# Whats everyone's thought on Intel 660p Series 2tb NVMe



## yotano211 (May 3, 2019)

I just found someone selling these on Craigslist for $150 each, he has 2 of them.
What is everyone's thought on these. I checked on these and the writing endurance is not very high and 5 years warranty vs Samsung 970.

I have already a Western Digital 2TB WD M.2 2280 in my laptop. I wanted to get some more space, I plan to do video editing within this year.


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## Vario (May 3, 2019)

I'd get something else for doing video editing.


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## Space Lynx (May 3, 2019)

i'd pass.


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## newtekie1 (May 3, 2019)

They are great for drives that you aren't going to write large files to constantly.  Mainly this is because writing large amounts of data will fill up the SLC cache, and then write performance takes a very hard drive.  Once you hit the point that you are writing directly to the QLC, you're going to get write performance that is worse than what you get with decent SATA SSD.

Endurance, well, it's something that people tend to make too big of a deal about.  The 2TB 660p is rated for 400TBW.  So, you'd basically need to fill the drive up 200 times, most people will never write that much data to a drive in its lifetime.

As for video editing, I don't really see an issue with it as long as you are just using the 660p for storage space.  Make sure your swap file is on the other SSD, and you'll probably want to export the videos to the main SSD too.  Then move things over to the 660p when you have some time, again due to the small SLC cache.  Though, depending on your project sizes, and the size of your output files, the SLC cache filling up might not be a big issue.  I think the 2TB version of the 660p has a 24GB SLC cache, IIRC.  Which will probably be big enough to handle the video output if you output directly to the 660p(especially considering the processor rendering the video will likely be the limiting factor).

For $150, I sure as hell wouldn't pass it up.  That's fallen off the back of a truck pricing!  You're looking at almost double that for decent 2TB NVMe SSDs.


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## Space Lynx (May 3, 2019)

newtekie1 said:


> They are great for drives that you aren't going to write large files to constantly.  Mainly this is because writing large amounts of data will fill up the SLC cache, and then write performance takes a very hard drive.  Once you hit the point that you are writing directly to the QLC, you're going to get write performance that is worse than what you get with decent SATA SSD.
> 
> Endurance, well, it's something that people tend to make too big of a deal about.  The 2TB 660p is rated for 400TBW.  So, you'd basically need to fill the drive up 200 times, most people will never write that much data to a drive in its lifetime.
> 
> ...



yeah but 2tb SSD's are only around $190-200 now. and brand new --- who knows how many writes/reads those intel drives have, or if they were thrown around (I don't trust Craigslist) but its his money so eh, i prefer to pay a slightly more premium for a warranty and brand new, etc (plus you never know what the seller did on those drives, could be shady fragments left behind even after a format)


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## yotano211 (May 3, 2019)

I


lynx29 said:


> yeah but 2tb SSD's are only around $190-200 now. and brand new --- who knows how many writes/reads those intel drives have, or if they were thrown around (I don't trust Craigslist) but its his money so eh, i prefer to pay a slightly more premium for a warranty and brand new, etc (plus you never know what the seller did on those drives, could be shady fragments left behind even after a format)


I saw some on sale on Newegg this week for $199. I'll make sure to test the 2 SSD drives out. What program is good to test out SSD's remaining life span.
I plan to meet up tomorrow afternoon.


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## W1zzard (May 3, 2019)

I have the 660p in comparison data for my recent wd blue review, especially pay attention to the sustained write page to know what to expect. For copying in large video files you'll see hdd speeds, for read heavy workloads it's perfectly fine though


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## yotano211 (May 3, 2019)

W1zzard said:


> I have the 660p in comparison data for my recent wd blue review, especially pay attention to the sustained write page to know what to expect. For copying in large video files you'll see hdd speeds, for read heavy workloads it's perfectly fine though


I'm afraid if it becomes too hot or the cache gets files, I dont want the slow speeds of HD speeds. I wont start editing videos until June when classes start up for the summer.


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## silentbogo (May 3, 2019)

W1zzard said:


> I have the 660p in comparison data for my recent wd blue review


Hi, W1zzard! Is a 660p review in the works? I'm considering a pair of those for RAID-0 setup on my PC. Just wanted to check out some tasty crunchy numbers before making a final decision... 
THX.


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## W1zzard (May 3, 2019)

No plans for a 660p review, the comparison data is all there in the last review anyway.

Look at adata sx8200 pro is my suggestion, or mx500 if you want sata


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## newtekie1 (May 3, 2019)

lynx29 said:


> yeah but 2tb SSD's are only around $190-200 now. and brand new --- who knows how many writes/reads those intel drives have, or if they were thrown around (I don't trust Craigslist) but its his money so eh, i prefer to pay a slightly more premium for a warranty and brand new, etc (plus you never know what the seller did on those drives, could be shady fragments left behind even after a format)




Yeah, you can get a 2TB SSD for around $200, but not a decent NVMe.



yotano211 said:


> I'm afraid if it becomes too hot or the cache gets files, I dont want the slow speeds of HD speeds. I wont start editing videos until June when classes start up for the summer.



I don't think it'd be an issue except for maybe when importing raw HD video from a camera.  But even then, most SD cards can't read much faster than you can write to the 660p even with the SLC cache full, so it won't really be much of an issue either.


