Intel SSD 335 240 GB Review: Driving Down Prices With 20 nm NAND

Features
By Andrew Ku
published

Intel's SSD 335 is a refresh of the SSD 330 sporting 20 nm MLC NAND flash. Does it alter performance? Not really. Pricing? Yes. How about endurance? That's hard to say for certain. There's only one model, though, with 240 GB of capacity. We test it today.

4 KB Random Performance

Random Read Performance (background info)

Examples include antivirus scans and typing in Word

The SSD 330 was Intel's answer to SSDs from competing brands with asynchronous NAND, such as OCZ and its Agility 3 or Corsair and its Force 3. We have Monster's 240 GB Daytona to stand in for that comparison.

But Intel didn't use asynchronous memory. It instead armed the SSD 330 synchronous flash and deliberately de-tuned performance via firmware. The SSD 335 being introduced today is largely similar. Meanwhile, Intel's SSD 520 represents performance-oriented SandForce-based SSDs equipped with synchronous NAND and not purposely slowed-down.

At a queue depth of one, all of the SSDs start out by moving between 25-30 MB/s. The picture is quite a bit different once we scale up to 32 outstanding I/O requests. Between those two extremes, Samsung's 840 Pro proves itself the fastest drive, while OCZ's Vertex 4 trails slightly. None of the drives based on SandForce's controller hardware fare as well, though Intel does manage to score a win over the Daytona using its SSD 335.

Random Write Performance

Examples include email, file compression, and Web browsing

The most glaring data point is Monster's 240 GB Daytona, which doesn't break 100 MB/s all the way through a queue depth of 32. We have an email out to the company asking if this is something they've seen. We know from testing OCZ's 180 GB Agility 3 that performance should end up somewhere close to 300 MB/s. 

Between the starting and ending points, Intel's SSD 335 generally outmaneuvers its 240 GB predecessor, even if they appear identical at a queue depth of one and 32. As it should, Intel's SSD 520 maintains an advantage over both 300-series drives.

But of course, Samsung's 840 Pro steals the show, albeit at a price point far higher than the SSD 335.

Andrew Ku
14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • mayankleoboy1
    Read only the conclusion. Most of these SSD's are "me-too" clones using SF2281 controller. Most have similar performance wins and pitfalls.

    I was super excited about Samsung 840. But these are meh.
    Reply
  • christophermarti
    I would say that your estimates about P/E cycles are incorrect. You also do not mention (on purpose) two modes SSD's (99%) operate in: performance mode (not filled to 90%) and storage mode (filled 90% and more). You also lack to mention that in "middle of" P/E cycle exhaustion SSD's will slow down their speed due to preserve P/E cycles and "survive" to meet warranty agreements.

    http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?271063-SSD-Write-Endurance-25nm-Vs-34nm/page211

    From test exposed in this forum You can draw conclusion how good MLC used in X-25v 40GB SSD were (more than 35000 P/E). Also that longest "standing" SSD is Samsung 830 256GB, which also do not (as an exception) slow down considerably when it passes 1PB Host Writes mark.

    Although I strongly do agree that seing writes above 10GB per day is rather rare. I'm myself using 80GB X25-M for 4 years and only 4,09 TB and i is possible that it will hold up to 1400 - 3400 TB of writes! That's amazing. What's more, I have it in Dell E6400 on Vista (no Trim, just Intel toolbox).
    Reply
  • christophermarti
    http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?271063-SSD-Write-Endurance-25nm-Vs-34nm&p=5148307&viewfull=1#post5148307 - 1000 P/E cycles (not even close to 35100 of 50nm old V40 GB).
    Reply
  • alidan
    christophermartihttp://www.xtremesystems.org/forum ost5148307 - 1000 P/E cycles (not even close to 35100 of 50nm old V40 GB).
    keep in mind that is still 240000 gb of data at minimum
    Reply
  • abbadon_34
    so if it's firmware crippled, can we just flash a the firmware and get a better drive? someone needs to do some testing....
    Reply
  • acku
    christophermartiI would say that your estimates about P/E cycles are incorrect. You also do not mention (on purpose) two modes SSD's (99%) operate in: performance mode (not filled to 90%) and storage mode (filled 90% and more). You also lack to mention that in "middle of" P/E cycle exhaustion SSD's will slow down their speed due to preserve P/E cycles and "survive" to meet warranty agreements. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forum nm/page211From test exposed in this forum You can draw conclusion how good MLC used in X-25v 40GB SSD were (more than 35000 P/E). Also that longest "standing" SSD is Samsung 830 256GB, which also do not (as an exception) slow down considerably when it passes 1PB Host Writes mark.Although I strongly do agree that seing writes above 10GB per day is rather rare. I'm myself using 80GB X25-M for 4 years and only 4,09 TB and i is possible that it will hold up to 1400 - 3400 TB of writes! That's amazing. What's more, I have it in Dell E6400 on Vista (no Trim, just Intel toolbox).
    Our calculations and endurance protocol are not effected by any speed slow down, and in every test, we've confirmed our methodology applies a WA~1%. Thus, are estimates are correct and apply to the NAND itself.

    Second, the speed of a drive has no inherent bearing on endurance. It only affects how fast you can get there. Second, you're referring to a throttling effect, which is a different topic completely. Our analysis was specific to the NAND itself.

    As further verification, another one of my peers (at another site) independently came to results for the SSD 335 similar to ours.
    Reply
  • cumi2k4
    how come vertex 4 did not get tested? didn't ocz offer 5 years for their vertex 4, and i believe they're offering them at cut-throat pricing?
    Reply
  • mayankleoboy1
    One thing i notice is that with an Antivirus program(Kaspersky Internet security) running in the background, which 95% of Toms readers would have, the AV program reads and writes data almost continuously. In a typical day, the AV program can write 5-6GB of data.
    Reply
  • jabliese
    Power consumption made me laugh. 1 watt difference between the best and worst. Time for another 1 line standard SSD review comment, "Power usage on SSD's matters little between the best and worst."

    And please keep reiterating the most important thing about an SSD is getting one. Ran into SSD resistance on another forum just a couple weeks back, which, at today's price points, blew me away.
    Reply
  • acku
    cumi2k4how come vertex 4 did not get tested? didn't ocz offer 5 years for their vertex 4, and i believe they're offering them at cut-throat pricing?
    Look again. It is included in our benchmarks.
    Reply