Intel 750 NVMe SSDs launched

http://www.intelgamingpromo.com/intel15b/ssd/notice
Countdown ends April 1st (lol I know)

Relevant video:
Both 2.5" and PCIe SSD it seems.


Some few suggestions:
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/43331...pops-up-unh-iol-compatibility-list/index.html
http://www.gamersnexus.net/news-pc/1851-intel-nvme-ssd-pax-east

 

Probably costs $1000 for the 400GB version knowing Intel

 

The PCIe SSD you saw next to the 2.5" SSD will be for enterprice so yeah it will cost a pretty penny ($2599 for 800GB for the previous Intel one).
But the 2.5" SSD displayed in the video above, that one will replace Intel 730. $259 for 480GB at the moment.

So watch out for April 1st. Thats when Intel will detail Intel 750 2.5" SSDs with 2GB/s speeds, NVMe with vastly better latency and performance over AHCI. "Revolution in Solid State Drives" is most likely spot on. And Intel might be the first one with NVMe SSDs beating the competition solid (pun intended)!

 

Hang on, wouldn't 2.5" SSDs still need to be interfaced via SATA Express in order to Benefit from NVMe? Desktop boards already support SATA Express so that's good, but unless they bring SATA Express to laptops, I think M.2 might be the only way forward currently.

 

Yes, indeed ! If they connect to sata and interface with the AHCI stack they would never reach higher speeds because NVMe is a replacement for AHCI to be used on PCIe (which is a multipurpose bus, sata is not). Why they would use a NEW connector like SataExpress I have no idea, when you can use pcie on the m.2 connector for wifi, storage etc.(multipurpose). Only thing I can think of is degraded performance in the case of overuse of pcie lanes/high workload. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

If this SSD is anything like the 730 was, it may ultimately not matter...

 

There are loads of motherboards with PCIe routed to the M2 slots. Upcoming notebooks will certainly have it too, maybe with SATA Express as well.

 

Looks like the counter have reached 0. They have uploaded a small 30 second video of NVMe. We will see more shortly I guess

http://www.intelgamingpromo.com/intel15b/ssd/notice

Here is a couple of slides about NVMe while we wait

 

Aha, found it.

Livestreaming about the upcoming SSDs will happen today if anyone is interested
http://www.pcper.com/news/General-T...way?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

 

http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/7062/intel-750-1-2tb-nvme-pcie-gen3-x4-aic-ssd-review/index7.html
"....the 750 series 1.2TB is the best performing consumer based OS disk money can buy."

 

The SATA Express connector is comically oversized though, which is why I asked that question in the first place. My personal opinion is that for laptops, true M2 MVNe SSDs are probably the way of the future.

 

@tilleroftheearth how many of these u gonna order?

 

Bring on the M.2 version...

 

Not too many for any notebooks I use.

10W/22W Read/Write power levels and the 12V leads in addition to the 5V leads required negate use in any notebook.


For the desktop workstations though, they are tempting. But patience will prevail there too.

 

Until they make the M.2 version. Sure it will likely lose some performance, but still another M.2 option better than Samsung, and hopefully offer affordable 512GB to 1TB capacities.

 

This is about 4 to 5 times more power hungry than what other M.2 drives aim for. It won't just lose performance, it will be decapitated and dead. I certainly wouldn't buy it.

The reason it is so power heavy? 18 controller channels. No way to tame that. And without those 18 channels, performance would plummet to SATA speeds (yawn).

 

Well it seems we've stagnated already with M.2 drives. New laptops are being offered with only M.2, no mSATA, yet you have better and cheaper selection of mSATA drives. You can even get a 1TB mSATA, but 512GB is maximum M.2 and a lot more expensive.

 

So as of today, Intel 750 is either PCIe SSD or a standard 2.5" SSD like you find on notebooks and desktops.
PCIe version is obviously not valid for notebooks. The 2.5" fit inside a notebook, but it have a SFF-8639 connector which only certain desktop motherboards have available. Its not the standard SATA connector.
But there is a M2 adapter you can use. You plug in the M2 in the M2 slot and then put the cable in the Intel 750 SSD. If the cable fit inside the notebook, I have no idea.
Note that you still need a notebook with PCIe M2 slots to harvest all the speed this SSD is capable of producing. There are a few out there already and the number will only grow.
And at last, you need a motherboard which support NVMe. Not sure where notebook motherboards stand here.

