Intel launches consumer version of its insanely fast Optane SSD

[Shawn Knight]

Intel’s Optane solid-state drives are finally available in a consumer-minded product thanks to the launch of the Optane SSD 900P.

Available from today in 280GB and 480GB flavors, the Optane SSD 900P’s key attributes include incredibly low latency, extended endurance and performance improvements at practical queue depths.

Derived from the enterprise-focused DC P4800X, the consumer drive is quite speedy with sequential read and write speeds checking in at up to 2,500 MB/s and 2,000 MB/s, respectively. Random 4K reads are clocked at up to 550,000 IOPS while random 4K writes are rated for up to 500,000 IOPS. Endurance (on the 480GB model) is rated at up to 8,760 TBW. In comparison, Samsung’s 2TB SSD 960 Pro is rated at just 1,200 TBW.

Pricing is set at $389 for a 280GB x4 Gen 3 PCIe version and $699 for a 480GB add-in card. There’s also a 2.5-inch U.2 version with 280GB that commands $389 and we’re told a 480GB U.2 variant is in the pipeline. All come backed by a five-year warranty although neither are competitive in the price-to-capacity category (then again, that’s not really the point here).

These are cutting-edge drives showcasing next-gen technology designed for those with storage-bound workloads and enthusiasts that crave the latest and greatest. For a full performance rundown, I'd recommend checking out this comprehensive review courtesy of Tom's Hardware.

It’s great that the wait is finally over although it’ll still be a while before you’ll be able to fully flex those 3D XPoint muscles.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/71624-intel-launches-consumer-version-insanely-fast-optane-ssd.html

 

[OortCloud]

A new storage technology that can actually be bought! Is it April fools? You'll be telling us about a new battery technology we can buy next...

 

[davislane1]

I was wondering why 960 Pro prices dropped last week.

Now I know.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

$389 for 280GB & $699 for 480GB???
I was born at night, just not last night. Others are welcome to waste their money on them now but don't include me in this terrible deal, I'll wait it out.

 

[OortCloud]

$389 for 280GB & $699 for 480GB???
I was born at night, just not last night. Others are welcome to waste their money on them now but don't include me in this terrible deal, I'll wait it out.

Early adopters will always pay a premium for something like this, but in the case of this drive it's not necessarily a 'waste of money'. It's a very fast drive - about twice as quick as the current fastest NVME SSD you can buy according to the Toms Hardware review. I don't need one, but I can see people wanting it for complex image processing, compiling large C++ apps etc. You pays your money....

 

[senketsu]

$389 for 280GB & $699 for 480GB???
I was born at night, just not last night. Others are welcome to waste their money on them now but don't include me in this terrible deal, I'll wait it out.

Early adopters will always pay a premium for something like this, but in the case of this drive it's not necessarily a 'waste of money'. It's a very fast drive - about twice as quick as the current fastest NVME SSD you can buy according to the Toms Hardware review. I don't need one, but I can see people wanting it for complex image processing, compiling large C++ apps etc. You pays your money....

Yes, some people actually do work on their computers. For them, if it helps their workflow the money is not a problem.
a few people at Samsung are going to have some sleepless nights for awhile

 

[Phr3d]

Holiday sales are coming, got the 480 in a couple carts.. I can dream..

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Yes, some people actually do work on their computers. For them, if it helps their workflow the money is not a problem.
a few people at Samsung are going to have some sleepless nights for awhile

The Optane has been around for a while so those few at Samsung who did have sleepless nights in the past have caught up on their beauty sleep by now.

 

[senketsu]

The Optane has been around for a while so those few at Samsung who did have sleepless nights in the past have caught up on their beauty sleep by now.

yes, you are right, its been in the pipeline for awhile. Any execs. that lost sleep were probably thinking about exploding phones and the corruption charges that were going around LOL

 

[Uncle Al]

Give 'em time and they will be more competitive. The good news is they have raised the bar for everybody else so we'll start seeing faster, cheaper units in the next year or so .....

 

[sac39507]

Damn, I remember again how I was so excited when I got the WD velociraptor 10,000 rpm mechanical drives a lifetime ago.

 

[MoeJoe]

Damn, I remember again how I was so excited when I got the WD velociraptor 10,000 rpm mechanical drives a lifetime ago.

Same here.

 

[JamesSWD]

I've never seen an answer to this: I run conventional hard drives in a RAID 1. Can SSD drives be raided or is there another solution they use for drive redundancy?

