Intel Intros SSD 545s Mainstream SATA SSD

[btarunr]

Intel today announced the SSD 545s line of mainstream SATA solid-state drives. Built in the 7 mm-thick 2.5-inch form-factor with SATA 6 Gbps interface, the drives combine new 64-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory by IMFlash Technology, with a Silicon Motion SMI SM2259 controller, and a custom firmware by Intel. For now, the drive is only available in one capacity, 512 GB. It offers sequential transfer speeds of up to 550 MB/s, with up to 500 MB/s sequential writes; 4K random read performance of up to 75,000 IOPS, 4K random write performance of up to 85,000 IOPS, and endurance of at least 144 TBW. Besides common SSD features such as NCQ and TRIM, the drive offers native 256-bit AES encryption. Available now, and backed by a 3-year warranty, the SSD 545s 512 GB is priced at USD $179.99.



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[BluesFanUK]

Sick and tired of these rubbish capacity SSD's.

I care not for performance of Sata versions, if that's important get an M.2/PCIe drive.

I bought an 8TB HDD the other day, performance is fantastic, runs cool and quiet. SSD's should be aiming to hit at least 4TB now at reasonable prices, Samsung are the only ones but take the mick with their pricing, the cost of a high end PC.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Those SATA 6 SSDs are so damn boring, especially considering their shitty capacities, and still, very high prices...

 

[5DVX0130]

The drive performs on par with the 850 EVO, sometimes even gets close to the PRO.

Soo all in all, it's actually a rather nice drive. Which is about time, since all but the top end Intel drives were rather underwhelming. Especially considering the premium “Intel” prices, you were expected to pay for them.

I’d wait a bit more before buying one though. It’s fresh from the assembly, which means there are currently no specials on it. Seeing as there are plenty of drives with a similar performance/warranty out there, it comes down to the price.

 

[silentbogo]

Just wait a couple more years, and it will happen. According to some sources as soon as 2019.
And this year we have a boom of 3D vNAND in one form, or the other from almost every major flash memory manufacturer.
So, both problems - price and capacity - won't be a problem. Heck, my Sandisk X400 at the time of purchase was ~27c/GB, while my slightly older Extreme II was near the 80c/GB mark just two years before that.

 

[bug]

The drive performs on par with the 850 EVO, sometimes even gets close to the PRO.

Soo all in all, it's actually a rather nice drive. Which is about time, since all but the top end Intel drives were rather underwhelming. Especially considering the premium “Intel” prices, you were expected to pay for them.

I’d wait a bit more before buying one though. It’s fresh from the assembly, which means there are currently no specials on it. Seeing as there are plenty of drives with a similar performance/warranty out there, it comes down to the price.

That's what I figured, too. But what's the point in releasing something that was available for two years if you don't price it significantly lower?

 

[silentbogo]

I also wanted to throw in one of the negative aspects of this product, before I forget: a 600p is currently priced $5 cheaper for 512GB model, and that's a decent NVME drive.
I'm keeping an eye on 1TB for the future upgrade.

 

[evernessince]

That's what I figured, too. But what's the point in releasing something that was available for two years if you don't price it significantly lower?

It's Intel, they won't innovate unless they absolutely have to. They haven't been an exciting company in years.

 

[bug]

It's Intel, they won't innovate unless they absolutely have to. They haven't been an exciting company in years.

Actually, they pretty much set the standard for speed and reliability for consumer SATA SSDs. But they haven't seem to have bothered much since. Maybe they're betting on XPoint or something.

 

[mcraygsx]

I am wonder how this compare to Intel 600P in real world applications. Since both of these SSD cost almost the same. Intel 600P nvme does offer little advantage over regular SSD e.g. Samsung 850 EVO. In my own experience I think 600P is a waste of m.2 slot due to mediocre performance when compare to rest of nvme PCI 3.0 X4 selection.

 

[trparky]

To be honest, unless you're really into storage benchmark numbers any SSD will be able to increase the overall performance of your system. We've easily reached the point where just about any SSD can do the trick. Sure, there are people who say that you need an M.2 NVME SSD but unless you're really pushing extremely high I/O a SATA SSD will be more than enough for 95% of people's needs.

Although, I would love to have an M.2 NVME SSD but sadly my motherboard (z77 chipset) doesn't support booting from an NVME SSD. Do I really need that kind of SSD? Eh... not really.