Intel 730 SSD's anybody using them in there laptop?

Hello,

After many many many many many many many many problem on my alienware 18 with OCZ vector's data corruption and OCZ sending me vector 150 replacement for my original vector 256mb , i sold them and today i bought 2 intel 730 480GB SSD, these seemed the king of reliability,

but after buying them , i started to read on the internet that they run HOT!... there are factory overclocked ssd, with the DNA from s3500 & s3700 ... so i am the first one here to buy a pair ? if not did your have heat issues ?

anyways i should receive those ssd in 2 or 3 days coming from newegg , i will try them and see ......!!! just can't wait!!

also i read that those ssd can use the +12Volt line which is not usually there for conventional laptop , am i correct to assume the alienware 18 as full desktop voltage available ?

 

Why didn't you just get Samsung 840 pro/evo's or 850 pro's?

 

well right now i was back on a hard drive with ssd cache, because i ad so many problem with data corruption or complete loss of an SSD without any sign on this system and many of my customer , i was aiming at something reliable ... somethings that seemed imposible with current SSD, then i read about those intel SSD , which are using the same DNA from the S3x00 series for datacenters, you can't have a unreliable ssd in there ...

but the main reason my ssd got corrupted was because of blue screen or unsafe shutdown ( system freeze e.t.c) ... the SSD could not flush its cache and data loss and corruption occured.

the main selling point for me is that the intel 730 use capacitor for FIF (flush in flight) data security.... and i wish they are optimized for intel chipset and intel raid... i hope my day of reinstalling windows every week are over ....

 

Hopefully yes, let us know how that goes. Personally, I haven't seen many of them on Alienware machines TBH.

 

Well today i received them, first look they are much lighter then OCZ vector / vector 150....

i installed them as a secondary drive in RAID 0 ... did some bench on 32KB stripe.... before going i am going to have a clean install of windows 7

First the Intel 730 480GB X2 raid 0 32kb stipe.

Code:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 x64 (C) 2007-2013 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

           Sequential Read :   983.501 MB/s
          Sequential Write :   901.484 MB/s
         Random Read 512KB :   699.634 MB/s
        Random Write 512KB :   928.144 MB/s
    Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :    33.798 MB/s [  8251.5 IOPS]
   Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :   276.936 MB/s [ 67611.3 IOPS]
   Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :   535.179 MB/s [130659.1 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :   473.308 MB/s [115553.8 IOPS]

  Test : 1000 MB [D: 0.0% (0.2/894.3 GB)] (x5)
  Date : 2014/08/13 22:20:42
    OS : Windows 8.1 Pro [6.3 Build 9600] (x64)

then my old 2x vector 256gb in raid 0 128KB stripe

Code:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 x64 (C) 2007-2013 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

           Sequential Read :   945.657 MB/s
          Sequential Write :   932.068 MB/s
         Random Read 512KB :   632.325 MB/s
        Random Write 512KB :   852.088 MB/s
    Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :    19.548 MB/s [  4772.5 IOPS]
   Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :    44.798 MB/s [ 10937.0 IOPS]
   Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :   405.109 MB/s [ 98903.7 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :   377.752 MB/s [ 92224.6 IOPS]

  Test : 1000 MB [C: 73.1% (343.0/469.1 GB)] (x1)
  Date : 2013/02/18 16:05:14
    OS : Windows 8  [6.2 Build 9200] (x64)

then 3 vector in raid 0 128kb stripe size

Code:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 x64 (C) 2007-2013 hiyohiyo
                           Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

           Sequential Read :  1346.270 MB/s
          Sequential Write :  1005.025 MB/s
         Random Read 512KB :   828.099 MB/s
        Random Write 512KB :  1073.580 MB/s
    Random Read 4KB (QD=1) :    26.541 MB/s [  6479.7 IOPS]
   Random Write 4KB (QD=1) :    97.944 MB/s [ 23912.0 IOPS]
   Random Read 4KB (QD=32) :   475.914 MB/s [116190.0 IOPS]
  Random Write 4KB (QD=32) :   466.864 MB/s [113980.5 IOPS]

  Test : 1000 MB [C: 46.5% (332.2/714.9 GB)] (x1)
  Date : 2014/02/19 9:36:14
    OS : Windows 8 Professional [6.2 Build 9200] (x64)

Well good numbers, really nice IOPS! , so right now numbers are good....... now going to clean install windows 7 , and see about data corruption e.t.c crossing my fingers!!!

 

Well to date.... i have not list data .... even tried unplugin the pattery and power while windows was open...... no corruption yet.... time will tell i guess!

for the temperature... after a couple of benchmark the intel toolbox ssd report a max of 37C while i checked with my laser thermometers and it gives me 30C on the outside of the bottom SSD. they sure run hotter... but 40C is ok


Also the intel SSD Toolbox is kind of fun to have , you feel you have control over your ssd. trim is also working .... finally .....

