Review: Intel SSD 510 Series 250Gb

Posted by Winston

Thursday, 31 March 2011 23:23

Article Index
Review: Intel SSD 510 Series 250Gb
Specifications and Features
Photo Gallery and Closer Look
System Properties, AIDA64 Info and ATTO
Everest Disk Read Test
Everest Disk Write Test
Sandra and Crystalmark Disk Test
Verdict and Conclusion

Page 8 of 8

Verdict and Conclusion

There's only one word to describe the performance of the Intel SSD 510 series ... astonishing. For a 2.5-inch unit, it's one of the fastest SSD we've tested in our labs. This is all thanks to the faster SATA3 interface and the Marvell SSD controller, which seems to be doing its job. But bear in mind you'll need a motherboard that feature these SATA3 ports in order to take full advantage of the Intel SSD 510. If you've only got SATA2 ports, then not to worry. You can still run the Intel SSD 510 on the SATA2 interface, but obviously you'll get slower speeds.

Using the SATA3 ports on the Gigabyte P67A-UD4 motherboard, we were able to archieve an average linear read speed of 415.6Mb/sec for our Everest Disk test. It's just shy of the 500Mb/sec which Intel claimed. And for our average linear write test, the Intel SSD 510 produce an impressive result of 325.1Mb/sec. During our ATTO disk benchmark - Overlapped I/O, we managed to get a transfer rate of 414.8Mb/sec for read, and 341.9Mb/sec for write, which is really good. ATTO is a widely-accepted Disk Benchmark utility for measuring the performance of storage systems.

Now let's talk about IOPS (input/output operations per second). According to Intel, the 510 series offers upto 20K IOPS in 4KB random reads, which is fairly decent. It's not the highest we've seen, but its definitely more than emough for most of today's demanding users. Why is IOPS important? Because it tells you how fast a SSD can read/write to the NAND flash memory at random, usually in 4KB reads.

P1020887

Our SATA2 tests were fairly good too, although there were some SSDs (SandForce controlled on SATA2 interface) that were slightly better, but only marginally. Either way, the Intel SSD 510 is an excellent performer whether you're using the SATA2 or SATA3 interface ... obviously the latter is better. Remember, to get the best of out of the Intel SSD 510 series, you must have a motherboard that features SATA3 ports. It would be silly to buy this, just to connect it up to a SATA2 port.

So what can we say about the Marvell 6Gbps SSD controller the found on the Intel SSD 510 series? Well, this is the first time I've seen one on a retail SSD product, and it seems they've done a great job too. Most of my experience with Marvell has been with SATA controllers found mostly on motherboards, but as far as I'm aware, never a SATA3 6Gbps SSD controller. So with that said ... it will be interesting to see what other SSDs in the future will feature this SSD controller from Marvell, especially when SandForce and Jmicron seem to be the more dominant brands.

P1020895

The Intel SSD 510 series comes in two flavors ... 250Gb and 120Gb. Searching through our Pricegrabber partner page, we found a price for the 120Gb version, costing around USD $325.00 (GBP 225), which I think is fairly pricey. I dread to think what the 250Gb will cost ... probably around USD $500-600 or possibly more!

Final words. There's no doubt, Intel has shown what it can do with its SSDs. Featuring the faster SATA3 interface, the 510 series offers amazing read/write speeds thanks to the Marvell SSD controller. Although it may cost considerably more than we expected, you are getting one of the fastest 2.5-inch SSDs on the market ... perfect for gamers, performance users including enthusiasts and workstation users.

SCORE

9/10