Intel 600p vs. Samsung 950 Pro

[DesiPower]

When is 960 evo coming out? It says October everywhere and October's almost over... anyone know the definite date?

 

[UsandThem]

When is 960 evo coming out? It says October everywhere and October's almost over... anyone know the definite date?

That's the last update I've heard concerning the date. There's a few sites who have done the hands-on review of the 960 Pro already, so it shouldn't be too much longer.

 

[DesiPower]

960 pro release date is 10/30, just saw on newegg "Release Date: 10/30/2016". But for evo it still just says pre-release

 

[UsandThem]

960 pro release date is 10/30, just saw on newegg "Release Date: 10/30/2016". But for evo it still just says pre-release

I've found it's always best to wait a little while on new products. I saw where MSI motherboards released a BIOS update that neutered the Intel 600p performance, and users were upset. I'm not sure if they released updates to fix it yet or not.

Although, I'll wait a few weeks after the release date of 960 EVO, and as long as the hands-on performance is as good as the product previews claim, I'll grab one for sure. I've tried to justify in my head that I could use all the speed the 960 PRO offers, but I just realistically don't do anything that would use it.

 

[nerp]

Yes, I'm happy with mine. For an OS/Game drive it's solid. I got the 512gb version. The extra cache onboard really smooths out any issues with overloading it with large file xfers. Couldn't beat the price/perf. ratio. If I was a video producer or doing serious file work I'd consider the 960. But for a gaming machine, or a simple basic tasks machine, I love it. Faster than SATA SSD, just about the same price.

 

[DesiPower]

yeah, I might get the Intel too, I need one now, and not sure when 960 evo will be out and in stock and don't want to pay the early adopter's premium price...

 

[paperfist]

Not scientific but I just installed a 950 Pro and Windows 10 installed in like 5 minutes. Maybe because it's a new install but everything feels zippy and this is coming from a replacing a Samsung 830 SSD. I wanted to get a 960 but also tired of waiting.

 

[DesiPower]

lol, wow, was your installer on another SSD?

 

[VirtualLarry]

lol, wow, was your installer on another SSD?

USB3.0 install stick to any modern SSD on even a moderate PC goes about that fast, with Win10.

 

[VirtualLarry]

OK, for 'reasons', I installed my 256GB 600p M.2 SSD, into my G4400 rig.

Fresh re-install of Win10 1607 went very quickly.

So far, so good. Haven't even benchmarked it yet, but I don't notice any real-world difference from the SM951 128GB that was in there before.

I paid $109.99 for it, but newegg has it for $89.99 in the newest email flyer.

 

[DesiPower]

immediately after or even during a fresh install I guess its difficult to tell the difference. I remember when I first got 850 evo, it was Win 7, I replace 128GB M4 with 500GB 850 EVO and I could barely tell the difference. As I loaded and ran more and more software the change became apparent.

 

[RussianSensation]

OK, for 'reasons', I installed my 256GB 600p M.2 SSD, into my G4400 rig.
I paid $109.99 for it, but newegg has it for $89.99 in the newest email flyer.

This is one of those cases where the paper specs do not match real world performance. You get what you pay for in this case. Intel 600p series is marketing garbage with Intel's prestigious name attached to it. Those 1800MB/sec reads & 560MB/sec writes Intel quotes are wishful thinking in the real world.

http://www.techspot.com/review/1254-intel-ssd-600p/page6.html

Samsung 950 Pro, 960 Evo and 960 Pro are the real deal and why they have a justifiable premium compared to the 600p. For the price difference between the $129.99 960 Evo 256GB and the $90-100 Intel 600P, the Intel isn't worth it at all.

For the OS drive, the Toshiba Q300 Pro 256GB that MicroCenter had for $59.99 was a good deal for a budget MLC+SLC cache SSD.

 

[UsandThem]

This is one of those cases where the paper specs do not match real world performance. You get what you pay for in this case. Intel 600p series is marketing garbage with Intel's prestigious name attached to it. Those 1800MB/sec reads & 560MB/sec writes Intel quotes are wishful thinking in the real world.

Samsung 950 Pro, 960 Evo and 960 Pro are the real deal and why they have a justifiable premium compared to the 600p. For the price difference between the $129.99 960 Evo 256GB and the $90-100 Intel 600P, the Intel isn't worth it at all.

For the OS drive, the Toshiba Q300 Pro 256GB that MicroCenter had for $59.99 was a good deal for a budget MLC+SLC cache SSD.

Wow, those are a lot worse than I thought they would be. Maybe a firmware update will improve the performance somewhat, but I'm glad Newegg raised the price on it above MSRP a few days after launch when I was going to order it. Sometimes things just work out better when you're cheap and procrastinate.

