Intel SSD 710 Tested: MLC NAND Flash Hits The Enterprise

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Take note, enterprise customers: the successor to Intel's vaunted X25-E is here, and it doesn't center on SLC flash. Instead, the company is turning toward High Endurance Technology MLC. We dig deep to find out what this means for speed and reliability.

Test Setup And Firmware Notes

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Test Hardware
ProcessorIntel Core i5-2500K (Sandy Bridge), 32 nm, 3.3 GHz, LGA 1155, 6 MB Shared L3, Turbo Boost Enabled
MotherboardASRock Z68 Extreme4, BIOS v1.4
MemoryKingston Hyper-X 8 GB (2 x 4 GB) DDR3-1333 @ DDR3-1333, 1.5 V
System DriveOCZ Vertex 3 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s
Tested DrivesCrucial m4 64 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 0001
Row 5 - Cell 0 Intel SSD 510 250 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.7
Row 6 - Cell 0 Intel SSD 320 300 GB SATA 3Gb/s, Firmware: 1.92
Row 7 - Cell 0 Crucial m4 128 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 0001
Row 8 - Cell 0 Crucial m4 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 0002
Row 9 - Cell 0 Crucial m4 512 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 0001
Row 10 - Cell 0 Crucial RealSSD 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 0006
Row 11 - Cell 0 OCZ Vertex 3 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.06
Row 12 - Cell 0 OCZ Vertex 3 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.06
Row 13 - Cell 0 OCZ Agility 3 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.06
Row 14 - Cell 0 OCZ Solid 3 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 2.06
Row 15 - Cell 0 Corsair Force 3 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.2
Row 16 - Cell 0 Corsair Force 120 GB SATA 3Gb/s, Firmware: 2.0
Row 17 - Cell 0 Adata S511 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 311A
Row 18 - Cell 0 Mushkin Chronos Deluxe 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 319A
Row 19 - Cell 0 Patriot Wildfire 120 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 319A
Row 20 - Cell 0 Kingston SSDNow V+100 128 GB SATA 3Gb/s, Firmware: CJRA
Row 21 - Cell 0 Western Digital VelociRaptor 300 GB (WD3000HLFS) SATA 3Gb/s
Row 22 - Cell 0 G.Skill FM-25S2S 64 GB SATA 3Gb/s, Firmware: 02.1
Row 23 - Cell 0 Seagate Momentus 5400.6 500 GB SATA 3Gb/s
Row 24 - Cell 0 Intel X25-M G2 160 GB SATA 3Gb/s, Firmware: 1.7
Row 25 - Cell 0 Samsung 470 256 GB SATA 3Gb/s, Firmware: AXMO
Row 26 - Cell 0 Samsung 830 256 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: CXMO
Row 27 - Cell 0 OCZ Vertex 2 (32nm) 120 GB SATA 3Gb/s, Firmware: 1.32
Row 28 - Cell 0 Kingston HyperX 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 320A
Row 29 - Cell 0 Intel SSD 710 200 GB SATA 3Gb/s
Row 30 - Cell 0 Micron RealSSD P300 200 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 0001
Row 31 - Cell 0 Corsair Force GT 240 GB SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware: 1.3
Row 32 - Cell 0 Kingston SSDNow V100 128 GB SATA 3Gb/s, Firmware: D110
GraphicsPalit GeForce GTX 460 1 GB
Power SupplySeasonic 760 W, 80 PLUS
System Software and Drivers
Operating SystemWindows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
DirectXDirectX 11
DriverGraphics: Nvidia 270.61 RST: 10.5.0.1022Virtu: 1.1.101
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Benchmarks
Tom's Hardware Storage Bench v1.0Trace-Based
Iometer 1.1.0# Workers = # Logical CPUs, 4 KB Random: LBA=16 GB, varying QDs, 128 KB Sequential: QD=1
ATTO BenchmarkLBA=2 GB, QD=2 & 4, varying transfer sizes
PCMark 7Storage Suite
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Enterprise Testing: Iometer WorkloadsReadRandomBlock SizeWorkers
Database67%100%8 KB - 100%4
File server80%100%512 Bytes – 10%1 KB – 5%2 KB – 5%4 KB – 60%8 KB – 2%16 KB – 4%32 KB – 4%64 KB – 10%4
Web server100%100%512 Bytes – 22%1 KB – 15%2 KB – 8%4 KB – 23%8 KB – 15%16 KB – 2%32 KB - 6%64 KB – 7%128 KB – 1%512 KB – 1%4