Intel DC S3700 200GB & 800GB, Enterprise SSD Review

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Real World Data Transfers

Real World Data Transfers

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 and logging the performance of the drive.

Here is what we found.

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Once again both sizes of the DC S3700 post some excellent numbers but the 800GB is faster when it comes to small file write performance.

 

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Conclusion

Conclusion

In an enterprise-class market which is defined by relatively long product cycles and an adherence to proven technology, Intel’s DC S3700 series is something of a revelation. It addresses the sometimes harsh criticisms leveled at previous generations of Enterprise SSDs while building a new, strong foundation for future revisions. After years of development and relying on third party controllers to do the yeoman’s work in datacenters and server farms alike, Intel has a winner on their hands which was fully developed in-house.

The real star of this show is the third generation X25 controller which lies at the DC S3700’s heart. It boasts extremely low latency, load balancing which reduces drive to drive performance variation to 15% or less (an important feature for multi drive environments) and a more adaptable architecture which will benefit system admins. More importantly, due to advanced wear leveling and a whole lot of other magic going on behind the scenes, the X25 can offer Intel’s DC S3700 a combination of longevity and performance consistency that was unheard of in previous iterations. The benchmark has now been set so high that what was once tolerated and considered the cost of doing business with SSDs will simply be unacceptable.

Previous Intel had stability, longevity and durability on their side, but were not known for being speed demons. For Enterprise consumers this was a tradeoff well worth making. The DC S3700 on the other hand offers the best of both worlds with great read and write performance alongside the peace of mind and predictability across a broad spectrum of potential scenarios which enterprise clients desire. The secret sauce within this recipe is a combination of raw IOPS numbers, high levels of sustained performance, ultra-low latency and highly refined firmware. Granted, the DC S3700 certainly won’t be setting any records from a performance standpoint but it is still one of the fastest yet most reliable solutions available in its category.

Speaking of reliability, the DC S3700 has yet another ace of its sleeve in the data security department. Due to Intel’s use of Flush In Flight technology, there’s always additional backup power so in the event of a power failure or system error these drives can still complete any outstanding commands, thus saving potentially critical information.

This new level of performance, reliability, stability and –above all else – predictability will quickly make the DC S3700 a highly sought after drive amongst Enterprise consumers. No longer will architects and analysts have to guess at how many drives will be needed to satisfy projected demands. Instead, they can more accurately estimate how many drives they need without having to waste precious budget, rack space, electricity and cooling on over-building a storage server. This alone makes the DC S3700 tailor made for Enterprise consumers. The actual reasonable price per Gigabyte will just make it all that much more enticing. It may have taken years for Intel to release a new controller, but the DC S3700 series prove that it was time well spent.