Intel SSD 520 Series Solid State Drive Review

Intel is launching a brand new line of solid state drives today, built around SandForce’s popular SF-2200 family of storage processors. The new SSD 520 Series solid state drives, as they are known, will supplant the Marvell-based 510 series at the top of Intel’s consumer-targeted SSD lineup and be offered in capacities ranging from 60GB to 480GB.

Like other SandForce SF-2200-based drives, the new Intel SSD 520 series is outfitted with a SATA III interface with sequential reads and writes speeds in the 550MB/s to 520MB/s ranges, respectively. According to their specifications, 4K random reads peak at around 50K IOPS (QD32), with 4K random writes hovering around 80K IOPS for the 240GB model (lower capacity drives, offer somewhat lower performance).

In terms of their specifications and features, the Intel SSD 520 series drives should look similar to other SandForce-based counterparts. Intel has, however, worked a bit magic with the SSD 520 Series’ firmware to improve performance, reliability, and compatibility. To that end, the controller has also been paired to selectively-binned 25nm NAND flash memory which reportedly offers optimal performance and longevity as well.

Intel SSD 520 Seriess Solid State Drives Specifications & Features

Capacity: 60/120/180/240/480 GB Components: Intel 25nm NAND Flash Memory Multi-Level Cell (MLC) Form Factor: 2.5-inch Thickness: 7 mm and 9.5 mm 7 mm: 120/180/240 GB 9.5 mm: 60/120/180/240/480 GB Weight: Up to 78 grams SATA 6Gb/s Bandwidth Performance (Iometer Queue Depth 32) Sustained Sequential Read: Up to 550 MB/s Sustained Sequential Write: Up to 520 MB/s Read and Write IOPS1 (Iometer Queue Depth 32) Random 4 KB Reads: Up to 50,000 IOPS Random 4 KB Writes: Up to 80,000 IOPS2 Latency (average sequential) Read: 80 ?s (TYP) Write: 85 ?s (TYP) Data Compression AES 256-bit Encryption End-to-End Data Protection Power Management 5 V SATA Supply Rail SATA Link Power Management (LPM) Power Active (MobileMark 2007 Workload): 850 mW (TYP) Idle: 600 mW (TYP)

Compatibility Intel SSD Toolbox with Intel SSD Optimizer Intel Data Migration Software Intel Rapid Storage Technology Intel 6 Series Express Chipsets (with SATA 6Gb/s) SATA Revision 3.0 ACS-2 SSD-enhanced SMART ATA feature set Native Command Queuing (NCQ)  Data Set Management Command Trim attribute  Temperature Operating: 0o C to 70o C Non-Operating: -55o C to 95o C Reliability Uncorrectable Bit Error Rate (UBER): < 1 sector per 1016 bits read Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF): 1,200,000 hours Shock (operating and non-operating): 1,500 G/0.5 msec Vibration Operating: 2.17 GRMS (5-700 Hz) Non-operating: 3.13 GRMS (5-800 Hz) Certifications and Declarations: UL CE C-Tick BSMI KCC Microsoft WHQL VCCI SATA-IO Product Ecological Compliance RoHS

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The Intel SSD 520 series drives sport the same 2.5” form factor that’s common with other SATA solid state drives on the market. In fact, the drives look virtually identical to Intel’s older SSD 510 and 320 series products, save for the decal on top. We should also point out that SSD 520 series drives will be offered in both 7mm (120GB – 240GB) and 9.5mm z-height flavors.

 
Intel SSD 520 Series 240GB Solid State Drive

Crack an Intel SSD 520 series drive open by removing the four screws around its edge and the goodies that lie within are immediately visible. As we’ve mentioned, the SSD 520 series is built around one of SandForce’s popular controllers—the SF-2281 to be exact.

 

Paired to the SF-2281 in the 240GB drive you see pictured here are sixteen Intel 25nm synchronous NAND flash memory chips, eight on each side. The total NAND capacity on this drive is actually 256GB (16x16GB), the remaining 16GB is provisioned for wear leveling, garbage collection, and other SandForce proprietary features to ensure long-term reliability and more consistent performance.