Intel SSD DC P3700 Enthusiast Report (800GB)

CRYSTAL DISK BENCHMARK VER. 3.0 X64

Crystal Disk Benchmark is used to measure read and write performance through sampling of highly compressible data (oFill/1Fill), or random data which is, for the most part, incompressible. Performance is virtually identical, regardless of data sample so we have included only that using random data samples.

Aa much as we believe the high sequential performance shown in this Crystal Diskmark result should be a bit higher, the low 4K write speed of 359MB/s is something we have been waiting to see with SSDs for some time.

AS SSD BENCHMARK VER 1.7

The toughest benchmark available for solid state drives is AS SSD as it relies solely on incompressible data samples when testing performance.  For the most part, AS SSD tests can be considered the ‘worst case scenario’ in obtaining data transfer speeds and many enthusiasts like AS SSD for their needs. Transfer speeds are displayed on the left with IOPS results on the right.

This is what we hoped to attain from Crystal Diskmark.  Granted, the 4K random write performance is a bit lower, but the sequential read and write results on the left are definitely highlighted by the access time and Total Score.  Prior to this test, nobody could have ever convinced me that we could pull 400K IOPS from a single PCB/single controller SSD design.

For those unfamiliar with AS SSD Copy Bench, it is fairly simple.  Three different files are created and moved from one place on a SSD to another, recording the maximum transfer speed in the move and time of the move.  Once again, the ISO result is amongst the best we have seen.  We will follow this result with ‘true to life’ file copy testing in just a bit.

ANVIL STORAGE UTILITIES PROFESSIONAL

Anvil Storage Utilities (ASU) are the most complete test bed available for the solid state drive today.  The benchmark displays test results for, not only throughput but also, IOPS and Disk Access Times.  Not only does it have a preset SSD benchmark, but also, it has included such things as endurance testing and threaded I/O read, write and mixed tests, all of which are very simple to understand and use in our benchmark testing.

Our ASU results paint a decent picture, however, we were curious what we could do when we tried our own tests to maximize IOPS.

When testing the Intel SSD DC P3700, the first thing one realizes is that, the higher the QD, the higher the IOPs.  488K read IOPS is just below the listed specifications, however, 205K write is more than double that of the listed 90K.

PCMARK VANTAGE X64 HDD SUITE

The SSD Review uses benchmark software called PCMark Vantage x64 HDD Suite to create testing scenarios that might be used in the typical user experience. There are eight tests in all and the tests performed record the speed of data movement in MB/s to which they are then given a numerical score after all of the tests are complete. The simulations are as follows:

• Windows Defender In Use
• Streaming Data from storage in games such as Alan Wake which allows for massive worlds and riveting non-stop action
• Importing digital photos into Windows Photo Gallery
• Starting the Vista Operating System
• Home Video editing with Movie Maker which can be very time consuming
• Media Center which can handle video recording, time shifting and streaming from Windows media center to an extender such as XBox
• Cataloging a music library
• Starting applications

INTEL SSD DC 3700 PCMARK VANTAGE RESULTS

It seems a bit odd running this test on the Intel DC P3700 NVMe SSD, but we couldn’t resist.  As expected, all eight tests landed in the SATA 3 range and the transfer speed high was 1.8GB/s while importing pictures with Windows Photo Gallery.  Still, we expected a few of the tests to be a bit higher and, if you are familiar with this program, you would typically see testing in Windows Media Center to be the fastest transfer speeds by a stretch. A Total Score of 158628 is amusing and the closest we have ever seen to this had to be our review of the Sony VAIO with the XP941 installed.