New Intel 520 Benchmarks

[gramboh]

the 120gb pricing is acceptable, but the 240gb is ridiculous. I'd pay 20% more for Intel (over the $325-340 I can pay for a 240gb M4), not almost 50%.

 

[exar333]

the 120gb pricing is acceptable, but the 240gb is ridiculous. I'd pay 20% more for Intel (over the $325-340 I can pay for a 240gb M4), not almost 50%.

Agreed, that does seem a bit high. Again, when you hit 480GB, its pretty close again (~20%); $999 vs. $800.

For me, thats OK. I still think 120GB is the 'sweet spot' for most SSDs right now.

 

[bryanW1995]

I disagree, quality 240-256gb ssd's have been creeping ever closer to that $1/gb threshold, while they're actually starting to pull away from it at 120-128 gb. I'm hopeful that the 510 series will start to drop now that the 520's are available.

If I was buying today I'd be hard-pressed to decide between the 256 gb samsung for $340 after promo or the crucial m4 for $340 FS. No way that I'd spring for the extra $$ for a 520 series right now.

 

[IntelEnthusiast]

I agree in that 80GB to 120GB seem to be the sweet spot for drives right now. While the cost of the Intel® SSD 520 is high they are also the only ones on the market that is offering the 5 year warranty.

 

[OlafSicky]

You might as well go with OCZ for half the money at least then you can be 100% sure your data will be screwed!!!
Intel is playing a dangerous game

 

[praktik]

Got my 240 on order... I was willing to pay the price but imminent bonus probably helped me swallow the markup...

I am not nervous at all whereas going for any other model would leave a nagging doubt.

 

[groberts101]

You might as well go with OCZ for half the money at least then you can be 100% sure your data will be screwed!!!
Intel is playing a dangerous game

LOL.. indeed they are. In fact.. we will see more of these posts turning up to point out the reality that even Intel can't circumvent all the issues with their "highly validated" firmware revisions.
http://communities.intel.com/thread/27680?tstart=0

while isolated and not fully troubleshooted just yet.. it shows the potential of power mgmt related issues that these controllers can be so finicky with. I recently wrote this response to that link above on another forum.

while I would agree that it appears that the OP of that linked thread may have other issues?(many have made many incorrect assumptions about "bad SF-2281 drives" before as well).. it surely does seem driver/power mgmt related due to the simple IDE swap running without issue. Which would indicate that Intel can't fix it from every angle that may cause issue. Time will tell as they land on more systems/configs though.

We've seen that time and time again and even Linux substitution will work well when Windows AHCI based drivers are causing issues like BSOD/freezing. These drives can also be very finicky and require SE and CMOS resets as the ACPI tabling becomes corrupted between the CMOS and OS.

My money is on a power mgmt/driver related issue there. He should be trying this quickly applied tweak to see if it truly is pwr mgmt related.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/177819-ahci-link-power-management-enable-hipm-dipm.html

 

[bryanW1995]

Doubtless the sf2281 driver is finicky. I have enough faith in intel that I'd buy it if it were cost-competitive, but I still stick to my "best price of quality brand reputation" purchasing mantra, with speed a distant 2nd. The m4 and 830 are fast enough imho, and they don't have the ginormous price or potential issues that the 520 does. Also, it's reasonable to assume that the 510 will start drifting down out of the pricing stratosphere now as well, so you have an option if you want intel + fast that doesn't force you down the SF path. And if intel's legendary validation was actually successful with the 520? Then you can let others be beta testers!

 

[groberts101]

That's not far off.. but "if intel's legendary validation was actually successful with the" initial 6 series chipsets?.. then Sandforce would not have had nearly the issues we've seen to date.

So whether you realize it or not?.. you have already been chosen to be beta-testers already due to your brand(or controller of choice) choosing to disable certain power saving features of these devices.

Anywho.. we shall soon see in the next 2-3 months if any little quirks remain with these controllers. Most of the issues have already been circumvented by others and Intel has finally gotten most of the driver related power mgmt issues under control before these things even got released. If any still occur at this juncture?.. you can bet that Intel hasn't made it to that over-expected "100% fixed" state quite yet.

PS. one of the most interesting realities that Anand seems to finally admit in that review?.. is the lack of ability to force-trim these controllers back to fresh speeds. Can't be done and I've been telling people till I'm blue in the face about that fact from when the very first Sandforce controller was released. Maybe they'll finally listen to "our saviour" now. lol Would have been nice if he would have taken that test one step further and idle recovered the drive overnight though. That's THE best way to recover these controllers. And even some others for that matter since GC can do even more than TRIM alone can.

 

[KingFatty]

I agree in that 80GB to 120GB seem to be the sweet spot for drives right now. While the cost of the Intel® SSD 520 is high they are also the only ones on the market that is offering the 5 year warranty.

I think Plextor also offers a 5 yr warranty on their SSD drives.

 

[capeconsultant]

I bought one today! I love Intel. Am selling my m4 here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330683710518

I will have it for the weekend!

I will be replacing the Samsung in my sig

I trust Intel alot. However, note the name of my company in my sig

 

[Old Hippie]

Whatever Intel has done with the 520's firmware seems to have fixed problems that still remain in the general SF-2281 firmware.

This is actually a dangerous precedent as it means one of two things. The first possibility is that SandForce has been made aware of flaws in its current firmware and chooses against (or is legally prevented from) disclosing it to its partners. The second possibility, and arguably even worse for SandForce, is that Intel was able to identify and fix a bug in the SF-2281 firmware without SandForce knowing it existed or was addressed. I suspect it's the former but as no one is willing to go on the record about the Intel/SandForce agreement I can't be certain.