Here is an overview of the two versions plus the cable and M2 adapter from PCPer review:
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Storage/Intel-SSD-750-Series-12TB-PCIe-and-25-SFF-Review-NVMe-Consumer
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Here are the specifications of Intel 750:

 

HardwareCanucks tested the 2.5" version (8639) and it was faaaaaaast
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/69131-intel-ssd-750-series-review.html




Holy crap. Step to the side SATA drives

 

List of notebooks that support PCIe through M2 (using the M2 adapter):

• HP EliteBook: 820 G2
• ASUS Zenbook NX500JK-DR018H
• Sager NP8651 / Clevo P650SE
• SONY VAIO Pro 13
• Sager NP9752/9772 - Clevo P750ZM/770ZM/751ZM/771ZM

Note: You need to check if your notebook supports NVMe
Work in progress. I will see if I can find more

 

What about Sager NP9752/9772 (Clevo P750/770/751/771ZM)?

 

Have you forgotten its ridiculous >20W power consumption? This drive needs active cooling.

Also laptop mobo needs support for NVMe. The Clevo ZM is Z97 but I haven't heard of any NVMe support. Sure it will still work if you can get it to fit, but it will be slower as an AHCI PCIe SSD.

 

Thanks. Added those to the list.

According to Clevo`s own specifications, it have 3 M2 slots:
1st for WLAN Combo M.2 2230 Card with PCIe and USB interface
2nd for SSD M.2 2280 Card with SATA / PCIe x2/x4 interface
3rd for SSD M.2 2280 Card with SATA / PCIe x2 interface

Which means the 2nd port actually have full support for utilizing the Intel 750 SSD. It got PCIe x4 (x1 = 500MB/s) so in total it can do 2000MB/s. Not far from the 2200MB/s the 400GB version have. 1200GB got 2400MB/s.

Make sure you use the 2nd M2 slot. The 3rd will only do 1000MB/s.
Pretty good notebooks those last one from Clevo. That 9 series chipset motherboard does have some nice features

 

Did the Clevo ZM get a BIOS update to support NVMe yet?

 

Yeah the SSD will undoubtly become hotter than the ones on the market now yes. Its formed like an heatsink.
I would go for the 400GB version with half the power draw. Its bloody fast anyway. 1200GB version will cost over $1000 so I don`t think many will buy it.

Z97 supports NVMe. But I`m not sure if you need to get a new BIOS from Clevo or if its ready. They have to ask their resellers for that

 

Huge hassle:

1. Buy a Hyper Kit (if it's even sold separately)
2. Mod notebook to fit oversized SSD and Hyper Kit
3. Sacrifice both a 2.5" bay and M.2 slot
4. Mobo NVMe support still up in the air

Just wait for NVMe M.2 PCIe SSDs to show up on the market IMO

 

Probably the best to avoid any potential problems yes.
I don`t care though, Im going to desktops anyway. Will undoubtly use PCIe SSDs where it will work without any hassle

 

Here is Kingston`s Predator HyperX PCIe M2 SSD which was announced last week. Its AHCI though but will still be faster than any SATA drive and will work in any notebook with 2280 M2 (Like the Clevo machines listed in previous page)
http://www.kingston.com/datasheets/shpm2280p2_us.pdf



SATA is done for and I`m glad we are moving away from it.


EDIT: Already for sale
http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Predator-3-5-Inch-SHPM2280P2-480G/dp/B00V01C5O2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1428174939&sr=8-2&keywords=HyperX Predator SSD

 

Meh, any PCIe SSD which isn't NVMe fails to excite me as AHCI will limit 4K speed to around the same as the fastest SATA drives anyway

 

Also HP Omen ( only those that come with >256gb storage ), Asus ux501 and g501, and I think the HP zbook 14 supports small (2242 I think?) pcie.

How would I go about checking if my notebook supports NVMe? Is it built into the ssd, or is it on the motherboard side ( like sata vs pcie ) ?

 

You don't. NVMe is only supported on select high-end Z97 and X99 desktop mobos for now.

 

Oh well, thanks for explaining that. Normal SSDs should be fine for me for the next couple of years

 

That's 2.5" with a 15mm Z-height. Might be very tough for notebooks.

 

Thanks, will check those notebooks.
Its about the BIOS. As long as you have UEFI 2.3.1 and upwards you should have NVMe support.

Chipset comes in to play wether or not you can get enough PCI lanes to the M2 slot. Notebooks with M2 slots and PCIe might just have routed 2 lanes to the M2. In that case you only get max 1000MB/s, which is quite a bit lower than what say Intel 750 can do which is 2200MB/s for the 400GB version.
The Clevo machines listed have 4 lanes which means they can do 2000MB/s.

Yeah I read that too. Twice the thickness of conventional SATA SSDs. Will indeed be tricky.
Seems like Intel 750 is just too much hassle with notebooks. M2 PCIe SSDs like Samsung XP941 or Kingston Predator seems to be the only options so far. But atleast we got a glimpse about how NVMe perform now
Hopefully more OEMs will follow. Samsung was orginally planning to do the SM951 M2 PCIe SSD with NVMe but backed out for some reason. Said they wanted to wait for Skylake. Once that hit the market we will see a flood of PCIe SSDs hitting the market, because HM97 etc (chipset) have native support for PCIe and the OEMs doesnt need to route any PCIe lanes to a port where you can plug in the SSD

 

You're wasting your time. Even with an M.2 adaptor, physical room in the notebook to stash all things in, along with the cable and 15mm 2.5" drive, you still need 5V and 12V leads to power the drive up.

