News Intel 750 Series SSD Reviewed: NVMe for the Consumer

Allyn Malventano, PCPer:

Intel really hit it out of the park with the SSD 750 Series. We might have liked to see this come out sooner, but motherboard makers needed time to implement proper NVMe boot support. With that present in nearly all current generation systems (and being added to some older motherboard UEFI BIOS), Intel has chosen the appropriate time to unleash this insanely capable SSD to the masses. Read and write performance is outstanding, and random IO performance outpaces much of the benchmark software out there. NVMe does its job in limiting the CPU overhead, as a device as capable as the SSD 750 could easily saturate several CPU cores if it had to rely on dated standards. With such incredible performance at a reasonable price, the Intel SSD 750 is the obvious choice for consumers who demand the most from their storage.

You can watch PCPer's video review of the SSDs below:


As they mention in their review, I really wish Intel had released a 800GB variant. Seems like an obvious capacity to include.

 

[Phuncz]

That would be interesting to see a "PCIe SSD enhanced game". Maybe they'll someday eliminate all form of (micro) stutter and finally give the fluent experience. GTA V amazes in that respect already, although it sometimes still has a tiny stutter for 1/10th of a second or so when traveling the entire map.

 

[jeshikat]

I haven't played GTA V yet, are there no loading screens at all when traveling around?

 

[Phuncz]

None. And you have to witness the scale of it all to comprehense how much a step forward this game is. When using a heli, a plane or just drove onto a mountain and look back on the entire West part of the map (see the video below), and realise you can go to any of those points and look back at where you where looking just before. It's just so awesome to behold with everything range-wise set to max (I'm running it well with almost everything max on a single R9 290X) on the largest scale and a moment later see the incredible detail in scenery up close.

To me, this is like watching a man disappear right in front of you in a magic show in the early 1900's, you know it's a trick but you can't phatom how this is suddenly possible.

Watch this on 1080p60 on fullscreen for total immersion. And realise this still looks like your screen was smeared with grease in comparison to the real game.

 

[jeshikat]

Wow, that's crazy. I'll hold off on buying it for now, I actually had to completely delete BF4 off my system because I wasn't getting any work done on Nova with it there

Now I'm procrastinating by constantly refreshing the various forums every 2 minutes :rolleyes:

At least here there's the favicon notification to let me know when there's something new.

 

[Phuncz]

Yeah I've noticed that favicon, handy ! But indeed, having to focus when so much other fun stuff is bombarding your attention.
Like people posting GTA V videos in an Intel SSD 750 topic

 

[jeshikat]

Oh don't worry, whether it's here or elsewhere I'll find a way to procrastinate. One of my favorites lately is educating people on M.2 because it's such a mess and I see tons of misinformation everywhere.

 

[Phuncz]

I've written a fair amount about M.2 in the ASRock Z97E-ITX/Ac topic on [H] because it was one of the first mITX board to support it and it was so vague what compatibility it was. I've spent hours on that, researching, editing, researching again, rewriting half, etc.

 

[John Andesrsen]

Hi,

I bought a Intel SSD 750 Series 1.2TB NVMe PCI Express SSD and tried the suggestions in order to see the temps of the drive.

Unfortunately, I had no luck with it.

I have downloaded Intel SSD Toolbox version 3.3.1, but I can't seem to find out how to read the temperature.

To be honest, I believe the drive is doing fine, it's not really toasted on my Rampage V Extreme, but it's not the cheapest drive I ever bought, so I would kind of like to see my temps from time to time.

Can anyone help please?

Regards,

J. Andersen
(My build is my homepage under my profile if anyone would like to check it out).

 

[jeshikat]

I used the Intel SSD Data Center Tool to get the drive temps.

Assuming the ISDCT is installed to the default location (C: \isdct\) the following command (need to run from elevated prompt) will write the temp stats to a CSV file on the root of the drive:

C:\isdct\isdct.exe dump -destination c:\temp.csv -intelssd 0 datatype=nvmelog logid=197

Note: If you have more than one Intel Data Center drive (750, P3700, etc.) installed you'll need to figure out the drive's index number (the zero in the above command) with the following command:

C:\isdct\isdct.exe show -intelssd

 

[Vittra]

http://www.ekwb.com/news/638/19/EK-is-releasing-Intel-SSD-750-Series-water-block/

 

[Phuncz]

Nice block which many will be happy to use in their show-off loops. In some cases it might even be the only way to cool it properly, considering it's a HHHL-card, possibly sandwiched between two GPUs.

 

[veryrarium]

derickwm@OCN did a build with the block. Looking at his build where the 750 sits two slots apart from its most adjacent GPU card, I guess it was a good idea that EK decided to include the extra terminal that has threaded ports facing sideways (though it prohibits a parallel loop).

 

[Vittra]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B011YJ7WLK/?tag=theminutiae-20

So apparently this does exist, although you still need to connect external power, as it won't pull from the PCI-E slot.

 

[Phuncz]

Strange, PCIe is supposed to be able to supply 75W or is this only true for PCIe x16 slots ?

 

[|||]

No, the small tab that is always on the connector nearer to the bracket is for power. The part that varies in length is the data. It is curious...maybe they were just lazy and didn't want to route additional traces? Seems like that would be cheaper than adding a molex connector for power, though.

 

[Vittra]

https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...me-ssd-adapter-100-discount-coupon-code.6638/
https://www.facebook.com/funtintech

Sending them a message through FB to inquire as to why they went the molex route.

 

[BirdofPrey]

Strange, PCIe is supposed to be able to supply 75W or is this only true for PCIe x16 slots ?

Technically, only x16 PCIe cards (ie. graphics cards) are allowed to pull 75W, everything else is limited to 25W, though half height cards are less. Of course, the board designer could pull some shenanigans to try and draw the 75W

 

[Phuncz]

That makes sense, otherwise with an ATX board you'd have to be able to supply 7 x 75W = 525W for PCIe cards alone, even if you only have PCIe x1 slots. With the baseline set at x16 it's only for boards like the Asus X99-E WS which features double EPS 8-pin connectors. It explains why the Intel SSD 750 is about 25W, but isn't that a HHHL card ?

 

[Vittra]

I think BirdofPrey meant that HHHL cards would draw less than 25W, which the Intel 750 at 22W does. It is definitely HHHL - http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/solid-state-drives/solid-state-drives-750-series.html

If the specifications state HHHL cards can only draw LESS than 25w, then Intel obviously devised some solution around this, because the cards don't use external power.

I received a response from Funtin but I believe there is a communication barrier, as this was the response to my inquiry regarding why they used a molex external adapter to power the card:

Yes, I understand your question. It is not a PCI power supply, there will be a special 4 PIN power cord supplied externally. So do not worry.

EDIT - Followup from them:

Because some motherboard PCI power 25W or less limited, from an external power supply to solve this problem.

 

[Phuncz]

Ah yes, I indeed misunderstood about the HHHL.