 

[toooooot]

Holiday sales are coming, got the 480 in a couple carts.. I can dream..

Im looking to buy excactly the same thing . Hopefully, I can get one for below 130

 

[Draconian]

"$699 for a 480GB add-in card."

*spits out drink*

 

[Wizwill]

I remember paying a LOT for 1Gb RAM. and very high prices for parallel SCSI cards and drives to squeeze a few milliseconds off the hard drive access time of a speech recognition system. I don't currently need the speed this new SSDs offers but some folks might. Beside, with a windowed case the sleek black looks a lot more hi tech than pretty blue lights.

 

[Jeffrey S]

I've never seen an answer to this: I run conventional hard drives in a RAID 1. Can SSD drives be raided or is there another solution they use for drive redundancy?

In most cases you can. Pricey redundancy though.

 

[Phr3d]

In most cases you can. Pricey redundancy though.

True, but SSD RAID10 is faster than the RAMDrive I used back in the stone-age, lol. It would be near Impossible to qualify the present cost of a ~1990 RAMDrive.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Early adopters will always pay a premium for something like this, but in the case of this drive it's not necessarily a 'waste of money'. It's a very fast drive - about twice as quick as the current fastest NVME SSD you can buy according to the Toms Hardware review. I don't need one, but I can see people wanting it for complex image processing, compiling large C++ apps etc. You pays your money....

yes, you are right, its been in the pipeline for awhile. Any execs. that lost sleep were probably thinking about exploding phones and the corruption charges that were going around LOL

Even though they haven't it announced yet, Samsung will have a competitor ready to launch from it's silo when it's ready to do so. They compete in some of the same markets as Intel and if they want to remain competitive, they can hardly afford not to counter any of their punches.

 

[commanderasus]

Damn, I remember again how I was so excited when I got the WD velociraptor 10,000 rpm mechanical drives a lifetime ago.

My WD740ADFD 00NLR5 that I bought in 2008 is still in service, it was my boot drive until I bought a Samsung 850 Pro. For long term storage you still can't beat old style drives. Just ask any server farm.

 

[hood6558]

Most people still don't understand that this is a definite upgrade to the user experience, even for users with conventional SATA SSD boot drives. This doubles down on the Intel 750 series NVMe drive, which I've been using for over a year, and still finding new things it does faster, still amazed by it's speed and low latency. Storage is by far the worst bottleneck to the flow of data, much worse than a slow CPU or RAM. The first time you completely realize this is when you first get an SSD and compare it to a conventional hard disk, it's like night and day. Then it becomes a bit more obvious when you upgrade to a PCIe x 4 NVMe drive, like the Samsung 950-960 series or the Intel 750 series. This Optane drive should be another step above that, in terms of latency, read/write IOPS at low Queue depths, and overall user experience. I want one...

 

[OortCloud]

Most people still don't understand that this is a definite upgrade to the user experience, even for users with conventional SATA SSD boot drives. This doubles down on the Intel 750 series NVMe drive, which I've been using for over a year, and still finding new things it does faster, still amazed by it's speed and low latency.... I want one...

Yeah I'd like one too - not sure I really need it though. All my coding is .NET these days which compiles so fast. Even really big solutions only take 30 seconds or so, and video encoding etc. is just not something I do, so most the time it would just sit there tapping its fingers and getting bored...

 

[PaxJustica]

I'm dropping 2 of these in my new build as soon as they're available.

 

[mbrowne5061]

I've never seen an answer to this: I run conventional hard drives in a RAID 1. Can SSD drives be raided or is there another solution they use for drive redundancy?

Yes, you can RAID SSDs. But often times there is little point beyond trying to build a large, single drive in the eyes of the OS. They're so quick, the only speed improvements can really only be observed through benchmarks - some computers don't even have the bandwidth to even handle something like a RAID0 of SSDs. There are also no moving parts, there is less of a chance of failure, and so less of a reason to setup a RAID in a backup configuration.

tl;dr - you can, but the money is probably better spent on an offsite backup service if RAID1 is what you're interested in, and RAID0 is hard to realize human-tangible benefits from when using SSDs.

 

[BadThad]

I've never seen an answer to this: I run conventional hard drives in a RAID 1. Can SSD drives be raided or is there another solution they use for drive redundancy?

I run RAID 1 on a few systems with SSD's, no problem. The RAID controller doesn't care.