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Last week we started off the SSD of the Week series with the value oriented the Samsung 840 EVO. This week we are focusing on pure performance. Where else could we look besides the first NVMe PCIe 3.0 SSD on the market?
Intel is a big name in the SSD world and are known for their performance and reliability. Their newest enterprise oriented DC P3700 is the new embodiment of that. Utilizing the new NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) specification and PCIe 3.0, the Intel DC P3700 pushes sequential speeds of up to 2800MB/s read and 1900MB/s write. Random read/write performance is rated for 460,000/180,000 IOPS!
Speed isn’t all that this beast was made for. It is also manufactured with Intel’s 20nm HET (high endurance) MLC NAND flash memory. This allows for extreme endurance. The drive is rated for up to 36.5PB (yes, petabytes) written and for up to 10 drive writes per day. The DC P3700 is offered in 400, 800, 1.6TB, and 2TB capacities. Price is around $3/GB, which at first seems like quite a bit, until you factor in that this is the first NVMe SSD on the market and its high performance and endurance.
Feature wise, the Intel DC P3700 has enhanced power-loss data protection, temperature monitoring and thermal throttling, variable sector size, out of band management, and end-to-end data-path protection. This is all topped of with Intel’s 5 year warranty. And best of all, it is bootable with no boot delay! So, if you use Windows 8.1 or enterprise operating systems such as Windows Server 2008/2012 and Linux Enterprise Server, this drive can be the boot drive no issue.
Overall, due to this drive’s great performance and relatively low enterprise market cost, the Intel DC P3700 is starting to blur the lines of enterprise versus enthusiast class storage. I for one have seen a few enthusiasts with these in their PC since its release and expect to see many more in the future.
To read our enterprise review of the Intel DC P3700 click here.
To read our enthusiast report on it, click here.
anyone know when these NVMe PCIe SSD drives will be released?
Well the Intel DC P3700 and DC P3600 are already out. More drives will be released next year.
I haven’t seen the P3600 or P3700 in the normal retail channels. Shipment must be trickling out so hopefully it will ramp up soon.
thats datacenter/enterprise stuff, so its not exactly available tru retail. Atleast not typically.
Actually not so…. The beginning of October is a great time to check back and our links to Amazon from this article might show the diff configurations then, from enthusiast to enterprise. Amazon will be supplying them and we appreciate the patronage by using our links!