Code:

TRIM check v0.7 - Written by Vladimir Panteleev
https://github.com/CyberShadow/trimcheck

Loading continuation data from C:\Users\sy5tem\Downloads\trimcheck-cont.json...
  Drive path   :  \\.\C:
  Offset       :  419992248320
  Random data  :  50 A1 5F FA C2 27 76 86 11 A2 0C C5 12 19 4F 3F...

Reading raw volume data...
  Opening \\.\C:...
  Seeking to position 419992248320...
  Reading 16384 bytes...
  First 16 bytes: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00...
Data is empty (filled with 0x00 bytes).

CONCLUSION: TRIM appears to be WORKING!

if not you can send trim command via toolbox....

after testing much ssd where i work.... the intel 730 to date are the only one i trust are working... don't have to be scared and have backup running dailly just in "case" ....lol backup can be run weekly instead

 

I have had intel ssd in the past and found them to be highly reliable but relatively slow compared to Samsung,it seems the sandforce controllers havent kept up with the competition recently though im not sure if intel 730 series still use sandforce controllers? Either way in terms of reliability its pretty hard to go past the intels i still have an intel X-25M ssd in one of my systems 4 years later still going strong.

 

intel are back to their all home made.... using their nand their controller e.t.c... the 730 is pretty much the same as the S3700 datacenter SSD , but with overclocked nand and controller!

 

That's good to hear it seems SandForce need to lift their game in terms of performance Samsung are killing them at the moment.

 

The more server orientated ssds from intel can have very high idle and load power levels so i would not put them in a notebook.

 

they do run hotter and take 5 watt i think , but since i think of the Alienware 18 as a desktop replacement ... i tried it. for now everything is golden max temps is 37C, and even used my system on battery at a client, using the onboard video and did not even lose 1/4 of battery in 1 hours using dig tools and web browser on wifi

 

If you need the server style performance fair enough but the 850 pro will suit people better usually.

 

they are pretty much same prices, so it a pesonal choice i guess... only intel as capacitor for flush in flight data security tho

 

Then again you have a permanent UPS connected

 

its a laptop. it as a battery, And i have an ups with a battery.. if you get a blue screen. not amount of battery will help you.. trust me i have ad my fair share of data corruption .. sometimes just on reboot....

 

Exactly which is why you run a backup on a network drive with a one click restore.

 

They are launchin a new drive. Check this out LSI SandForce 3700 controller teased at 1.3GB/sec in mixed workloads

 

Well yeah i always have backup... and you start to have data corruption, its also backed up. much of my file are fine, but at some point after a week BAM can't access printer .... or can't boot , or can't open firefox without it crashing..... SFC find like 10 files and can't repair them ... every week i ad to reinstall pretty much... so yeah backup are nice. but a flawless system is better.. with backup just in case.

i could always have backup up using differential and keeping copies e.t.c , but i have over 600GB of apps and games.. takes a day to backup to a network.. and i don't have unlimited spaces.

 

Well i am happy to report that its been 1 month now almost ...

0 problem... all the sfc /scannow report no corruption !

finally !! weeeee it works!!!

only down problem is that on battery those ssd do take lot more amp's and battery last only like 3 hours on intel video card where they used to last 5 hours web browsing!

 

Yeah it really is a large difference which is why I warn people lol, but glad it is working

 

Hey sy5tem, could you give us an update about life with two intel 730 ssd(s) ?

I would love it if you could tell us if you are still using them in your laptop and if yes then hows the thermal aspect of things? does the laptop feel warmer? do the fans work harder\louder than they used to with the OCZ drive you had?


I ask you as I too suffers from an OCZ SSD (Vertex 3 120GB) I keep getting blue-screens (like once a week or two) that causes all unsaved data to be lost and I am at the point where I just want to get a new ssd that would be as reliable as possible and intel's 730 looks like the best choice, if wasn't for that thermal aspect (some reviewers claim 50c degrees during stress test, which I don't really think represents everyday's life, my laptop is very well ventilated with the gpu (gefroce 680m) never going beyond 65c even under full load (I have the MSI GT70, a 17.3" 3rd gen i7 desktop replacement laptop that is plugged to the wall 90% of the time)

 

Hey well i can say that i had ZERO problem with my 730's ... of course i had some windows crash while trying hard overclock .... but it never corrupted any files!! sfc /scannow still return 100% health!! i a m so happy with those SSD!!!!
temperature wize when i tested them they get around 30C with a laser gun temperature monitor ... and my laptop doesn't get any warmer on the SSD side...


if you want a stable system don't hesitate! get those intel 730!

 

Thanks a million!

