Bargain Alert: Intel 660p NVMe SSD Will Cost the Same as SATA SSD

By Zhiye Liu
published

Multiple computer hardware online retailers from Europe have started to list Intel's upcoming 660p M.2 NVMe SSD online with an attractive price tag that will make everyone's eyes light up.

The Intel 660p is the chipmaker's first QLC (quad-level cell) NAND-based consumer SSD built with 64-layer 3D memory. The SSD abides by the standard M.2 2280 form factor and utilizes a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface. According to a leak from earlier this year, the Intel 660p features sequential read speed of up to 1,800 megabytes per second (MB/s) and sequential write speed of up to 1,200 MB/s. The drive delivers up to 150,000 IOPS in terms of random access read and write performance. 

In contrast to conventional TLC (triple-level cell) NAND that's limited to 3 bits per cell, QLC NAND is capable of storing up to 4 bits per cell and thus increases the data density of a single chip. Therefore, SSD manufacturers are able to deliver the same capacity with fewer chips, which, in the end, helps to reduce pricing on the final product. As a matter of fact, the Intel 660p will only be available in 512GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities.

Geizhals, an Austrian online price comparison platform, revealed that the Intel 660p 512GB costs €112.90 ($131.11), while the larger 1TB and 2TB models go for €218.90 ($254.17) and €431.90 ($501.48), respectively. If we do some simple mathematics and divide the price by the capacity, it comes down to $0.25 per a gigabyte, which puts it right in the price range of a typical SATA SSD. 

Intel hasn't announced the availability of the Intel 660p. Online speculation suggests the SSDs should launch in the second half of this year. PC-Canada expects to have them in stock by August 25. This year's installment of The Flash Memory Summit will take place on August 7. We'll be at the show, and it's possible that Intel could take the opportunity to officially present its 660p SSD lineup at the event (if so, we'll let you know).

Let's not forget that Toshiba and Western Digital are also participating in the QLC race. Needless to say, 2018 will be a very interesting year for SSD storage.

Zhiye Liu
Zhiye Liu
RAM Reviewer and News Editor

Zhiye Liu is a Freelance News Writer at Tom’s Hardware US. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

Topics
SSD
13 Comments Comment from the forums
  • hotaru251
    gonna have to build a new pc looks like...my Motherboard lacks slots of m.2
    Reply
  • Brian_R170
    If, like the 600p, it performs about the same as a SATA SSD, then it makes sense that it also costs about the same.

    BTW, I've seen multiple 1TB-class SATA SSDs offered for under $150 in the past month. It sure would be nice to see anything NVMe in that range.
    Reply
  • cryoburner
    If we do some simple mathematics and divide the price by the capacity, it comes down to $0.25 per a gigabyte, which puts it right in the price range of a typical SATA SSD.

    Intel hasn't announced the availability of the Intel 660p. Online speculation suggests the SSDs should launch in the second half of this year.
    That might be in a similar price range as an 850 Evo, but that's also one of the higher-priced consumer SATA SSDs, and already you can get the competing Crucial MX500 for around $100 ($0.20 per GB), and some of the lesser-performing SATA drives in this capacity range are getting down around $0.16 per GB. By the time this drive is available, SATA SSD prices may have dropped even further, so you'll still likely be paying a premium for NVME, for performance gains that may tend to be largely unnoticeable in most real-world scenarios.

    21197744 said:
    gonna have to build a new pc looks like...my Motherboard lacks slots of m.2
    I'm not really convinced that the slightly faster load times of NVMe would be a particularly worthwhile reason for building a new PC. And since M.2 drives just utilize a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface, it's possible to use an adapter card in a spare PCIe slot to install one or more M.2 drives, which can be found for as little as $10-20, though the ability to boot from the drive might depend on the motherboard.
    Reply
  • BaRoMeTrIc
    Thats not much of a deal, I paid 130 for my adata xpg sx8200, much better write and read speeds.
    Reply
  • lxtbell2
    Never got the idea of those cheap NVMe drives. Under workload their performance is atrocious, and without workload... why buy NVMe at all? (NVMe doesn't speed up simple tasks like booting) So either get a proper PCIe drive like 970 Pro or 900p, or a cheap SATA drive.
    Plus it's so expensive. MX500 2TB was selling for $320 on Prime Day.
    Reply
  • andyz0976
    33% increase of capacity than TLC for the same no. of cells, but what about the actual endurance and sustainable speed once the cache is filled? Storing more and more bits per cell is just irrelevant considering the reduction in endurance and performance, and they aren't exactly half the price of an MLC drive of the same capacity, considering the MLC needs doubled the number of dies.
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    21198370 said:
    If we do some simple mathematics and divide the price by the capacity, it comes down to $0.25 per a gigabyte, which puts it right in the price range of a typical SATA SSD.

    Intel hasn't announced the availability of the Intel 660p. Online speculation suggests the SSDs should launch in the second half of this year.
    That might be in a similar price range as an 850 Evo, but that's also one of the higher-priced consumer SATA SSDs, and already you can get the competing Crucial MX500 for around $100 ($0.20 per GB), and some of the lesser-performing SATA drives in this capacity range are getting down around $0.16 per GB. By the time this drive is available, SATA SSD prices may have dropped even further, so you'll still likely be paying a premium for NVME, for performance gains that may tend to be largely unnoticeable in most real-world scenarios.

    21197744 said:
    gonna have to build a new pc looks like...my Motherboard lacks slots of m.2
    I'm not really convinced that the slightly faster load times of NVMe would be a particularly worthwhile reason for building a new PC. And since M.2 drives just utilize a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface, it's possible to use an adapter card in a spare PCIe slot to install one or more M.2 drives, which can be found for as little as $10-20, though the ability to boot from the drive might depend on the motherboard.
    well my PC is not exactly modern atm.
    4th gen i3 and idk motherboards model anymore (but from at least same time frame as cpu)
    Reply
  • Marlin Schwanke
    Western Digital 500GB SSDs are going for $90 right now. $130 is nice for a 500GB NVMe card. This Intel card seems a bit slow, though.
    Reply
  • DrakeFS
    I'm not really convinced that the slightly faster load times of NVMe would be a particularly worthwhile reason for building a new PC. And since M.2 drives just utilize a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface, it's possible to use an adapter card in a spare PCIe slot to install one or more M.2 drives, which can be found for as little as $10-20, though the ability to boot from the drive might depend on the motherboard.

    NVME drives boot much faster than SATA drives but once inside Windows, I cannot tell the difference. So I agree, it is not worth upgrading a system for SATA to NVME transition (unlike a HDD to SSD transition). The point of NVME would be as a boot drive (for the normal consumer), so a PCIe card would probably not work in an old mobo as a boot drive. I need to get my hands on an Optane drive to see if I can "feel" the difference between that and a SATA SSD.
    Reply
  • newsonline5000000
    Geizhals, a German online price comparison platform

    Sorry , but Geizhals is not German is is Austrian , Please correct this info. Oesterreich .
    Reply