Intel 510 series SSD

[Anvil]

It looks like the new Intel 510 series 6Gb/s SSD will be hitting the shops by Tuesday.
What leads me to this is that it's currently listed on one of the webshops in Norway, 1 SKU is on stock and the other is expected in 2 days.

Not much info about the drives yet except for whats been floating around on the www, which is :

INTEL Solid-State-Drive 510 series 34nm up to 450MB/s read 300MB/s write

The current available SKU's are
120GB SSDSC2MH120A2K5
250GB SSDSC2MH250A2K5

What surprises me is that there are no reviews or sneak previews for that matter.

It looks like March 1st could be the day

Updated Feb 28th

intel-510.jpg

Link to Intel 510 series
Product specifications
Product brief

Controller : Marvell 88SS9174-BKK2

Technical specifications
Model name Intel® Solid-State Drive 510 Series
Capacity 120GB and 250GB
NAND flash components 34-nm Intel® NAND Flash Memory multi-level cell compute-quality components
Bandwidth2 Sustained sequential reads
120GB Up to 400 MB/s(SATA 6 Gb/s)
250GB Up to 500 MB/s(SATA 6 Gb/s)
Sustained sequential writes
120GB Up to 210 MB/s(SATA 6 Gb/s)
250GB Up to 315 MB/s(SATA 6 Gb/s)
Read latency3 65 microseconds (120GB and 250GB)
Write latency3 80 microseconds (120Gb and 250GB)
Random I/O Operations per Second (IOPS)4 @QD32
Random 4KB Reads: up to 20K IOPS
Random 4KB Writes: up to 8K IOPS
Interface Compatible with SATA 1.5 Gb/s and 3 Gb/s

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Reviews
StorageReview
PCPerspective
Anandtech
TomsHardware

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[thigobr]

I have found this test don't know if it is true:
https://picasaweb.google.com/115607942538231455851/SSD#

I hope not because the 4K random read/write are really low.

Edit
found another result, seems better:
http://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail....&last=26161963

[Anvil]

I've seen that one as well.

Just discard that test as it was performed on a laptop an no 6Gb/s interface.

[Ao1]

From the second link.

[Computurd]

34nm for the love of christ. cmon intel...quit dragging your feet.

and where the hell is jetstream?

[Anvil]

For some reason Intel have already made the 510 series details available today.

Compared to the details posted yesterday the specs have improved a bit.

Link

510.PNG

[One_Hertz]

Looks like a decent drive depending on the price. 0.065ms should lead to good low queue performance. High queue IOPs look to be rather poor by current standard but they don't really matter anyway.

[Anvil]

Thats what it looks like and those were also the comments that pcper had in their podcast last friday.

Also, the iops (20.000/8.000) are @ QD 32 so there might be more at higher QDs, but all in all it looks like a decent drive.

[Anvil]

1st review is online

[lowfat]

Marvell?!! Well that is surely disappointing. It is a good controller but I was still expecting something of their own.

[Anvil]

Yepp, Marvell it is.

If all the rumours had been true it would have been Toshiba 32nm NAND but that would just have been too weird, so IMF 34nm it is.

I'm actually about to order the 250GB

Performance is good enough for most applications and if the firmware is OK this should be a great drive, a bit pricy though.

[Ao1]

What is the new SSD X10 lineup that Storage Review mention?

[Anvil]

Not sure about X10.
edit: well dooh
X10 would be 310, 510, ..., that doesn't quite fit the new 320 or G3.

Another review in development at pcper. Link

[johnw]

What is the new SSD X10 lineup that Storage Review mention?

I wondered that myself. It could be X10 like the X25-M, or it could be X10 as in 510, 310, etc., but 310 series is already out, it is mSATA SSD cards. And the G3 sounds like it will be 320 series, so X10 is just odd. If Intel were introducing a third SSD series, I'd think they would at least give it a higher number than X25. X30 or X50 maybe. Perhaps storagereview made a mistake?

