Intel SSD 530 (240GB) Review
by Kristian Vättö on November 15, 2013 1:45 PM EST- Posted in
- Storage
- SSDs
- Intel
- Intel SSD 530
Final Words
Ultimately there is one crucial thing that the SSD 530 provides over the SSD 520: price. The SSD 520 has been rather expensive and it hasn't really been able to compete, in price or performance, with the newer SSDs with smaller lithography NAND. As a result, I haven't been able to recommend the SSD 520 for ages as it simply hasn't provided any value for the extra cost. With the SSD 530 Intel's pricing is more reasonable and closer to other high-end SSDs. In fact, Intel's pricing is very competitive if you compare the SSD 530 to OCZ Vector 150 or SanDisk Extreme II, although those two also outperform the SSD 530 by a fairly big margin.
| NewEgg Price Comparison (11/12/2013) | ||||
| 120/128GB | 180GB | 240/256GB | 480/512GB | |
| Intel SSD 530 | $120 | $170 | $200 | N/A ($419) |
| Intel SSD 520 | N/A | $195 | $250 | N/A |
| Intel SSD 335 | N/A | $155 | $180 | N/A |
| OCZ Vector 150 | $135 | N/A | $240 | $490 |
| OCZ Vertex 450 | $115 | N/A | $220 | $460 |
| Samsung SSD 840 EVO | $100 | N/A | $175 | $340 |
| Samsung SSD 840 Pro | $150 | N/A | $250 | $570 |
| Crucial M500 | $120 | N/A | $150 | $310 |
| SanDisk Extreme II | $150 | N/A | $230 | $460 |
| Seagate SSD 600 | $110 | N/A | $150 | $380 |
We aren't able to find the 480GB model in stock anywhere right now (at least, not at any of the major online resellers), but it's interesting to note that Intel's ARK page shows a bulk price of just $419; by comparison, the 240GB has a bulk price of $219, so if Intel can truly sell the 480GB for close to $400 it's at lest worth a look. Still, the competition is fierce, with the M500 and 840 EVO getting closer to $300 than $400 for 480-512GB capacities.
Other than price, power consumption is the only other major improvement in the SSD 530. Performance is mostly similar to the SSD 520, although I don't think this surprises anyone. The SF-2281 is well over two years old now, so there are no tricks left to increase performance.
I'm still of the opinion that Intel should offer a consumer orientated drive with its own SATA 6Gbps controller (i.e. the one used in the DC S3500/S3700). However, I do understand that it may not be cost effective, especially as the controller was designed for enterprise to begin with, making it not suitable for the consumer market with slimmer profits. It will be interesting to see what Intel's approach will be with SATA Express as it gives Intel a new chance to design something in-house. With SATA 6Gbps Intel was very late to the game, which forced them to use third party controllers (first Marvell and then SandForce). With SATA 3Gbps, on the other hand, Intel was one of the first players to come up with a good controller and firmware (the X25-M series), so I certainly hope that we will see something similar this time around.
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dynamited - Friday, November 15, 2013 - link
I count seven asus motherboards with mPCIE, not one, at newegg. Regarding 6bps sata saturated, just run with RAID 0, is that hard to figure out how to do?ExodusC - Friday, November 15, 2013 - link
I don't think TRIM commands can be passed through to SSDs running in RAID 0. At one point the Intel storage drivers supported this, but I heard that this had been pulled. I can't find any documentation on this.Additionally, even though SSDs are fairly reliable, adding another drive simply adds another point for failure.
Wetworkz - Friday, November 15, 2013 - link
You CAN pass TRIM commands through to SSDs running in Raid 0 on Intel hardware. It has NOT been pulled. You need to have the latest Intel Toolbox in combination with the latest RST drivers installed. I just TRIMMED both my arrays a couple days ago.ExodusC - Friday, November 15, 2013 - link
Out of curiosity, is that an automated process, or does it require manual TRIM through the Intel SSD Toolbox? What RAID levels are supported?I also wonder about the compressibility of striped data and if there is any effect there.
Samus - Friday, November 15, 2013 - link
I pass TRIM to my RAID 0 Samsung 840 RAID through the Windows 8 defrag on my H87 chipset. Performance tests prove it works. Unfortunately if I have the IRST software installed the drives are downgraded to SATA 3Gbps. I tried different cables and everything. Uninstalling the IRST software after making the RAID 0 restores them to 6Gbps...DMCalloway - Friday, November 15, 2013 - link
It was my understanding that TRIM worked in RAID 0 with the newer RST drivers, but only on Intel 7 series chipsets and newer. I do like Intel products but this is one thing they shafted us on.Wetworkz - Saturday, November 16, 2013 - link
I just TRIMMED both my arrays a few days ago and one array was on an Intel 6 series chipset. I know that series 6 was not previously supported but I was able to initiate TRIM on the array with the newest Intel Toolbox and the newest RST drivers for the first time the other day. I cannot confirm this is officially supported behavior but I was able to do it with the newest drivers. I would give it a try if you have a series 6 board.'nar - Monday, November 18, 2013 - link
I don't really care about TRIM. Garbage Collection works better anyway, especially on SandForce drives.extide - Friday, November 15, 2013 - link
mPCIE is not the same as M.2dynamited - Friday, November 15, 2013 - link
I believe they are calling it "mPCIe Combo Card" which actually has two connects to one on the motherboard.