I am really happy to hear that it was about 30c degrees, was really concerned, even with my laptop being so super ventilated as it is... and that zero corruption is just all I needed.

Placing an order now for the Intel 730 480GB, was going to go with the 240gb as I am coming from a 120GB drive but figured, "S*** it" might as well live comfortably :>

Thank you!!

p.s.
almost went for 2*480gb as ... my laptop has room for 2 (besides the blue-ray drive that could also be replaced...) but while the extra speed could be real nice I don't actually "need it" and could much better use a 2TB Seagate 2.5" HDD... cant wait for SSD to reach higher capacities =p

 

Well i am happy for you! you are going to love that 480GB its actually the fastest from the 730 because it as more nand for parallel read and write!, you can always upgrade and buy a second 480gb later ... because those intel ssd you have guessed it play very well with intel raid ... trim is working , and intel ssd tool box can access both ssd and upgrade them right there toruble free (not like the ocz where you needed a bootable usb key)

here is some number on my system after a couple month main system drive of 2x480gb ssd's
Raw speed (remember its the system drive so it sa a bit lower number as windows access drive while you bench)


and those IOPS .. i think is the most important!!!




when you receive you drive please post benchmark!! if you can as secondary then as primary!!

and welcome to a data corruption free world AKA goodbye OCZ

 

I'll probably never get a 2nd 730 as my other drive is a 2TB HDD... maybe series 750 will feature TB(s) of data and then I'll get it, but at that point ill probably have a different computer =p, still... i'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to go for it

Thanks for posting the results, they look might impressive , both in terms of speed and IOPS, just for reference here is the pathetic OCZ drive's results

I am so done with OCZ and SandForce (dirtforce?) controllers, mind you if you take a look at the screenshot the OCZ's firmware version is 2.25.. I updated the firmware about 8 times, each time I was forced to do full disk wipe followed by windows installation (the last 2 rounds I just restored from Norton ghost img) all just to get rid of the blue-screens... which never left! yeah Amen to never crossing roads with OCZ\dirtforce again

I am expecting to get my shipment of the SSD at NOV12, I'll try posting a benchmark as soon as possible, I'll do as you asked and plug it as a secondary drive, snap benchmark's results and then go main drive and test again, can't wait!!

 

woot its going to be a long 12 day LOL

 

Imagine my surprise when I opened the door just now to find out that I got the drive :O amazon's website still says "11days remaining" but hey, cant argue with early shipping )))) (not sure happen, triple checked... yes it has my name on it and everything...)

As promised.. here are the results + something I cant explain... well two things, first is... the software went dutch on me, and wont go back to English, I would re-download but I am far to lazy to do that. Second thing is... when plugged as a secondary drive (not OS drive) after being formatted to NTFS for the first time, the drive pulled this results:





I was all like "boo, I expected more... are you tripping and working in sata2 mode or something??" .. and then, totally bummed about this.... went a head and swapped the drive with my main, did a quick Norton ghost disk to disk between the two, booted up and run the thing again and guess what:



I guess.... it likes being 1\4 full and also running an OS ? not sure what is the cause but hey, as long as it works this way .. I am good

 

Thinking of putting an Intel 730 into a Dell Precision M2800. This laptop runs hot to begin with, so I wonder whether the heat issues will be too much.
Anybody else running this drive in a laptop?
Sy5stem, any further (long-term) experience with this?

 

BSOD was a very old issue (>2 years ago). Any new BSOD is likely a hardware issue or someone using old FW still. SSDs with SandForce controllers can fail for many reasons outside the controller. Many problems can come from manufacturing/assembly quality control.

 

Why don't you open up your laptop, clean the vents and repaste the CPU+GPU with some good thermal compound (remember to get new thermal pads for GPU) and you'll be able to use this SSD with no problems and your laptop won't overheat?

 

weird result as secondary drive!!! indeed look's like sata2!
but it work as designed as main drive so... welcome to a stable fast system

i still have the same drives in raid 0 . NO problem ever ...
as a single drive i do not think it would make your latop hotter ... even at 30C its pretty much same temp as normal hard drive... you would only gain speed

 

Compared to a regular 7200prm HDD the power/heat should not be worlds apart when both are in use. A HDD will use less when "sleeping" though.

 

My SATA Flex cable will sometimes disconnect itself if I move the laptop too much. My current HDD (Momentus XT) have been able to survive 4 disconnections without issues, 3 when laptop was off, 1 when it was in on. Would this SSD survive this kind of sudden disconnections? I have heard that Samsung and Intel are the most reliable.

 

in theorie the intel could because of its "flush in fligh" capacitor.. he would be able to flash the nand with rest of data...

but of course you can still get ntfs corruption with any drive.

i would fix that loose flex cable with a bit of dental floss sticking it to make the connector harder to push in and out