Intel 750 Series PCI-Express 1.2TB SSD
Designed for the performance seeking enthusiast and businesses, the Intel 750 Series PCI-Express 1.2TB SSD utilises Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) over four lanes of PCI-express 3.0 to give us uncompromising and superior performance. Built using similar technology to their data center products, 750 SSD represents the pinnacle of storage in the prosumer market.
The 750 Series uses Intel-Micron’s 20nm 128Gbit MLC NAND
| Capacity | 1200 GB |
| Controller | Intel 3rd Gen Enhanced for NVMe (CH29AE41AB0) |
| Flash | Intel 20nm 128Gbit MLC |
| DRAM | 4GB |
| Sequential Read | Up To 2400 MB/s |
| Sequential Write | Up To 1200 MB/s |
| Random 4K Read | Up To 440,000 IOPS |
| Random 4k Write | Up To 290,000 IOPS |
| Idle Power Consumption | 4W |
| Read/Write Power Consumption | 10W / 22W |
| Endurance | 70 GB Per Day |
| Required Airflow | 300 LFM |
Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe)
Traditional interfaces such as the AHCI logical interface are inefficient for use with flash storage as it is designed to work with high latency, slow performing HDDs. SSDs are anything but providing low latency and greater speeds. The need for greater efficiencies gave birth to NVMe, a technology built to meet the demands of PCI-express based flash storage.
Free from the limitations of legacy components, NVMe combined with PCI-express 3.0 can be expected to deliver greater speeds from storage devices.
Benchmark
To benchmark the SSD I used AS SSD which in my opinion is one of the oldest and toughest SSD benchmarks around.
AS SSD Benchmark set to 1GB on the Intel 750
AS SSD Benchmark set to 5GB on the Intel 750
With an impressive overall score of around 3,500, we can see sequential read speeds got up to 2,158MB/s and write speeds to 1,277MB/s. Not quite the rated maximum but pretty close. In contrast, the Vertex 4 SATA3 SSD performed considerably slower.
AS SSD Benchmark set to 1GB on the OCZ Vertex 4
AS SSD Benchmark set to 5GB on the OCZ Vertex 4
Final Thoughts
The last time I played with an Intel SSD was back when they released the X25-M, a solid performer and one that all other SSDs were often measured against. From the short time I had with this 750 series PCI-express SSD, I can’t help but to see the potentials of a game changer. I say potential as I feel that the price point will be prohibitive in the current climate. At time of writing, local street pricing for the 1.2TB model was around AUD$1,500.
That said, the Intel 750 series SSD is in a class of its own without comparison and compromise. If you are a heavy CAD or multimedia user, it will be relatively easy to overlook the price just to get the IO performance boost this drive offers. Despite the price tag, the Intel 750 Series PCI-Express 1.2TB SSD is highly recommended if you are constantly working with high IO loads.