I don't know of any notebook that offers that?

 

Not to mention the dedicated cooling you'd need to keep that sucker from melting a hole in your keyboard...

This thing is not going in a notebook, simple as that. We're going to have to wait for actual M.2 form factor NVME SSDs to come out.

 

That 2.5" 15mm drive just appears too cobbled together for my taste -- 2 separate PCBs connected via ribbon cable, SAS derived SFF-8643 connector which is found on exactly ONE consumer board, which if used eliminates the possibility of running multi-GPU setups. If I were to buy one for my desktop it would definitely be the PCIe version.

Also you guys may want to check out TechReport's review, which seems to paint a different picture.

 

My Alienware 18 I used to own could maybe have used the Intel 750.
It have a HDD/SSD bay that fit two drives stacked on top of each other.
It have M2 slot in the same department, and I think I could perhaps fit the cable inside the notebook. Maybe have to cut it down a bit.
At last the drive needs to be powered by the SATA port.

But Alienware doesnt have PCIe support through M2 anyway.

Bad review and its not the first one Ive seen from them. Most reviews found the Intel 750 to be the quickest one out there, Hardwarecanucks had way different results than Techreport in real world tests, and the specs of Intel 750 screams SATA slayer. The NVMe protocol also removes quite a bit of latency due to removing software that needs to be used with ACHI

But yeah, too much hassle.
Hopefully pure M2 NVMe SSDs is around the corner

 

I have found 2 upcoming M2 PCIe NVMe SSDs:

Mushkin Hyperion M2. Pretty damn fast. Should work perfectly with notebooks with PCIe M2 slots that have NVMe support. Is supposed to hit the market the first half this year!


OCZ JetExpress PCIe NVME M2 SSD. Not much about performance sadly. And it have is 11cm long (22110) which Im not sure any notebooks have room for yet. Could be shorter models made with less capacity that will fit 2280 though.

 

Mushkin and OCZ are the 2 brands whose SSD's I would never buy for my notebook! With my luv(hate actually) for Samsung, only Sandisk/Intel can be my saviours!!

 

@Cloudfire AW18 has mSATA not M.2.

Only the 1TB variants of the 2 drives you listed will be 11 cm.

 

Oh yeah I forgot. Thats right, msata.
Where did you read that OCZ sub 1TB will be shorter? I know it makes sense, just want to know where you read it.

Yeah I didnt trust OCZ earlier either. But lets remember they have gone through some changes and Toshiba owns them now. Hopefully they slap them in to shape for future drives

Mushkin used Sandforce too, like OCZ, thats why their drives sucked earlier. Sandforce also isnt Sandforce like we known. Intel have used their controllers sucessfully, so its a matter of writing a proper firmware for it. Sandforce is also owned by a different company now, LSI, but I guess you already know that probably

The Mushkin SSD use a Phison driver btw.

Lets keep an open mind about these. But Im sure the rest will also make PCIe M2 SSDs and will release them this year. Its only natural, since SATA will slowly be replaced

 

I didn't say that. You're reading too much into it.

 

I don't know Cloud, seems like TechSpot is also showing the 750 isn't quite the SATA slayer when it comes to real world use, although their results do paint the 750 in a more favorable light.

When I see results like that, I like to understand why they got the results they did instead of summarily dismissing them as just being a bad review.

 

Good luck finding that out. They don`t write much about how they test their drives.
Hardwarecanucks say:

I feel safe trusting their real world results.

Compare techspot`s CDM 4K results you see they are quite a bit lower than the rest. Their ATTO benchies are way lower than the other reviews as well.

 

Sure, but TechReport's testing method seems sound as well:

I think it's unfair to dismiss their results as a bad review simply because they're not in line with what we expect.

We should wait for more reviews on how this NVMe drive performs in real life applications before jumping to conclusions. Keep in mind this is also a first gen product so there's bound to be bugs and other issues that need to be hammered out, so we probably haven't seen its true potential yet.

 

I'm sad that SATA III can't accept these drives

 

I'm not. Because it is simply impossible.

SATA was introduced back in 2001 and SATA3 was only available in 2009.

SATA is effectively dead as a performance connection for modern storage subsystems.

Bring on the change! And bring it FAST!!!

 

Yes but that means even today's laptops will be obsolete for this kind of storage, which as me very sad, because everything new from here on out will likely be soldered only systems.

 

I know tiller will disagree with me, but I'd take non-BGA over PCIe SSDs any day of the week