Review Intel Optane WD black Samsung Pro 970 NVMe SSD Roundup 2018
Ditulis pada: September 10, 2018
The SSD market can look amazing at first glance. Each product claims to be the fastest with advanced technology that leaves competition in dust. There are lots of marketing and mock numbers thrown in, even though in the end this is the right time to increase your storage given the always lower prices and two different segments that change from fast and relatively affordable storage to a very fast and more expensive solution. Today we will look at the last segment, which consists only of NVMe solid storage.Which product is the best for a particular workload, what technology is out there, and what should you choose to build later. We saw top Samsung 970 Pro and 970 Evo players, Intel Optane M.2 modules and Intel Optane PCIe cards and WD's Black SSDs. A previous generation SSD NVMe from Intel has also been included for comparison.Because SATA links are a barrier to increasing SSD speeds, manufacturers are starting to connect directly via PCI Express buses. It offers higher throughput, lower latency, and more space for scaling. To draw a direct comparison: Samsung's most popular SATA SSD is the SSD 860 Pro (~ $ 120 for 500GB) and that is probably as fast as the SATA drive will go. Until a few years ago, we rejoiced at gaining such speed. But for most products that are reviewed today it will be anywhere from 2 to 3 times faster in raw throughput rates.
Non-Volatile Memory Express, or NVMe, is now the standard for high-speed storage drives. You will need a relatively new chipset to support this technology because older motherboards don't have M.2 ports. Some systems and drives may be backward compatible which will allow you to run in SATA mode longer than M.2, but you will want to check your manual before buying.Having ordered many of our top SSD lists over the past few years, the first model in our collection is the Samsung 970 Pro and 970 Evo SSD. They represent the successor to the very successful line of 960 Pro and 960 Evo from the end of 2016. Both of these SSDs use Samsung's 3D V-NAND technology to achieve high density at affordable costs. Compared to traditional NAND storage where cells are placed flat on a PCB, V-NAND uses vertical settings. Samsung claims that stacking cells also increases longevity and power efficiency.The 970 Pro is available in 500GB versions and 1TB at prices of $ 230 and $ 570, respectively. The 970 Evo is available in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB variants with prices starting from $ 107 for the 250GB version to $ 800 for the 2TB variant.For testing today, we have a 1TB version of 970 Pro and a 500GB version of 970 Evo.
Samsung advertises both drives because they have similar performance to each other. The main difference between the two drives is the type of internal memory they use. The 970 Pro uses 2-bit MLC flash, while the 970 Evo uses 3-bit MLC flash in a TLC configuration that is cheaper to produce. On paper, two drives, which compare the same storage capacity, have very similar read and write speeds.
Samsung's new strategy is becoming clearer, because the more popular Evo line now takes over Pro as the main offer for most consumers. The higher price of 970 Pro with its 2-bit MLC flash has 4x write resistance but considering Evo's unmeasurable track record and the written rating of many terabtes (TBW), for the average user, those numbers don't really matter.
Samsung's new strategy is becoming clearer, because the more popular Evo line now takes over Pro as the main offer for most consumers. The higher price of 970 Pro with its 2-bit MLC flash has 4x write resistance but considering Evo's unmeasurable track record and the written rating of many terabtes (TBW), for the average user, those numbers don't really matter.
Next on the list is Intel's Optane storage technology which they launched last year. Intel boasts Optane as one of the biggest breakthroughs in the history of computer storage. Optane works in a fundamentally different way from other types of storage that we have seen before. Main memory such as RAM is very good in storing small data that needs to be accessed very quickly, but is expensive and has no large capacity. Secondary storage, such as SSD or HDD, is great for storing large amounts of information that don't need to be accessed as often as possible. So Intel takes here is to offer faster storage than NAND flash with latency closer to RAM, greater capacity than RAM but prices closer to the SSD, and a significantly higher durability than traditional SSDs.Intel currently has three main flavors of Optane on the market: a small accelerator module intended to act as a cache for spinning disks, medium-sized drives intended to store your OS and certain programs, and full-sized drives for your large Steam library or other. data intensive workload.While Optane products are very fast, they are not intended to have the fastest read and write speeds, instead focusing on low latency and consistent performance across various queue depths. We have three drives in the laboratory for testing: 58GB 800P SSD, 118GB 800P SSD and 280GB 900P SSD.Intel offers high-end 900P in both U.2 and standard PCIe x4 add-in cards. The U.2 model sells for $ 330 with a 280GB capacity and the PCIe version comes in 280GB and 480GB capacities at a price of $ 330 and $ 540, respectively. While we worked on this comparison, Intel released the newer Optane 905p which offered a small performance above 900p that we tested. This is not intended to replace 900p, but rather solidifies Intel's leadership in low queue depth tasks while adding the larger and more expensive 960GB version.
