The Intel SSD 540s (480GB) Review
by Billy Tallis on June 23, 2016 9:00 AM ESTFinal Words
The Intel SSD 540s is their first entry level consumer SSD in quite a while, and our first look at Silicon Motion's new SM2258 controller. It's a little surprising to see Intel being an early adopter of a third-party SSD controller after their SandForce-based drives spent so much time going through Intel's QA, but the SM2258 is not a radical departure from Silicon Motion's earlier controllers, which have a pretty good track record for reliability.
Intel's use of the same 16nm SK Hynix TLC NAND as in the ADATA Premier SP550 allowed us to make a direct comparison of the SM2258 controller against the preceding SM2256, and the Crucial BX200 provides another point of comparison with Micron's 16nm TLC instead. The 540s is much better than the BX200 in every way, but that's not saying much. Against the SP550, the Intel 540s was not able to score a clear win. On most synthetic benchmarks the 540s improved performance over the SM2256 drives, mitigating their most glaring weaknesses and occasionally rising above the field of budget TLC drives in general. These improvements did not translate into a significant advantage over the SP550 on our real-world AnandTech Storage Bench tests. The ADATA SP550 is still faster overall for realistic workloads with bursts of I/O, even though it is slower under the sustained load of synthetic benchmarks.
The wide disparity in performance between the Crucial BX200 and ADATA SP550 showed just how much firmware tuning can affect drive performance. I think it's likely that later this year we'll see a more refined SM2258 drive, perhaps even on planar TLC before 3D NAND is cheap enough.
| Budget SSD Retail Price Comparison | ||||
| Capacity | 120-128GB | 240-256GB | 480-512GB | 960-1024GB |
| Intel SSD 540s 2.5" | $51.95 (43¢/GB) | $93.91 (39¢/GB) | $149.99 (31¢/GB) | $304.96 (30¢/GB) |
| Intel SSD 540s M.2 | $49.95 (42¢/GB) | $91.77 (38¢/GB) | $155.65 (32¢/GB) | $305.29 (31¢/GB) |
| ADATA SP550 | $37.88 (32¢/GB) | $57.99 (24¢/GB) | $107.99 (22¢/GB) | $205.99 (21¢/GB) |
| OCZ TR150 | $37.99 (32¢/GB) | $59.99 (25¢/GB) | $99.95 (21¢/GB) | $199.99 (21¢/GB) |
| SanDisk X400 | $49.59 (39¢/GB) | $80.19 (31¢/GB) | $126.23 (25¢/GB) | $237.99 (23¢/GB) |
Against the wider field of competitors, the Intel 540s is clearly an entry-level SSD, intended for light workloads. It cannot keep pace with SanDisk's X400 or even the current generation of Phison S10-based drives like the Toshiba OCZ TR150 (formerly Trion 150). The ADATA SP550 has held on to a place in the market by usually being one of the cheapest drives available, but at the moment it is mostly tied with the TR150 on price, making the latter a better purchase given its better performance.
The current retail pricing of the Intel SSD 540s makes my recommendation quite simple: don't buy. The 180GB and 360GB models are only a few dollars cheaper than the next size up, and the four standard sized models are priced above many MLC drives. The OCZ TR150 provides better performance for a far lower price. The SanDisk X400 provides much better performance, the same 5-year warranty period of the 540s, and M.2 models for a significantly lower price. ADATA has also recently announced M.2 versions of the SP550, which will probably be only a little more expensive than the 2.5" drives, providing a very welcome cheap M.2 option.
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cbjwthwm - Tuesday, June 28, 2016 - link
I'll pay a premium vs a generic like the SP550 because:1. Intel will undoubtedly manufacture the drive to reliable standards
2. it will be supported by a decent toolbox utility (eg: ADATA's is buggy junk)
3. Intel will rake SMI's controller firmware over the coals, like it did with Sandforce--an update has already been released since this review
4. its firmware update process will be simple & reliable
I picked up an SP550 for eval which eventually needed a firmware update. After experiencing the SP550's nasty firmware update process (a disorganized DIY mess), I now use BX200's as the cheapest drive choice simply because firmware updates are competently packaged. I've also had scenarios where fully updated OCZ Trions had terrible stuttering, and imaging to a BX200 solved the issue as well.
I see Intel's 540s as the combination of what the SMI-based TLC products like the SP550 and BX200 should be, if you combine their positive attributes (beyond price)--and for light load applications those benefits could sway me away from equivalently priced MLC-based drives with similar support issues and potential reliability compromises.
Samsung also has crappy firmware support (eg: the repeated 840 EVO performance fixes, and the 850 series update bricking issues which were pulled) so I rarely ever use them. Samsung may have an engineering lead, but they have a well established history as a consistently reckless company when it comes to support.
vladx - Tuesday, June 28, 2016 - link
Another idiot spreading FUD about Samsung. 840 EVO works great and as new after applying the fix. Stuff like the trash you posted starts stupid myths that average joes keep repeating.cbjwthwm - Wednesday, June 29, 2016 - link
Myths? There is an established track record with them, widely reported and easy to find.1. Multiple rounds of 840 EVO firmware: http://www.anandtech.com/show/9196/samsung-release...
2. 850 firmware pulled, and the ISOs were never re-released: http://www.guru3d.com/news-story/after-samsung-840...
fanofanand - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
The evo issue was legitimate. That said, it isn't like Intel hasn't released a few turds in their day as well. Between broken AVX and numerous other problems, Intel is not the holy grail of perfection and quality control. Samsung has at least as strong a track record for reliability with their drives as Intel, so it makes no sense to purchase this over the comparatively priced Samsung drive. You reference "premium vs generic" but line this up in the premium vs premium space and you will find this drive underperforms and is overpriced. You are either an Intel shareholder, employee, or don't use critical thinking when it comes to your beloved brand.vladx - Thursday, June 30, 2016 - link
There were issues which they fixed. I call that great support from Samsung. It's FUD to say Samsung has a bad history based on fixed issues.Prof-Q - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
If Intel 540 and Adata SP550 used the same NAND, then why Intel's performance is so much better in UsersBenchmark?I was about to buy Intel but this article made me reconsider the options
SeanJ76 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link
Intel will still be the king of SSD's, their top tier is no 1 in speed and reliability(Pci-e) version, their mid tier is holding their own as well, and their entry level tier, 540 series, is so damn affordable for the reliability who wouldn't buy them? I own 4 Intel 520/535 series currently, 2 of them are over 5 yrs old and they are still at 100% life span according to Intel's Toolbox. The main difference in brands is reliability, now that they're all pretty much on par with speed, you should go with the reliability winner which is none other than INTEL!