I'm going to wait for the benchmarks to come out (like from Anandtech and TechSpot), but I also think the 960 EVO looks very promising so far from the preview articles.

 

[VirtualLarry]

RS, the 600p seems to be around the same speed, and same price, as an 850 EVO, what's not to like about it?

Those two tests where it fared the worst, the Acronis Backup and 7-zip extraction - note that the size of the written file(s) exceeds the capacity of the SLC cache in the drive. Which is why those scores are even worse than the other SATA6G SSDs.

In the real world, performance won't be as bad as in that benchmark (unless you regularly deal with 38GB+ archive files - I know that I don't).

 

[DesiPower]

Well at least it's better than 850 EVO, which is of course limited by SATA.

BTW, 600p 256GB "Open Box" is available for $73, $148 for 512GB, looks like things are not going well for them But it's definitely worth at that price

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Well at least it's better than 850 EVO, which is of course limited by SATA.

BTW, 600p 256GB "Open Box" is available for $73, $148 for 512GB, looks like things are not going well for them But it's definitely worth at that price

Larry's and Desi's remarks can't be dismissed. The decision could be a little more complex, though. You WANT to use that M.2 slot, but you DON'T want to be swapping out one M.2 for another if you have no way of using the spare. If you invest in a 1TB version of the 600P, that's a plus for the price and the capacity. But now you have a 1TB M.2 in the box as new equivalents are released in the market, prices slowly coming down, and specs showing an enormous advantage over the 600P.

Should you buy, or wait? If I need a 1TB+ storage device, I could simply use an SATA SSD. I still fall short in performance over M.2, even with the 600P option. If I want to redeploy it, I don't have the same limitation.

I'm personally not ready to pull the check-out switch yet, even for the price-per-GB.

 

[PliotronX]

It seems to perform more like planar TLC than 3D V-NAND, Intel bx200'd the drive.

 

[DesiPower]

well, I have pretty much zeroed in on 950 pro or maybe even a 960 pro 256gb for OS, for that I am going to wait till late Nov or Dec to for the prices to stabilize and maybe have additional checkout coupon with AMEX MC or whatever...

For games and stuff I will stick with 500GB 850 EVO for now, *might* switch to a 1TB M.2 PCIe drive is I get a good deal, but that on the back burner. Newegg does not seem to carry 1TB version of 600p...

 

[BonzaiDuck]

well, I have pretty much zeroed in on 950 pro or maybe even a 960 pro 256gb for OS, for that I am going to wait till late Nov or Dec to for the prices to stabilize and maybe have additional checkout coupon with AMEX MC or whatever...

For games and stuff I will stick with 500GB 850 EVO for now, *might* switch to a 1TB M.2 PCIe drive is I get a good deal, but that on the back burner. Newegg does not seem to carry 1TB version of 600p...

I was just thinking . . . maybe I need to re-examine my storage plans.

Consider that any SATA SSD would actually benefit from caching to a ~2,000 MB/s M.2. I can cache a combination of SSDs and spinners to the same M.2 under the same caching task. But I wonder . . . it would seem to me that while you'd set your BIOS to M.2 mode, you don't need to boot from the M.2 and there wouldn't -- shouldn't be any problem using it to its full NVMe capability.

Imagine. A 1TB nothing-special SATA SSD boot-system, a couple large capacity HDD spinners-- even some 5,400rpm 2.5" Seagate Barracudas, all cached to a 500GB M.2. AS IF . . . . 256MB M.2 wouldn't be plenty. But it would.

"ahh-- no! Yur wastin' all that M.2 storage!" Could be a matter of perspective with that.

Last time I looked for 1TB 600P, they were selling them at TigerDirect. Somebody gotta have 'em.

 

[DesiPower]

If only we all lived with only what we need...

 

[RussianSensation]

well, I have pretty much zeroed in on 950 pro or maybe even a 960 pro 256gb for OS, for that I am going to wait till late Nov or Dec to for the prices to stabilize and maybe have additional checkout coupon with AMEX MC or whatever...

For games and stuff I will stick with 500GB 850 EVO for now, *might* switch to a 1TB M.2 PCIe drive is I get a good deal, but that on the back burner. Newegg does not seem to carry 1TB version of 600p...

Get in on this deal, then sell Watch Dogs 2 if you don't want it. The 960 Evo 500GB drive has identical 4K random read/write to the 960 Pro model, as well as 200TB of endurance, which is close to 3X the endurance of the Intel 600p 512GB SSD.

The discounts (10% employee + 10% coupon code), with complimentary Watch Dogs 2, apply to the entire Samsung line of SSDs with 500GB or greater capacity. The game doesn't come out until November 29th, which means it should be possible to get a good resale value on the U-Play coupon code. Alternatively, you can just buy the 960 evo/pro 250/256GB with the same 10%+10% discounts but won't get the free WD2 game.

