Intel 660p 1tb 3d Nand Qlc M2 228 Review
Our Verdict
Like other capacities of the drive, the 2TB Intel SSD 660p lacks loftier endurance, and straight to QLC write speed is lackluster. But you get solid performance and efficiency under consumer-based workloads. Top things off, it'south significantly cheaper than the competition and frequently goes on auction, making it one of the all-time SSD values available.
For
- High-capacity G.2 2280 NVMe SSD
- Loftier-capacity
- Competitive consumer performance
- Depression price point
- Power-efficient
- Software package
Confronting
- Slow native write performance
- Relatively depression endurance
12/6/2019 Update: Nosotros've updated this commodity with new testing for the 2TB 660p, as well as tweaked parts of the review to reflect current pricing.
When the Intel SSD 660p NVMe launched in summertime 2018, it marked the arrival of the kickoff consumer bulldoze with QLC (quad-level cell) flash. Since so, the technology has appeared in a number of other SSDs as storage prices have dropped like a stone. At the same time, the Intel SSD 660p has become i of the best bargains in tech. With nigh-constant sales, you lot tin can often find the 660p selling for as little as $80 (£lxxx) for a 1TB drive, though the 2TB models often go on sale for under $200 (£152).
One of the best SSDs you can become due to its mix of toll and functioning, the SSD 660p communicates over a fast PCIe 3.0 x4 and delivers upwardly to 1.8 GB/s of throughput. It besides offers surprisingly good functioning in random workloads. If that wasn't enough, the 660P comes with a five-twelvemonth warranty.
We put the Intel SSD 660p 1TB capacity to the test and found that it offers a surprising amount of performance given its low price point. If your workload trends towards mundane daily tasks, like content consumption, office work, and web browsing, the 660p is a keen solution with plenty of operation and endurance for well-nigh users. That said, if you like this SSD but wish it had more endurance, keep an eye out for the 660p'due south recently announced successor, the Intel SSD 665p, which promises slightly faster performance, and a 50% rated endurance bump.
While QLC sounds too expert to be truthful, it's not. Intel has a strong track record for developing new and innovative storage technology. The company was the commencement to bring NVMe SSDs to marketplace four years ago with the Intel SSD 750 series, and information technology also adult the exotic 3D XPoint retentivity that information technology uses in the Optane products.
Intel's 64-layer 3D QLC flash technology dramatically boosts wink storage chapters. MLC flash stores 2 bits per cell and TLC flash stores three, simply QLC crams four $.25 into each prison cell. The 33% increase in density ultimately equates to more storage capacity for less money. Intel'south QLC flash enables up to 1 1-terabit (125GB) of storage capacity in a unmarried dice. SSD vendors tin pack up to 16 die into a single bundle, which means QLC enables upward to 2TB per package.
Merely like Intel's other flash applied science, QLC flash leverages the tried-and-truthful vertical floating gate flash cell design. Competing wink from other foundries use charge trap designs.
High-capacity and inexpensive flash is music to everyone'southward ears, simply QLC has an Achilles heel. Well, two. QLC NAND has lower write performance and less endurance than MLC or TLC flash because it stores xvi dissimilar charge levels per cell to represent four bits of information. Due to the physical characteristics of flash, it's a challenge to store and modify xvi accuse levels at the nanometer calibration, especially as the flash ages. Cell-to-cell interference complicates the task. Intel claims the 3D floating gate blueprint helps isolate the cells to reduce interference. In either instance, sophisticated error correction algorithms, such as LDPC, are a key ingredient to boosting endurance.
Intel sidesteps many of the functioning challenges associated with QLC flash by tweaking the firmware and using intelligent idle time performance adjustments. Intel's Intelligent Dynamic SLC-Caching, which uses a pool of fast SLC flash to boost performance for incoming write data, takes a two-step approach.
Get-go, the 660p has a static SLC cache that is 6GB, 12GB, or 24GB, depending upon SSD capacity. The static cache chapters never changes, but the SSD has a larger dynamic SLC cache puddle that boosts performance farther. The dynamic cache chapters adjusts bi-directionally based upon the amount of data stored on the SSD. In other words, the cache shrinks as y'all fill up the drive simply expands every bit you delete items. Higher-capacity 660p'due south have larger dynamic SLC caches, as outlined in the chart above.