Intel 3D-Xpoint works by stacking cells on top of each other in two layers of memory, then the name 3D. Cells are read from and written to by varying the voltage sent to the selector who controls the cell. This configuration means that every cell does not need a transistor such as traditional NAND flash or DRAM. By eliminating transistors, cells become cheaper, faster, and can store more data.The 58GB and 118GB drives occupy attractive market segments, costing $ 110 and $ 200. They are only large enough for your operating system and certain programs but cost four times more per GB than traditional NAND-based SSDs. My first thought when they came out was if you were going to spend all that money on an SSD, who wanted a very small one. The 800P line is also a step up from Intel's original Optane line which has a capacity of only 16GB or 32GB and can only be used to speed up HDD - no longer a very common scenario, it will appear.
Compared to 900P which is almost unheard of over a lifetime of written resistance of more than 5PB, 800P only manages 365TB. Even though that is a 93% reduction, it's still more than twice the durability of previous generation NAND based SSDs. On paper, 800P has a slower read and write speed than 900P but maintains a similar ultra-low latency level.
To complete our SSD roundup is a Black NVMe SSD from Western Digital. Relatively new entrants to the solid state market debuted with rivals directly to Samsung's flagship drive. It uses similar 3D NAND technology, and is intended to be sold at a lower price. Both lines claim to offer similar performance, so the value will be a key factor in choosing which drive to choose.
WD Black is available in sizes of 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB at a price of $ 110, 200, and $ 400, respectively.
Storage reviews involve many numbers and data points, so here is a fast table that highlights some of the main product information for each drive. Drives are available in different capacities as mentioned above, but we only include data for the drives that we tested today. Writing resistance values indicate how many terabytes of data the hard disk is expected to write before failure.
WD Black is available in sizes of 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB at a price of $ 110, 200, and $ 400, respectively.
Storage reviews involve many numbers and data points, so here is a fast table that highlights some of the main product information for each drive. Drives are available in different capacities as mentioned above, but we only include data for the drives that we tested today. Writing resistance values indicate how many terabytes of data the hard disk is expected to write before failure.
Closing remarks
Many tasks related to general storage don't seem to be too affected by the drive from this round they run. As anticipated, the Optane drive and the second generation SSD NVMe are the top players on the market that offer exceptional performance advantages over solid SATA drives that are more affordable. But in fine details where you can draw some conclusions about what to buy based on your needs.Back to our storage purchase recommendations earlier this year, mainstream users don't need to invest in super fast NVMe SSDs. For half the price (or twice the storage capacity) most consumers will be satisfied with what the Samsung 860 Evo, WD's Blue, or the famous SATA Crucial MX500 hard drive offers.Meanwhile, fans and professionals will surely jump on the wild storage performance opportunities offered by NVMe offers today. If your workload involves moving large amounts of data around, you will want to use 970 Evo / Pro or WD Black because they have the best sequential read and write speeds. Note that WD Black offers Evo-like prices but with better write durability, while the 970 Pro surpasses both at a premium price. The 970 Evo is the only series that offers a 2TB version.If your workload requires super fast response time or analyzing a lot of data with many files, you should use Optane 900p because it offers very low response times. High-end optane is what we call a niche in niche products, which dominates competitors in small files that are read and written combined with a crazy high durability rating. If that's what you need, there's nothing like the expensive Optane, which at the time of writing receives a slight bump (the new model 905p) offers a larger 960GB version for the handsome $ 1,299.In our opinion, the "mid-range" Optane 800P is a more difficult sale because of the price. Throw run a "cheap" drive to put your OS and one or two games might have worked a few years ago, but 800p wasn't affordable enough to make it better than a drive with a larger capacity.
