Conclusion

Tight, predictable and repeatable results are now the focus for modern-day drives, and Intel has set the standard with an enterprise solution that delivers all the performance, all of the time.

Intel's DC S3700 is the most interesting SSD we've seen in quite some time. Moving away from the race to deliver the highest sequential speeds and the maximum number of IOPs, the drive delivers a level of consistency that was previously unheard of on a SATA SSD.

Whether or not this level of consistency will filter through to consumer drives remains to be seen, however, as Intel clearly prioritises the lucrative enterprise market. And it is the server that stands to benefit most; plug a dozen or so DC S3700 drives into a rackmount RAID array and you'll have excellent performance at a fraction of the cost of a traditional SAS setup.

Tight, predictable and repeatable results are now the focus for modern-day drives, and Intel has set the standard with an enterprise solution that delivers all the performance, all of the time.

The Good

Sets a new standard for SATA SSD consistency
Keen pricing for an enterprise solution
Available in 1.8 and 2.5in form factors

The Bad

None to speak of

HEXUS Awards

Intel SSD DC S3700 Series (800GB)

HEXUS Where2Buy

The 800GB Intel DC S3700 Series SSD is available to purchase from Scan Computers*.

HEXUS Right2Reply

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s/None to speak of/£1,732.56/

I am so ****ing excited about these things you have *no idea*

At least double the performance of the old server-grade 710's in every regard, 10x better in others? Enough capacity that I can look at SSD-only systems rather than SSD/rust combos? Hell yeah! Double the already world class endurance rating on the 710's? Incredible.

directhex
I am so ****ing excited about these things you have *no idea*

At least double the performance of the old server-grade 710's in every regard, 10x better in others? Enough capacity that I can look at SSD-only systems rather than SSD/rust combos? Hell yeah! Double the already world class endurance rating on the 710's? Incredible.

Yeah, it's a fantastic drive to be sure. But it better be a business expense, or start thinking about selling redundant organs.

aidanjt
s/None to speak of/£1,732.56/

Cheap!

No, really.

Let's take the Crucial M500 as an example drive here - 960 gig for £500.

It has a quoted endurance rating of 72TB before it'll start to lose your data. Let's say you put it in a VM host, with ten VMs in it. So that's 7.2TB of writes per VM, over 5 years (or 4GB per day). That's not very much at all - my desktop PC does more writes than that per day, on average. In a VM environment, you can easily wear out a drive like this in under 5 years - maybe under a year, if you're doing a lot (e.g. webkit build bots). What's cheaper, £500 five times, or £1700 once, in a 5 year period?

I think Intel have got this more or less right - the focus on consistency rather than headline performance figures gets a big thumbs up from me. Where it's not so rosy is in that price - although I guess that's the inevitable cost of an “enterprise” solution that this seems to be aimed at.

Now if someone could do one of these kinds of drives in a 256MB+ form factor for less than £200 then I'd be interested - I really could do with moving my Steam games folder to something a bit quicker, having been kind of spoiled by the (now ancient) Vertex 2E that I have as an OS drive.

directhex
Cheap! No, really. Let's take the Crucial M500 as an example drive here - 960 gig for £500. It has a quoted endurance rating of 72TB before it'll start to lose your data. Let's say you put it in a VM host, with ten VMs in it. So that's 7.2TB of writes per VM, over 5 years (or 4GB per day). That's not very much at all - my desktop PC does more writes than that per day, on average. In a VM environment, you can easily wear out a drive like this in under 5 years - maybe under a year, if you're doing a lot (e.g. webkit build bots). What's cheaper, £500 five times, or £1700 once, in a 5 year period?

I know what you're trying to get at, but the scenario you're painting still yells “business use” to me - can't see any normal home user needing to hammer 10 VM's at the same time (oh and 10 VM's = at least 16GB of memory as well). So I can't help thinking that a home user is going to be better off sticking with the “rotating rust” storage for the meantime - even RAID'd. So like aidanjt is saying - they're a great idea if you've got a business account to purchase them with, otherwise they're merely a “nice to have” or “lottery win present”.