Question Intel 660P worth the upgrade?

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VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
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"poison" e12? LOL. Phison.

Anyways, are those NVMe?

The two 1TB 660p drives that I got open-box, arrived, they seem new to me. Couldn't figure out how to create a RAID with them on an ASUS ROG STRIX B450-F Gaming ATX.
 

BoomerD

No Lifer
Feb 26, 2006
62,679
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I saw the 2tb 660p on sale for $185 at Newegg...not sure if that's still current or not.
 

VirtualLarry

No Lifer
Aug 25, 2001
56,226
9,990
126
That's a GREAT deal. Those drives really aren't half bad at all, 1800MB/sec read, 1700MB/sec write, in my B450 / Ryzen R7 2700 rig, with 16GB DDR4 @ 3200.

I finally figured out how to do the RAID config, there's settings in like three different sections of the BIOS/UEFI, and you have to re-boot between then to enable the settings it seems,

Benchmarks on the RAID-0 of two 1TB 660p SSDs, are like 3200MB/sec read. So basically, like a 2TB EX920/EX950 drive, or a 970 EVO, for the most part.

CrystalDiskInfo doesn't like the AMD NVMe RAID drivers though. Start that program (newest version), and it results eventually in a hard-hang, it seems.
 

theblackbox

Golden Member
Oct 1, 2004
1,650
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Yeah sorry, phison. At least it didn’t correct toprison. They are nvme x4, and they are awesome. I put two in my laptop, and absolutely love them. I was going to get the 660, but decided the extra 10 bucks each would be worth it.

I get 3200-3400MB/sec read times off them. I’ll post the numbers tomorrow.
 
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Shmee

Memory & Storage, Graphics Cards Mod Elite Member
Super Moderator
Sep 13, 2008
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I think you were wise to get the HP EX 950 over the 660p. In my opinion, if you are going to get an NVMe drive, it should be a good deal faster than a good Sata SSD. The NVMe drives I have in use are as follows: 512GB Samsug 950 Pro, 480GB Corsair MP500, 960GB Adata SX8200.
 

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
12,968
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Having a flash die attached to each channel isn't the same thing as having each channel be 100% busy. Each plane on each flash die has a page buffer that data to be written is transferred to before the NAND program operation is performed. Once that transfer is complete, the channel is idle and available for use transferring data to a different die or plane, while the previously issued program operation is in progress. (3D XPoint doesn't have these page buffers, which is why performance doesn't change much from 280GB up to 1.5TB on the 900P/905P.)

While that's a valid point, the 1TB and 2TB versions are rated identically. Since its a sequential test anyway, there's no reason to expect different behavior.

Yes, 2TB and 1TB 660p are both rated at 1800 MB/s Sequential write but this is SLC cache Speed.

P.S. One reason I decided to revisit this topic is because I am interested in Intel's 32GB 3D QLC Long ruler SSD's (which uses the same NAND as 660p, but with a (likely) 18 channel controller instead of the 4 channel controller (SM2263) of the 660p) write speed during a rebuild.
 
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fire400

Diamond Member
Nov 21, 2005
5,204
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For a few dollars more if the deal can be located, the 760p is preferred, more refined than the 660p in my opinion, in terms of laptop storage SSD upgrades with "Intel options."