Intel SSD DC P3700 Enthusiast Report (800GB)

REPORT ANALYSIS AND FINAL THOUGHTS

It’s not often that we do totally separate reviews for the same SSD but we felt the Intel SSD DC P3700 was deserving of such…and not only as a result of the numerous requests received for just this.  NVMe represents a whole new way to look at solid state storage and it is not reserved only for enterprise class use; this will find its way to the buying consumer soon enough.  Intel will soon be starting that gravy train rolling as they also roll out the P3600 and P3500 right behind the SSD we reviewed today, the P3500 hitting shelves at an MSRP of $599 for a 400GB SSD.  For $600, we will be getting performance of 2.5GB/s throughput, 450,000 IOPS, a five-year warranty, along with absolutely amazing endurance.  This is the enthusiasts dream.

Without realizing it, Intel is going to be significantly improving the sales of Microsoft Windows 8.1 soon enough.  The reasoning for this, of course, is that the Intel P3000 NVMe SSD family will only boot on Windows 8.1, or higher enterprise operating systems such as Windows Server 2008/2012 and Linux Enterprise Server.  As for me personally, my disdain for Windows 8.1 grew with every person that sent me a note asking how they could turn off their system, or where they can store files.  All that has changed now.  After spending about 24 hours trying to get Windows 8.1 installed and booting properly, with countless failed attempts, I will doing a Test Bench rebuild this weekend with the heart and soul of the system being the Intel P3700.  Did I mention that, unlike every other PCIe before this, there is no delay and this SSD boots in about 10-12 seconds flat in Windows 8?

As much as many will point directly to lower latency as the highlighting variable with the SSD DC P3700, the overall performance picture is great.  Looking solely at the consumer/enthusiast/prothusiast/small business picture, we become well aware of the fact that we will most likely not have this drive running with a continuous load 24 hours a day.  As much as we always discount manufacturer specifications that are drawn from highly compressible data, the same can be said by looking entirely at the incompressible data result picture.  This SSD will find its way into the hands of so many outside of the enterprise workspace, where mixed loads and sporadic use paing an entirely different picture than the P3700 was intended; some of this being the result of the P3500/P3600 not being available until well behind the P3700.  460K IOPS, 2.6GB/s throughput, end to end data protection, a five-year warranty, unheard of endurance and very low latency paint a great picture for the future though, don’t you think?