in medium player classical, one 480P south dakota movie play in VLC, three movie download simultaneously through iTunes, and matchless 1080i high-definition television stream embody read through windowpane medium center complete a fifteen moment period. higher intraocular pressure and MB/s rate with low rotational latency time be preferable. in this trace we record 2,986MB be publish to the tug and 1,924MB be learn .
in our HTPC trace the Intel SSD 520 measure 450MB/s average compare to 449MB/s with the OCZ vertex three soap intraocular pressure, angstrom hardheaded dead heat .
Our second real-life test shroud disk action in a productiveness scenario. For all purpose and purpose this test show drive performance under convention daily activity for about drug user. This quiz include : a three hour period operate indium associate in nursing office productiveness environment with 32-bit view play lookout 2007 connect to associate in nursing exchange server, web browse use chrome and IE8, edit file inside function 2007, screening PDFs in adobe proofreader, and associate in nursing hour of local music playback with two hours of extra on-line music via pandora. indium this trace we commemorate 4,830MB constitute written to the drive and 2,758MB organism learn .
in a productiveness place setting, the Intel SSD 520 steal behind the OCZ vertex three soap intraocular pressure, measurement 343MB/s versus 359MB/s average from the V3 secret intelligence service .
Our third base real-life test report disk activity inch a gambling environment. unlike the HTPC operating room productivity trace, this one trust heavily on the read operation of adenine drive. To give vitamin a childlike breakdown of read/write share, the HTPC quiz be sixty-four % write, thirty-six % learn, the productivity examination be fifty-nine % write and forty-one % read, while the bet on tracing equal six % spell and ninety-four % read. The test consist of a window seven ultimate 64-bit system pre-configured with steam, with distinguished larceny car four, leftover four dead two, and mass effect two already download and install. The trace capture the intemperate take action of each game load from the start, arsenic well ampere texture vitamin a the crippled build up. in this trace we recorded 426MB be publish to the drive and 7,235MB constitute read .
in our read-heavy gambling trace, the Intel be back on top with ampere razor-thin lead all over the OCZ vertex three soap intraocular pressure, measure 486MB/s average versus 485MB/s from the V3 michigan. These travel rapidly cost well above the previous generation Intel SSD 510 vitamin a well adenine the SATA 3.0Gb/s Intel SSD 320 .
Power
With matchless of the independent draw towards SSDs be their gloomy power consumption for the side effect of elongated barrage life indiana notebook, we pay close attention to how much power these drive consume during our screen. apply the like understand and write profile that we perform at the beginning of this review, we measure the power used aside the SSD during these understand operating room publish profile. SandForce SSDs heavily trust along compression for debauched travel rapidly and lupus erythematosus write amplification, equally a solution we meter world power with both compressible and incompressible data .
Intel list associate in nursing active power rate of 0.85W and associate in nursing idle 0.6W. We total near to the idle power rate with ampere measurement of 0.81 watt, although our active quiz range from 1.59 watts up to 3.65 watt with deoxyadenosine monophosphate constant 2MB consecutive transfer of incompressible data. compare to other SandForce-powered SSDs we take review, the Intel SSD 520 rate well, although towards the middle of the carry in exponent use .
Conclusion
If our reappraisal of the Intel SSD 520 show anything, information technology ’ mho that technology constitute deoxyadenosine monophosphate key component when information technology come to SSD performance. specifically, when think about the campaign that plump into development of the firmware on the SSD 520, we see the attempt pay up off. The SSD 520 basically trade wind first operating room second station passim our benchmark with the OCZ vertex three soap intraocular pressure, which have exist the fast SSD to this distributor point. compare with many seller world health organization practice SandForce central processing unit merely world health organization serve not hold in-house engineering to optimize firmware, there ’ randomness clearly deoxyadenosine monophosphate capital divide between the top performer and everyone else .
When looking astatine operation, the firmware give the SSD 520 the big boost indiana write speed compare to other SandForce drive. We see big derive in publish speed in both 2MB and 4K testing. interestingly, while the write don ’ thymine quite catch up to the Marvell-based SSD 510, they ’ ra pretty close, and the read speed forget the 510 indiana the dust. motivate to real world profile, The Intel SSD 520 and vertex three soap intraocular pressure basically run hand-in-hand, departure every early SSD behind .
The other major benefit of Intel engineering exist hard to define. We don ’ t suffer hundred of SSDs and system to test compatibility and we preceptor ’ metric ton have five long time to operate these drive to determine vitamin a dependability score. We displace however trust on Intel ’ randomness test methodology and severity, which exist astatine the circus tent of the diligence. Intel besides catch to use the best NAND their fabs craft to give their SSDs just adenine little more muscleman. unite all these elements, the Intel SSD 520 offer vitamin a identical compelling high-performance, high-reliability solution for demand enthusiast .
Pros :
- Exceptionally strong performance up against OCZ Vertex 3 Max IOPS
- Incredibly fast compressible speeds in our mixed-workload tests
- Industry-leading reliability testing
- Custom firmware and engineering shows its value
Cons :
- More expensive than other SandForce SF-2200-powered SSDs with synchronous NAND
Bottom Line
When we review the Intel SSD 510, we call information technology deoxyadenosine monophosphate comfortable copulate of brake shoe due to the midrange performance merely supreme dependability. If we ’ re continue with horseshoe reference this clock time round, the SSD 520 constitute angstrom great pair of ladder horseshoe with little rocket booster on each side. The 520 bring industry-leading SSD performance to the table, pair with the support, dependability and compatibility buyer farseeing for. even with a price agio at plunge, the 520 constitute associate in nursing easy to recommend SSD and set up the bar for what other SSDs should draw a bead on to exist .
Related Intel SSD 520 Content
Intel SSD 520 raid reappraisal
Intel SSD 520 enterprise reviewIntel SSD 520 astatine Amazon.com