The SLC puddle flushes to the QLC wink during idle periods, just Intel has a new on-demand performance boost option if you lot need your SLC performance dorsum right abroad after bombarding the drive with writes. The feature allows y'all to affluent the SLC cache to the QLC flash manually. Intel added this feature to its SSD optimizer in SSD Toolbox version 3.five.3.
Specifications
| Product | Intel SSD 660P 512GB | Intel SSD 660P 1TB | Intel SSD 660P 2TB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | $64 | $97 | $204 |
| Capacity (User / Raw) | 512GB / 512GB | 1024GB / 1024GB | 2048GB / 2048GB |
| Form Factor | M.2 2280 (single-sided) | M.2 2280 (single-sided) | Chiliad.two 2280 (single-sided) |
| Interface / Protocol | PCIe iii.0 x4 / NVMe i.3 | PCIe iii.0 x4 / NVMe 1.3 | PCIe three.0 x4 / NVMe 1.iii |
| Controller | SMI 2263 | SMI 2263 | SMI 2263 |
| DRAM | NANYA DDR3L | NANYA DDR3L | NANYA DDR3L |
| Retention | IMFT 64L 3D QLC | IMFT 64L 3D QLC | IMFT 64L 3D QLC |
| Sequential Read | i,500 MB/south | one,800 MB/s | ane,800 MB/s |
| Sequential Write | i,000 MB/s | one,800 MB/south | 1,800 MB/s |
| Random Read | 90,000 IOPS | 150,000 IOPS | 220,000 IOPS |
| Random Write | 220,000 IOPS | 220,000 IOPS | 220,000 IOPS |
| Encryption | AES-256 | AES-256 | AES-256 |
| Endurance | 100 TBW | 200 TBW | 400 TBW |
| Warranty | v-Years | five-Years | five-Years |
| Function Number | SSDPEKNW512G8 | SSDPEKNW010T8 | SSDPEKNW020T8 |
Intel rates the 1TB and 2TB models for 1.8 GB/s of sequential read/write throughput, only the 512GB model steps dorsum to 1.5/1 GB/s read/write. The write specification is based on the 660p'due south dynamic SLC cache, however, and so the drive could slow during extended write workloads when the workload spills over to the native QLC flash. We fake the status with a worst-case test, and the 1TB model cruel to ~100 MB/southward afterward writing 130GB of data from an empty state. Given the size of the 660p'due south SLC caches, yous will likely never come across this condition.
The 2TB Intel SSD 660p provides up to 220,000/200,000 random read/write IOPS, only the smaller models have slower random read operation. Our 1TB model provides up to 150,00 random read IOPS.
| Production | TBW | DWPD | Warranty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intel SSD 660p 1TB | 200 | 0.eleven | 5 |
| Intel SSD 600p/760p 1TB | 576 | 0.32 | 5 |
| Samsung 860/970 EVO 1TB | 600 | 0.33 | 5 |
| WD Black 1TB | 600 | 0.33 | 5 |
| WD Blue 3D 1TB | 400 | 0.2 | 3 |
| Crucial MX500 1TB | 360 | 0.2 | five |
Intel rates the 660p's endurance every bit 100TBW per 512GB, or just over 0.ane bulldoze write per day over the five-year warranty period. The 660p'south endurance is (on average) 33 percent lower than other PCIe based SSDs and roughly half that of budget SATA SSDs. 2 hundred terabytes of write endurance might not seem like a lot, but Intel says information technology should exist enough for most light, bursty workloads in desktop PCs. If your workloads are more intense, like frequent large file transfers, video processing, or workstation-class applications, other more endurant SSDs are a better option.
The 660p features AES-256 encryption with Pyrite 1.0 and 2.0 back up, which is a overnice addition for the security conscious.
A Closer Look
The Intel SSD 660p is a PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD that comes in an M.ii 2280 single-sided class factor. Information technology communicates with the host system via the NVMe 1.3 protocol and weighs in at merely v.5g. There are two 512GB 64-layer QLC flash emplacements on the PCB of the 1TB capacity.
The 660p comes with SMI's 2263 SSD controller and Intel'south proprietary firmware. A single 256MB NANYA DDR3L DRAM chip flanks the controller. Most SSDs have a 1MB of DRAM to 1GB of flash ratio, simply the Intel 660p has 1MB of DRAM per 4GB of flash. Intel could be compressing the LBA map or might have implemented the Host Retentivity Buffer (HMB) feature, which stores a portion of the LBA map in organisation retention.
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Source: https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/intel-ssd-660p-qlc-nvme,5719.html
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