Ssd M 2 480gb Intel 540s

Early Verdict

Intel set the bar very low for mainstream SSDs with the SSD 540s, but the market will continue on. This drive delivers less performance per dollar compared to market leaders and fails to compete with offerings from Tier iii manufacturers. If you want a reliable SSD, this may be the all-time TLC model outside of Samsung. At the aforementioned time, it doesn't give us a reason not to buy a Samsung 850 EVO. We have to wonder what is going on at Intel for the company to filibuster taking advantage of its new IMFT 3D NAND that is already shipping.

Pros

+
SSD Optimizer software is very adept and includes several squeamish features
+
Reliability
+
five-year warranty

Cons

-
Expensive
-
Nether performs compared to other mainstream SSD offerings with lower prices

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Specifications And Features

Two years ago, we learned that Intel started working with Taiwanese fabless semiconductor manufacturer Silicon Motion, Inc. (SMI). The scrappy SMI enchanted SSD manufacturers in 2014 with its loftier-functioning, low-cost, four-aqueduct flash processors, which helped move us out of the SandForce era. SMI has had several design wins with prominent SSD giants such as Crucial and SanDisk, and the Intel SSD 540s represents another large achievement for the company. The SMI controller powers the Intel 540s upward to 78,000/85,000 random read/write IOPS, which is a perfect example of why the controllers have go then pop.

The Intel 540s is our beginning expect at the new SMI SM2258 controller, merely this SSD has an interesting backstory, too. Intel paired the controller with SK Hynix 16nm 3-chip-per-prison cell NAND flash because Intel didn't collaborate with IMFT partner Micron on 16nm flash, instead choosing to focus its resources on the upcoming 3D NAND and Optane (3D XPoint) products. The move left Intel, one of the very few NAND flash manufacturers, every bit a customer rather than a marketplace leader for an entire generation of products.

Intel is struggling to be competitive in the entry-level and mainstream SSD markets in this new role. The trouble for Intel as a flash client comes downward to pricing. Intel gets a price interruption on wink as a NAND manufacturer, but as a flash client, Intel is forced to pay a markup on the NAND, which is the most expensive component inside the example. The 2nd issue with existence a client, rather than a builder, is the lack of the intimate NAND knowledge that allows for a faster time-to-market.

Intel's lack of low-cost, in-house wink has left the 3- and 5-Series SSD lines with stale products that struggle to be competitive in pricing and operation. The last 3-Serial release dates back to 2012. Intel chose not to participate in the fast-growing consumer SSD segment after it moved the iii-Serial SSDs to end-of-life condition.

The 5-Series crept on with infrequent updates and continued to employ a SandForce SF-2281 wink processor from 2012, that is, until the release of the SSD 540s. Other SSD manufacturers, big and small, have at least two product generations separating SandForce 2281-based models and electric current-generation SSDs. In some ways, the bound from SSD 535 to 540s shows us that progress doesn't e'er hateful a stride frontwards, as yous will see in our tests.

The relaxed release schedule does allow Intel to focus on core product values. Intel likes to tout the low, industry-leading RMA rates for its SSD products. Ii years ago, nosotros visited Intel's SSD-validation lab and can summarize the work done there in 3 words: testing, testing and more testing. As previously mentioned, the Silicon Motion partnership with Intel started at least two years agone. Information technology wouldn't surprise us if the SSD 540s was in testing for about of that fourth dimension.

Performance aside, the new 540s brings mainstream features with it. Hardware-based 256-bit encryption is standard on this drive. Customers no longer demand to expect at Intel's Pro Series SSD lineup to get the encryption features required for many industries. The 540s also ships with a 5-year warranty, but I wouldn't consider the current warranty process customer-friendly subsequently experiencing firsthand what is involved and how long the RMA processes takes.

Technical Specifications

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The Intel SSD 540s ships in six different capacities that range from 120GB to 1TB. All half dozen sizes send in 2.5 inch and G.2 2280 form factors. Intel has a long history of giving users capacity choices outside of the mainstream, then this series, similar many before it, also ships in 180GB and 360GB.

On paper, the performance looks attractive for a modernistic mainstream product, just Intel generates the performance numbers in a fresh-out-of-box country (per Intel's documentation), and there is no mention of native TLC write speeds. Intel isn't the only company hiding its native TLC write operation, which occurs outside of the SLC enshroud buffer.

The sequential read operation clocks in at 560 MB/s, which is at the upper limits of SATA 6Gbps (after accounting for overhead). The sequential write functioning (within the SLC buffer) ranges from 400 MB/s to 480 MB/s with a progressive uptick equally capacity increases. Random performance also scales with capacity. The 480GB bulldoze we take on hand delivers 85,000/78,000 IOPS of random read/write operation.

Intel chose to employ the SM2258 in tandem with SK Hynix 16nm TLC planar flash for the SSD 540s. Silicon Motion hasn't released many details about the SM2256's successor. Later talking with the company, we expected to come across the latest four-channel controller announced simultaneously with IMFT 3D flash. It appears Intel has exclusive use of the SM2258, at least for now. Because of that, it's hard to discover additional information about the controller and what features differentiate it from the previous-generation product.

The Intel SSD 540s does support the AES 256-bit total-disk encryption that is compatible with TCG Opal and Microsoft'south eDrive. Intel also chose the same controller for the Intel Pro 5400s SSD. The 5400s enables support for vPro applied science, which provides avant-garde management features.

Pricing, Warranty And Accessories

The SSD 540s ships with 12 different product SKUs cheers to the two form factors and 6 separate capacities. The 480GB model we have sells for $145 at the time of writing. The price is slightly lower than the current mainstream SSD market leader, the Samsung 850 EVO 500GB.

Intel covers the v-Serial with a five-year warranty that matches the warranties establish with the 850 EVO and Intel's seven-Serial SSDs. Afterwards an extensive investigation, nosotros were unable to find any endurance limitations for the SSD 540s aside from the 1.6 million-hour MTBF figure, which ways very petty to end users.

The SSD 540s works with Intel'southward SSD Optimizer and data-migration tool. Users will need to download both tools from Intel's website to take reward of the avant-garde software features.

A Closer Look

Intel is not sampling the SSD 540s to media, so our drive arrived from a third political party and the damage to the bundle was outside of our control. This drive has the about generic package I've worked with to appointment. Production data is nonexistent outside of the "Ideal remainder between performance and value" argument.

The retail package likewise lists the core concepts behind the 7 Series and Pro 5 Series. Retail shoppers will run across a note about the five-year warranty, and the schematic on the box indicates that a ii.5-inch production is inside.

Speaking of the inside, Intel went very low-cardinal with the extras. Buyers receive the SSD in an anti-static bag. There is likewise a sliver of paper and some paper-thin filler to requite the box book.

The SSD 540s follows the aforementioned blueprint scheme as the near contempo generations of Intel SSDs. The bulldoze fits into systems that require a 7mm bulldoze height, which is an increasingly common requirement for notebooks and Ultrabooks that lack an M.2 pick.

Our 480GB sample features 512GB of raw flash, and Intel allocates a portion of the flash to groundwork activities, such as replacing failed cells and performance-increasing features. Sixteen flash packages populate all 4 channels of the SMI SM2258 controller, and each NAND package sports two 128Gb SK Hynix 16nm TLC die.

Intel mixed in NAND packages with different densities to reach the two somewhat odd 180GB and 360GB capacities. This practise never gained wide adoption across the SSD industry, but other companies have done it in the past.

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Chris Ramseyer is a Contributing Editor for Tom'due south Hardware U.s.a.. He tests and reviews consumer storage.