[Anvil]

My guess is still 310, 510, 710?, ...,

Which would somewhat be in line with the processor series. (i3, i5, i7)

[Lu(ky]

MMmmm price seems high to me (250GB capacity priced at $584 and a 120GB at $284, for 1,000-unit quantities) Just wondering how this ssd will compare to the Crucial C400 ssd. And now seeing the OCZ Vertex 3 at(MSRP of $499 for the 240GB version and $249 for the 120GB version when they launch at the end of March) I guess I will wait for Vertex 3 for price vs performance..

[Computurd]

might be interesting to see how this drive score on latency and 4K QD1. maybe with these excellent latency they have it figured out to an extent. maybe they have tailored the firmware for low QD performance above all others, which could result in awesome real life performance for us desktop users.

might kinda be like LSI and areca with the same chip....the LSI2108

the LSI is awesome @ high QD but only 'ok' @ low QD
the areca is 'ok' @ high QD but UBER @ low QD.

same chip different results.

so maybe its all in the tuning. will be VERY interesting to compare this to the V3, but according to the only complete review out there yet the V3 looks a bit better.

but will that ultra low write latency for the intel be better? wow thats a good score, but the score for the V3 might not be correct because of the 8kb page alignment.

[lowfat]

http://www.storagereview.com/intel_ssd_510_review_250gb

Pretty unimpressive.

[zalbard]

might be interesting to see how this drive score on latency and 4K QD1.

It's crap. So is this Marvell controller...
See the review posted by lowfat.

[Anvil]

It's crap. So is this Marvell controller...

That is a bold statement

The controller in the Intel 510 is the same controller as the Crucial m4 (C400) is using.

Look, there is more too it than just iops, I do agree that iops could be much better but do they really need to?

All in all it performed better in real-life tests than the Crucial C300 in that same review.

[zalbard]

That is a bold statement

The controller in the Intel 510 is the same controller as the Crucial m4 (C400) is using.

Are you sure it's completely the same? Not just the same manufacturer, but also the same model?
Cause if that's so then they just "don't know how to cook it".
Besides, doesn't all the forum research indicate that QD=1..4 and latency are > all for desktop use? Sequential speeds are already huge anyway...

[Anvil]

It's the same controller, there is one huge differense though and that's the firmware.
Micron/Crucial is writing their own and so is Intel.

All research (well most of it) indicates that the performance we want/need is at low QD, maybe a bit more than 4 though, there are bursts where QD reaches > 10 but on average it's quite low.
As for latency there is one common denominator that generally needs to improve and that is max latency and from the looks of it the Intel is great at latency, as they've always been.

The 510 isn't a racehorse and I don' think it was meant to be, I'm expecting more models from Intel

[Anvil]

Reviewed by pcper Link

[Sam_oslo]

It's the same controller, there is one huge differense though and that's the firmware.
Micron/Crucial is writing their own and so is Intel.

All research (well most of it) indicates that the performance we want/need is at low QD, maybe a bit more than 4 though, there are bursts where QD reaches > 10 but on average it's quite low.
As for latency there is one common denominator that generally needs to improve and that is max latency and from the looks of it the Intel is great at latency, as they've always been.

The 510 isn't a racehorse and I don' think it was meant to be, I'm expecting more models from Intel

Yep it's not a racehorse, but it got the price-tag like a Ferrari.

If this is consumer SSD, then that price is high and I thought G3 is meant to satisfy that marked. If it's a high-end SSD, as the price suggests, the performance is not there, at least yet. There is still a little hope that FW-bugs is keeping it back, then better harry and fix it up.
With this price and performance, I would wait for C400 before toughing this.

[Anvil]

Yep it's not a racehorse, but it got the price-tag like a Ferrari.
...
With this price and performance, I would wait for C400 before toughing this.

Hi Sam,

As usual, all new products carry a large price tag.

Meanwhile I've ordered the Vertex 3 240GB

There are quite a few positives about this SSD but I believe the Vertex 3 is the one to get, sure the M4/C400 will be a great performer but there are no news on availability.

I haven't given up on this SSD yet, it's a great allrounder and real-life performer but nothing extreme.
Still waiting for someone to give it a run with PCMV.