Intel SSD 910 Review: PCI Express-Based Enterprise Storage

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PCIe-based SSDs have evolved rapidly, with companies like Fusion-io, LSI, and OCZ leading the way. Intel is betting that its reputation for quality and reliability in the enterprise sector are enough to overcome that head-start as it launches SSD 910.

4 KB Random Performance

The Intel SSD 910 absolutely holds its own compared the larger and more expensive OCZ R4 in our random read test. The 800 GB variant even tops its 180 000 IOPS specification, clearing 225 000 IOPS at queue depths of 64 and 128. At lower queue depths, it even slides ahead of the R4. The 400 GB model does similarly well, topping 110 000 IOPS (versus its 90 000 IOPS specification).

When it comes to random I/O performance, neither drive's specification changes whether you're in Default or Maximum Performance mode. Our testing demonstrates almost identical results between the two configurations in all Iometer tests.

There is also no benefit to treating each drive as a separate volume, which isn’t the case in subsequent testing.

Moving on to random writes, once again, Intel's SSD 910 outperforms its rated specifications. The 800 GB incarnation hovers in the 75 000 to 80 000 IOPS range, while the 400 GB model hits its 38 000 IOPS spec at a queue depth of four.

The picture isn’t as favorable compared to the R4, though, which uses eight SandForce 2582 controllers to plow through the 4K write test. That shouldn't be a surprise, though, given the R4's size and cost.

Testing the 800 GB SSD 910 as four 200 GB drives does give it a clear advantage at lower queue depths. This difference is observed in all of the Iometer tests where writes are involved. 

Average access times are very consistent across runs for the Intel drives, but are not fast enough to catch OCZ's R4.

Maximum response time, on the other hand, favors Intel's hardware in all cases. The 800 GB SSD 910, tested as individual disks (JBOD), does a wonderful job keeping the worst-case response time very low.

Drew Riley
29 Comments Comment from the forums
  • that is one fast Sequential read speed. It to bad that they will be $1000+ market and out of reach of all but the server/ workstation crowd
    Reply
  • The OCZ is tested with compressible data? talk about best case scenario. what were the incompressible results like?
    Reply
  • s3anister
    PCI-E Solid State Storage is great but I can't help but wonder; where is the Memristor? The true performance gains to be had are with massive RAM-disks that aren't volatile.
    Reply
  • apache_lives
    The most important and un-comparable factor here is 5 years later those Intel SSD's will still be functional, any other brand im surprised they last 5 months in normal machines with the failure rates i have seen first hand - OCZ, GSkill etc there all horrible i bought an Intel SSD for this reason - THEY WORK.

    Review sites never cover real world use - that is to live with it day in day out (reliability), its not all about raw speed and performance.
    Reply
  • ZakTheEvil
    Yeah, consumer SSD reliability is a bit of disappointment. At best they seem to be as reliable as hard drives.
    Reply
  • georgeisdead
    This is a note to address several articles I have come across lately that state intel's reputation for quality and reliability in the SSD market as if it is a given. These comments are from my personal experience with intel's drives. I have owned 3 intel solid state drives, one X25-M G1, and two X25-M G2's. The X25-M G1 failed after 2 years while one of the G2 drives failed after 2.5 years. Now, I am not an expert on MTBF and reliability, but in my opinion this is a pretty poor track record. It is entirely possible that this is a coinicidence, however both drives failed in the same manner, from the same problem (determined by a third party data recovery specialist): Bad NAND flash.

    As best I understand it as it was descibed by the company that analyzed these failed drives, a block of NAND flash either went bad or became inaccessible by the controller rendering the drives useless and unable to be accessed by normal means of hooking it up to a SATA or USB port. Two drives, different NAND (50 nm for the G1 and 34 nm for the G2), same failure mode.

    Once again, this is not definitive, just my observations but to me, I think review sites need to be a little more cautious about how they qualify intel's reputation for quality and reliability because from my perspective, intel has neither and I have since began using crucial SSD's. Hopefully, I will see much longer life from these new drives.
    Reply
  • jdamon113
    I would like to see something like this stacked in our EMC, Could this drive with a rack of othere just like it, run 24/7 for 3 + years, Sure we replace a drive here and there in our EMC, but the unit as a whole has never went down in its 5 year life.
    Intel, you should test these drive in that real world application. EMC, VM-ware and several data bases carve out some LUN's and Push the envelope. In this situation, should the device prove worthy, the 4000 price tag will come down very fast, and the data center will put it trust in product, So for those reading this for your personal home workstation and gaming ridge, you need not apply in this arena.
    Intel is just about 18-months 2 years of owning the data center, Even EMC is powered by intel.
    Reply
  • jaquith
    Enterprise e.g. SQL you need SLC otherwise you'd be making a career replacing drives. The cost is down time and replacement. I can write more 'stuff' but it's that simple. For our IDX and similar read data it about reliability and capacity.
    Reply
  • willard
    razor7104that is one fast Sequential read speed. It to bad that they will be $1000+ market and out of reach of all but the server/ workstation crowdThat's because this was not designed for consumers. It's not like they're marking the price up 1000% for shits and giggles. Enterprise hardware costs more to make because it must be much faster and much more reliable.

    This drive, and every other piece of enterprise hardware out there, was never meant to be used by consumers.
    Reply
  • drewriley
    jimbob rubaeThe OCZ is tested with compressible data? talk about best case scenario. what were the incompressible results like?
    Check out the Sequential Performance page, lists both compressible and incompressible. For all the other tests, random (incompressible) data was used.
    Reply