Another option could be for you to sell the 850 500GB Evo for $80-100, buy the 1TB 960 Evo, sell the WD2 game for $30-40. Your net upgrade would be roughly:

$479 * 10% off employee discount * 10% off unique coupon code discount x state tax (let's say 6%)
- $80-100 for resale of the 850 EVO 500GB
- $30-40 for resale of Watch Dogs 2 game coupon

= $270-300 net upgrade to a 1TB 960 EVO NVMe PCIe. Not bad.

BTW, 600p 256GB "Open Box" is available for $73, $148 for 512GB, looks like things are not going well for them But it's definitely worth at that price

The deal I linked above would net a 960 Evo 500GB brand new for $215 or so, and then after selling Watch Dogs 2 for $30-40, it'll be a net cost of $175-185. There is no way I'd pay $148 for the 600p 512GB under such a scenario. The 960 Evo isn't as good as the Pro, but 200TB vs. 72TB endurance, and the Evo still retains the 5-core Samsung Polaris controller from the 960 Pro I believe.

The 960 Evo is still better than the 950 Pro, and the 600p is nowhere close to the 950 Pro in performance.

You WANT to use that M.2 slot, but you DON'T want to be swapping out one M.2 for another if you have no way of using the spare.

Stop buying overpriced and under-featured Asus motherboards.

Meanwhile Gigabyte Gaming, ASrock Extreme/Professional and MSI Gaming series have 2-3 M.2 slots.

Asus is the KING of feature GIMP, charging and arm and a leg for features MSI/Asrock/Gigabyte have on mid-range boards. Not only that, Gigabyte offers PCIe 32GB/sec M.2 RAID on a ~$150 range board!

Delivering up to 32 Gb/s data transfer speed per connector, the dual M.2 provides an ideal storage solution as it also supports RAID modes.

Gigabyte's latest Z170 boards even allow triple-RAID of M.2+U.2+PCIe:

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=5811#ov

This feature is available with Gigabyte on a $170 board.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Triple PCI-E x4 3.0 RAID-0 SSDs sounds pretty spiffy, except, if you take a better look, wouldn't it just be better to get a bigger SSD, and connect it via PCI-E x8 3.0 or x16 3.0 in the first place? Rather than having to fiddle with RAID on the motherboard and OS, and multiple physical drives taking up multiple ports on the mobo?

So, with that perspective, it sounds just like some flashy "Gee-Whiz Gamer" feature, that someone can brag about triple RAID-0 of NVMe SSDs, just like triple SLI of TitanX video cards, with the diminishing returns.

Edit: Just to mention here, too, that HP makes a quad M.2 PCI-E x4 3.0 slot adapter, that will route a bifuricated PCI-E x16 3.0 slot to four M.2 PCI-E x4 3.0 units.

Which would likely be a better solution to the "problem".

 

[imported_ats]

Get in on this deal, then sell Watch Dogs 2 if you don't want it. The 960 Evo 500GB drive has identical 4K random read/write to the 960 Pro model, as well as 200TB of endurance, which is close to 3X the endurance of the Intel 600p 512GB SSD.

Um, it is always kinda funny when close to 3x is actually less than. 512GB 600p is rated at 288 TBW. Last I checked, 288 > 200.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Get in on this deal,

Too bad that deal involves DEFRAUDING Samsung, by posing as an employee.

Do you try to get in on Armed Forces-only deals too?

*shakes head*

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Triple PCI-E x4 3.0 RAID-0 SSDs sounds pretty spiffy, except, if you take a better look, wouldn't it just be better to get a bigger SSD, and connect it via PCI-E x8 3.0 or x16 3.0 in the first place? Rather than having to fiddle with RAID on the motherboard and OS, and multiple physical drives taking up multiple ports on the mobo?

So, with that perspective, it sounds just like some flashy "Gee-Whiz Gamer" feature, that someone can brag about triple RAID-0 of NVMe SSDs, just like triple SLI of TitanX video cards, with the diminishing returns.

Edit: Just to mention here, too, that HP makes a quad M.2 PCI-E x4 3.0 slot adapter, that will route a bifuricated PCI-E x16 3.0 slot to four M.2 PCI-E x4 3.0 units.

Which would likely be a better solution to the "problem".

The simpler solution should always be the best. That's why RAID is low on my solutions list now. And it's all a balancing act with features and possibilities. On the plus side, the new Pascal cards really give second thoughts about bothering with 2x SLI, so a person might incline toward a PCI-E NVMe card or adapter.

As for having only one M.2 slot, I didn't go board-shopping with it as a priority. Back in the day, you only got two SATA-III ports on any of the boards when SATA-III was first featured. I think I'm going to be fine just "making do."