Intel 730 Series SSD
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2014-05-07
·
952 words · ~4 min read
0:06
The Cooler Master Glacer 240L CPU cooler delivers the convenience of an
0:10
all-in-one and the performance of a custom water cooler. Click now to learn
0:14
more. The last time Intel made their own consumer grade SSD top to bottom,
0:20
including the controller, firmware, and nan flash was back in 2008.
0:26
Yes, the era of the X25M and its
0:29
descendants. That architecture was with us for almost 2 and a half years of
0:35
product refreshes, including a move to halogen free manufacturing, changes to
0:38
the accompanying RAM cache, and upgraded firmwares with encryption and trim
0:42
support. But Intel never dramatically updated the controller itself, leaving
0:47
it struggling along at the end of its life cycle as a SATA 2 product amidst a
0:52
sea of SATA 3 competitors.
0:56
never to
0:59
return. Okay, but why so emotional, Lionus? There are tons of good SSD
1:05
options on the market. Well, Intel SSDs have always been, I'm holding this
1:09
backwards, on the expensive side for their performance, but their reliability
1:14
is legendary. Aside from being aware of
1:17
the reputation they've built with their other products and their competitive
1:20
warranty periods, I've also had the pleasure of touring their Fulsome campus
1:25
where much of the SSD work is done. And let me tell you, when Intel says
1:30
validation, they mean it. They had SSDs that were many months from release being
1:35
torture tested using equipment that smaller SSD manufacturers at the time
1:41
that I talked to hadn't even seen before. So, while I don't actually use
1:45
an Intel SSD in my own desktop PC, I do
1:48
use one in my home server and I do use
1:52
one in my wife's PC because let me tell you guys, and the married ones of you
1:56
can uh probably relate to this. When it comes to your own, you know, boot drive
2:02
dying, it sucks, but you're probably prepared. When your wife's drive dies
2:07
and she loses all her junk because she wasn't using the bleeping NAS like you
2:11
told her to, she will find a way to make it your fault. And it really sucks. And
2:16
that is what keeps me excited about this drive reliability. Because frankly, the
2:21
performance is not earthshattering. At PAX Prime 2013, Intel was hinting at a
2:27
user overclockable SSD with unheard of
2:31
performance. And at the time, I said, "That's insane. I hope they just tune
2:35
the hardware to bring a competitive performance-oriented drive to market,
2:39
but don't compromise data integrity. And Intel, predictable to a fault, did just
2:44
that. An untext review, which I'll link in the video description for your
2:48
convenience, covers the bases pretty well as far as performance goes. The
2:51
quick summary, though, is this. The drive builds on the same DNA as the
2:56
S3500 and S3700, which are both enterprise products. And while peak
3:01
performance isn't at the top of the charts, the 730's ability to
3:04
consistently perform its best even when it's full or being hit with a lot of
3:09
data over an extended period of time is topnotch. The extended summary is a bit
3:14
more complicated and includes a longer series of consumer versus enterprise
3:18
trade-offs. First up, Intel is using the
3:21
same controller and MLC HET for both
3:25
uses and is using the same combination of die screening and an increase in the
3:30
drives page programming cycle to achieve up to six times better endurance than
3:34
regular MLC NAND. That's where the 5-year warranty comes from. But for the
3:39
consumer version, they are also aggressively ramping up the clock speed
3:42
of the controller by 50% and they increased the interface speed on the nan
3:47
flash as well. Next up, we get robust
3:51
power loss protection with a pair of capacitors that will allow the 1 gig of
3:55
RAM cache to dump its data to the flash, but we are sacrificing full drive
4:00
encryption and the normally low power that SSDs consume to the PC hardware
4:05
gods. So, the 730 will keep your data safe as long as no one physically steals
4:10
it, which they probably won't since you won't be putting this drive in a laptop.
4:14
It actually consumes more power than a 1 TB 2 and 1/2 in notebook hard drive. And
4:19
finally, the drive delivers excellent write performance, more important in an
4:24
enterprise or workstation environment, but lags behind in reads, which are
4:28
unfortunately more common in a consumer's daily life. So, I guess the
4:33
conclusion for this drive is this. All those trade-offs are either making you
4:37
groan and wonder why Intel even bothered
4:40
putting a super duper skull graphic and speed demon sticker on this thing or
4:45
those trade-offs are making you super excited because like me, you still have
4:50
a handful of firstg X25M deployed out
4:54
there that are all humming along and it's more about the long-term viability
4:57
of a product to you than the day one performance. Anyway guys, like and share
5:03
this video if you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it, and leave a comment
5:07
on the Linus Tech Tips forum linked in the video description if you want to
5:10
discuss this product or if you have any constructive criticism for me and my
5:15
team. Also linked in the video description is our support link with options to buy t-shirts, give us a
5:19
monthly contribution, or give us a kickback whenever you buy random junk on
5:24
Amazon.com. Check it out if you enjoy our videos. It helps us out a whole
5:27
bunch. And as always guys, thanks for watching and don't forget to subscribe.