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Intel SSD 530 Series touts strong performance gains

by Mark Tyson on 29 July 2013, 11:45

Tags: Intel (NASDAQ:INTC)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qaby6n

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Intel has launched a new generation of SSD drives called the SSD 530 series. These drives are aimed at platforms such as Ultrabooks, tablets and small form factor PCs but are also good choices for traditional desktops and laptops. Intel says the new SSD 530 Series offers higher performance across new form factors and very low idle power requirements.

Intel introduced the new drive series headlining the presentation "Lose the lag. Lose the limits". The SSD 530 series drives use the latest 20nm NAND technology backed by Intel's reputation for quality and reliability. The drives consume less power while operating and while idle. Performance is said to have been perked up too.

The headlining performance figures for all of the Intel 530 series of drives (except for the 80GB version of the M.2 drive, see link above) is the same; up to 540 MB/s and 490 MB/s sequential read and write respectively and up to 41K IOPS and 80K IOPS random read and write respectively. Only the physical drive dimensions and power consumption varies, with the 2.5-incher using more power (see table below).

Note the very low power consumption figures measured in milliwatts and microwatts

Another important difference between the form factors on offer are the capacities in which the drives are available. The 2.5-inch version is available in the most and largest capacities, after all it's the largest physical size on offer. As such you can get an 80GB, 120GB, 180GB, 240GB, 360GB or 480GB 2.5-inch SSD 530. The mSATA format drive is available in 80GB, 120GB, 180GB and 240GB capacities, the M.2 format drive is available in 80GB, 120GB, 180GB and 360GB capacities. All the drives use a SATA 6Gb/s interface, backwards compatible with SATA 3Gb/s.

We have as yet no pricing nor availability info on this newly announced drive series.



HEXUS Forums :: 10 Comments

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they should stop bumping SSDs as gaming technology.
The SSD 530 series drives use the latest 20nm NAND technology backed by Intel's reputation for quality and reliability

The Intel 520 was bugged from launch with it's 256bit AES hardware encryption. They offered a refund to anyone that wanted one because it couldn't be fixed.

And that's the less serious issue. The drives still have serious BSOD issues that Intel can't fix. Just Google “Intel 520 BSOD” and read their own forums.

Intel have had numerous driver issues, chipset recalls, SSD refund programs, and have been caught fiddling recent benchmarks.

Can we please stop this “quality and reliability” line that people harp when Intel is mentioned. That company died years ago.

edit - and let's not forget Sandy Bridge-E shipping with VT-d simply *broken* in the C1 stepping. Chips that are purely aimed at the high end market.
Agent
The Intel 520 was bugged from launch with it's 256bit AES hardware encryption. They offered a refund to anyone that wanted one because it couldn't be fixed.

And that's the less serious issue. The drives still have serious BSOD issues that Intel can't fix. Just Google “Intel 520 BSOD” and read their own forums.

Intel have had numerous driver issues, chipset recalls, SSD refund programs, and have been caught fiddling recent benchmarks.

Can we please stop this “quality and reliability” line that people harp when Intel is mentioned. That company died years ago.

See also: shoddy Linux wireless drivers, even though the meme that Intel knows best continues.
Agent
Can we please stop this “quality and reliability” line that people harp when Intel is mentioned. That company died years ago.
There's a couple of folks on Hexus who also trot out that “Intel is best” line, although I was under the distinct impression that their “professional” (i.e. business/enterprise) SSD's were pretty solid performers - is this wrong?

That said, I'd assumed (wrongly?) that most folks seem to stick with other brands of SSD was purely down to price sensitivity. Maybe I need to review that assumption.
Hardware_Elite
they should stop bumping SSDs as gaming technology.
Why? The assumption is that - like Apple fans - hardcore PC gamers have deep pockets when it comes to hardware and only want “the best”. In which case it's surely natural to position a comparatively expensive (on £/MB terms) SSD as a performance item which will let you load those CoD/MoH/C&C levels just that bit faster. Heck, I've seen comments from folks on here that spending £800+ on the graphics subsystem (be that Crossfire, SLi, or some humongous single beast like a GTX Titan) is “reasonable”.

I'm sure there's one or two that I remember using striped RAID arrays of SSD's because a single SSD wasn't fast enough. :o

But if you look at the article you'll see that Intel seem to be positioning this piece of kit at the portable market first and foremost - so that's ultrabooks and laptops - with desktops bringing up the rear. That makes a good deal of sense to me, given the SSD's increased physical resilience and also much reduced power drain. On a purely personal level, the place where replacing HDD's with SSD's has seen the biggest gains has been in the house laptops, the desktops it's merely a nice to have. Although a Samsung 840EVO for the gaming PC's app's partition looks like a nice present to myself. ;)
Dont know how reliable Intel are, but I know their 320 series SSD did look better than most, though Ive found the Crucial drives excellent in my experience with 5 of them.

One question:
How come the power usage of the drive changes with size? Surely that doesnt make sense…!!!