discussion Intel DC P3700 800GB NVMe SSD Review

[AkG]

Real World Data Transfers

Real World Data Transfers

<i>No matter how good a synthetic benchmark like IOMeter or PCMark is, it can not really tell you how the device will perform in “real world” situations. All of us here at Hardware Canucks strive to give you the best, most complete picture of a review item’s true capabilities and to this end we will be running timed data transfers to give you a general idea of how its performance relates to real life use. To help replicate worse case scenarios we will transfer a 10.00GB contiguous file and a folder containing 400 subfolders with a total 12,000 files varying in length from 200mb to 100kb (10.00 GB total).

Testing will include transfer to and transferring from the devices, using MS RichCopy (set to 1 file depth) and logging the performance of the drive.

However, unlike our usual Real World tests, we will be running 6 instances of each test concurrently. To do this we have attached 6 high performance SSDs with each instance of MSRicopy either copying to from the device being tested. The results will then be combined to give the total throughput potential of this drive. This has been done for the simple reason this device is simply too powerful to use our standard Real World Methodology with and even a RevoDrive3 x2 480GB would bottleneck the results long before this model drive became saturated.


Here is what we found. </i>

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There are no ifs, no ands, and certainly no buts about it - the DC P3700 is a phenomenal drive that is in every way imaginable <i>better</i> than anything that has come before it.

 

[AkG]

Conclusion

Conclusion

Intel’s datacenter-class SSDs haven’t been around for all that long but during their short life, they’ve succeeded in making an impact. The older 910-series was an excellent all-round enterprise focused drive which combined high performance metrics with inherent stability that the competition is still trying to match. Now with the DC P3700 Intel’s lead has now increased exponentially in nearly every metric imaginable.

The DC P3700 achieves its status due to the not-so-minimal contribution of the new NVMe which provides a lightning-quick communication corridor between the SSD and the system’s central processor. By taking advantage of a direct PCIe to CPU interface, Intel and their open source working group have opened the door to abundantly scalable drives that can evolve through the use of additional PCIe lanes if necessary. The result is like taking a drink from a fire hose but with a strictly controlled torrent, delivering performance where and when it’s needed.

Using the PCIe 3.0 bus has a number of tertiary benefits for datacenter administrators as well, though it does cut down on some backwards compatibility. First and foremost, less drives are now needed to achieve the performance metrics high bandwidth users are looking for. This cuts down on cost overhead, system power consumption and the number of man hours needed to install a full array. It also means future upwards scaling can happen within the same or similar ecosystem and architectural fabric. Intel has made a commitment to NVMe and they intend to stick to it.

Natually, Intel still needed to create an architecture that could actually take advantage of the bandwidth offered by their newfound interface mastery and this is where the DC P3700 truly delivers. By pairing high performance, high endurance NAND with an advanced next generation controller architecture they have provided a solid backbone for a stable environment that can also provide stratospheric throughput. The Flush in Flight capabilities also add peace of mind by covering disaster recovery tasks through rock solid data protection in the event of power loss.

While the DC P3700 may be in a position of supremacy, it may get some competition from an interesting corner of the market and could end up becoming a victim of its own success. The technology backstopping this drive is such a great demonstration of things to come that we can actually see a large portion of the enterprise market waiting the 'P' series out and instead opting for a rumored 8639 SFF NVMe series. After all, the P3700 may offer downright massive capacities and may be able to match “up to” eight DC S3700 drives, but it is pretty obvious that such abilities <i>will</i> directly translate to a "DC <i>N</i>3700" device.

Regardless of what may or may not be coming in the future, if clients are looking for what is easily the most scalable, easiest to use, and all round best performing enterprise SSD, the DC P3700 is literally the only game in town. Its unmatched reliability, peerless performance and insanely low latency have to be seen to be believed. If this is an indication of what’s to come on NVMe, count us excited.

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