Let's see how it works out.

Maybe they'll finally listen to "our saviour" now.

Who would that be?

 

[groberts101]

LOL.. you forget where we are here? Because.. it's "his" forum.

 

[Old Hippie]

LOL.. you forget where we are here? Because.. it's "his" forum.

IC says the blind Old Hippie.

I musta missed the blinding white light.

 

[groberts101]

ROFL. You have been blessed.

 

[capeconsultant]

I usually do not take such a risk as being the first to buy. But the darn thing does have a 5 year warranty and I backup ALOT. SO I guess all will be good.

SSD's are my passion and my hobby

And eBay is my good friend

 

[Twitch29]

I'm thinking I was a bit hasty picking up my first SSD a couple of months ago. It's still in the box unused but no chance of returning it after so long. I only need 120/128 for my boot drive so can live with the 520 pricing.

And have to say it was a little upsetting the sensible in me having to opt for an M4

 

[Coup27]

PS. one of the most interesting realities that Anand seems to finally admit in that review?.. is the lack of ability to force-trim these controllers back to fresh speeds. Can't be done and I've been telling people till I'm blue in the face about that fact from when the very first Sandforce controller was released. Maybe they'll finally listen to "our saviour" now. lol Would have been nice if he would have taken that test one step further and idle recovered the drive overnight though. That's THE best way to recover these controllers. And even some others for that matter since GC can do even more than TRIM alone can.

I think we share a belief that the TRIM section of the review was very light on detail and tests. As you said above, it focused on one specific weak point of the controllers TRIM abilities and then spent the whole section talking about it. There was no more realistic TRIM figures and an overnight or even idle time figures or anything.

My Samsung toolbox completes TRIM and GC in 3 minutes. It would be good to "dirty" a drive and then bench it after 10 minutes of idle to see if there has been any difference.

In summary, nearly all tech websites don't even mention TRIM and just run the numbers. I would have appreciated AT's in depth approach to have covered this subject in a bit more detail and not just on the 520.

 

[beginner99]

240 GB version sure is too expensive. But the 120 isn't very well priced either. Crucial m4 has been available for over 10 Month. While I don't approve of using users as beta-tester right now one could say that the crucial m4 has 10 month of real-life validation. I doubt any stuff Intel can do is better than that. So the reliability point IMHO is only relevant compared to other sandforce drives.

While on CPU side one can only recommend intel also price-performance wise, here it sure delivers good performance but you can do better.

Note: I'm not crucial sales guy in fact i own a intel g2 drive.

 

[bryanW1995]

IC says the blind Old Hippie.

I musta missed the blinding white light.

Yes, we have at least one poster here who often disagrees with anand. And rather that just dispute the facts of the disagreements (which seem to often involve ocz), he often resorts to mild personal attacks, FUD, or innuendo.

 

[groberts101]

aww christ guys.. I just tease a lot more than others, is all. And as if someone with a self-proclaimed nick-name of "our saviour" doesn't deserve a bit of teasing?. So, don't get yer panties all in a bundle.

And FUD?.. ROFLAO.. I'm not the one rolling through threads about specific models who constantly says things like "get rid of that!".. or "that's why you're having issues right there!".. or even "Intel has a "vast validation process that I would rather pay for than take chances with that drive". I may be a lot of things around here at times.. but a major fud'er is not one of them.

I say buy what you need for your usage/like from a brand perspective and quite ramming your personal choices down others throats. Like so many seem to like to do around here. I like what I like.. and you like what you like. If you want to know why I like something or think its better in some way?.. I'm happy to share. BUT.. I VERY rarely tell you that my choice is better than yours for xx amount of reasons just because I want to belittle your choice in hardware. I'm all for.. live and let live.

As for my constant mucking about in OCZ related(tangent or otherwise) threads around here?.. why wouldn't I share what I know with the sheer numbers of drives and dozens upon dozens of TB worth of tests run on these things? Besides.. that's the EXACT reason I was asked to beta-test them in the first place. Willingness to take time to help and share with others. Nuff said and feathers smoothed back down.

 

[Makaveli]

I doubt any stuff Intel can do is better than that. So the reliability point IMHO is only relevant compared to other sandforce drives.

I stop reading your post after that part.

You have no way to validate that claim.

 

[exdeath]

Why no comparison to higher end toggle drives like Wildfire or Chronos Deluxe? That would be more interesting.

Don't really care how well a new drive performs to Intel's own previous model or drives like M4 which aren't the fastest to begin with. For $500 I want toggle flash too, not just another async drive with an Intel badge and f/w.

 

[beginner99]

I stop reading your post after that part.

You have no way to validate that claim.

No, but it is common sense. What do you think in general will have less flaws? A product that has proven itself in real-world usage for 10 month probably in several 100'000 computers (m4) or validation done in-house? Sorry, but I doubt intel fabricates 100k units just for validation and runs them on potential as many different configs.

 

[Coup27]

Why no comparison to higher end toggle drives like Wildfire or Chronos Deluxe? That would be more interesting.

Don't really care how well a new drive performs to Intel's own previous model or drives like M4 which aren't the fastest to begin with. For $500 I want toggle flash too, not just another async drive with an Intel badge and f/w.

Agreed. AT in the past has spent a frankly obscene amount of time reviewing multiple drives of the same, or very similar configuration with a [really?] suprising conclusion that they're all about the same.

Theres been plenty of new drives to hit the market with a mixture of controllers and NAND types and no word at all about it, not even in SSD pipeline.