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## er557 (May 3, 2019)

raid-0 for 660p is pointless, recommending using a single hp ex950 2tb, or as OS drive- the adata sx8200 pro, an excellent product, fairly cheap as well.


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## Chrispy_ (May 3, 2019)

Yeah, what he said. RAID-0 of a PCIe x2 device is a complete waste of effort. Just get a native PCIe x4 SSD instead.

The 660p is a cheap drive but if you actually want RAID-0 for sequential performance, you're likely going to fill the SLC caches too, at which point it is an absolute dog - just get a couple of 7200rpm drives instead at that point....

The best case for a 660p is a games library where the datasets are large, mostly read-only, and not much is written to the drive in one sitting. Even then, copying an existing games library onto the 660p in the first place is going to be painfully slow.


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## Deleted member 158293 (May 3, 2019)

Strictly for non-critical & stuff like games which don't really take advantage of the extra speed anyways.  Also maybe otherwise backed up data.  I treat these as somewhat useful, but essentially disposable items with their small expected lifetime if you work with them.


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## er557 (May 3, 2019)

why get a crippled product in the first place when you have this for 170 bucks
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAFVF8SS6581&ignorebbr=1


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## Vario (May 3, 2019)

er557 said:


> why get a crippled product in the first place when you have this for 170 bucks
> https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAFVF8SS6581&ignorebbr=1


Or this for $120,  https://www.microcenter.com/product...80-pcie-nvme-30-x4-internal-solid-state-drive
1600 TBW endurance, 970 evo speeds.


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## er557 (May 3, 2019)

this is a bit no-name, also quite lower speeds than the adata


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## Vario (May 3, 2019)

er557 said:


> this is a bit no-name, also quite lower speeds than the adata


3 year warranty from microcenter.  Phison E12 controller, SKHynix ram, Toshiba 3D TLC NAND.  I got 3480 read 3230 write performance with it on crystal disk.


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## MrPerforations (May 3, 2019)

hello, I was just looking at the same drive, the 660p as it reduced at ebuyer (uk) today, but then the idea of 2x 512gb m.2 hit me in this thread, can you hardware raid m.2 drives as like normal hdd please?
nope, just read up and my platform does not support nvme raid, that the x370.


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## er557 (May 3, 2019)

I beleive software raid via windows disk management is possible, or via 3rd party utility . Otherwise your bios must support this natively,  the other add-in solution is intel VROC. For amd threadripper platforms, this is supposed to be also possible with their drivers.


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## newtekie1 (May 3, 2019)

er557 said:


> why get a crippled product in the first place when you have this for 170 bucks
> https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAFVF8SS6581&ignorebbr=1



Half the capacity for more money, great suggestion...


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## er557 (May 3, 2019)

cost isn't everything, it simply is a better product. If you may settle for slow speeds and longevity, just get a sata ssd/ m. 2 ahci ssd for less money. I simply prefer quality


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## silentbogo (May 3, 2019)

er557 said:


> If you may settle for slow speeds and longevity, just get a sata ssd/ m. 2 ahci ssd for less money.


LoL. 660p costs exactly like an average SATA or AHCI SSD, but offers 3x more speed and 5 year warranty. 
Longevity is just an excuse to bash on decent tech. I highly doubt you'll be exceeding 300GB/day raw writes, which is not even a guarantee that it'll break this way.
I'd gladly trade my SX8200 for 660p twice its size in a heartbeat.


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## Space Lynx (May 3, 2019)

silentbogo said:


> LoL. 660p costs exactly like an average SATA or AHCI SSD, but offers 3x more speed and 5 year warranty.
> Longevity is just an excuse to bash on decent tech. I highly doubt you'll be exceeding 300GB/day raw writes, which is not even a guarantee that it'll break this way.
> I'd gladly trade my SX8200 for 660p twice its size in a heartbeat.




used storage is just something I personally would never do. used cpu's, ram, mobo, gpu, etc doesn't bother me at all though.  people are shady, so I keep my storage nice, clean, and new.


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## silentbogo (May 3, 2019)

lynx29 said:


> used storage is just something I personally would never do.


I'm not talking used storage. All I'm trying to say is that in my case a 512GB 660p is more useful than my 256GB XPG, even though it's almost twice as fast. 
Couldn't cope with my upgrade itch, so I bought it right before global SSD price drop. Even the latest XPG SX8200Pro is almost 20% cheaper today than my non-pro was last november (on sale!).


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## er557 (May 3, 2019)

silentbogo said:


> LoL. 660p costs exactly like an average SATA or AHCI SSD, but offers 3x more speed and 5 year warranty.
> Longevity is just an excuse to bash on decent tech. I highly doubt you'll be exceeding 300GB/day raw writes, which is not even a guarantee that it'll break this way.
> I'd gladly trade my SX8200 for 660p twice its size in a heartbeat.



for the steam library and a 2TB drive I snagged the hp ex950 2tb, regardless that the intel costs less or whatever. I dont have time for toys.
BTW, the excellent hp 2TB can be had for about 350$
https://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-EX950-2...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

hp ex950 2tb, already half full with material






BTW, being dual xeons, the pc has 80 pcie lanes, hence the gpu sli both run at x16   3.0, a sata controller card pcie as well, sound blaster z pcie, and the asus hyper m2 v2- daughter board with four nvme slots, running bifurcated @ x4 x4 x4 x4. So even with both m2 drives running x4 each, I still have room on the card for two additional m2 nvme drives.


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