How Big a Difference Between Inel NVME 750s and their Enterprise Brethren?

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Kneelbeforezod

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Sep 4, 2015
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So practically speaking how much of different is there between the 750s and the -3500, 3600 and 3700s. What I've gathered the 3500 is more read oriented, the 3600 is mixed used the 3700 is write oriented.
 

CookiesLikeWhoa

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Sep 7, 2016
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Sustained performance is also a big key. I have not used a 3600 or a 3700, but have and do use P3520's. While the 750's are quick, any sustained type of read/write will eventually slow down, while the 3520's will keep humming along just as before.

The other huge difference is the amount of writes these drives can take. Most enterprise drives can take 3 or more drive writes per day for 5+ years, while consumer drives can't take even 1 over the same period.
 
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T_Minus

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So practically speaking how much of different is there between the 750s and the -3500, 3600 and 3700s. What I've gathered the 3500 is more read oriented, the 3600 is mixed used the 3700 is write oriented.
I suggest looking at the PDF (not just the overview web page) of each Intel NVME to get a better idea of what they can and cannot do. Things like mixed work load information as well as power usage, drive writes per day, and other important info that's often lacking from the web over view can be found here. I guarantee after you review the 4 or so Intel enterprise and then compare to the consumer you'll see numerous big differences.

Beyond that I think knowing your use case may be more helpful.

Also, keep in mind SAS3 SSD are high performing too, and while not as low latency as NVME 4-8 of them may be a faster, cheaper or easier solution... rarely all 3 ;)
 
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Evan

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Use lots of SAS3 (usually upto 16 SSD) and performance is good but most importantly capacity is possible that is not easily possible with NVME, the tends to change with more multi bay and not just PCIe slot NVME appearing with the new Xeon and AMD servers in 2H-2017 onwards.

I imagine either way that SAS3 will be an option for the masses for a while yet.
 

Rand__

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I have not experienced any drop of write performance on my 750's but have not really run extended tests.
But they definitely keep up speed longer than your average consumer SSD, i.e. no issues with a couple of hundred gig's at a time.

Reduced DWPD is o/c an issue (0.3 iirc) but unless you use them hard *every* day it should be fine.

Major issue with NVMe over SAS3 is connectivity - easy/relatively cheap to use 8-24 SAS3 drives in a box, difficult with NVMe (and way more expensive connectivity wise). So depending on use case/total budget it might be beneficial to go SAS3 for a specific performance level
 

Rand__

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Samsung 960 pro - seems to be the top dog for pro/consumers atm. Will probably need cooling and will throttle eventually but you probably won't notice outside benchmarking
 

zir_blazer

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Also, keep in mind SAS3 SSD are high performing too, and while not as low latency as NVME 4-8 of them may be a faster, cheaper or easier solution... rarely all 3 ;)
SAS3 requires a SAS Controller. A PCIe NVMe SSD is standalone and works anywhere you have a PCIe 4x Slot or better available. I doubt it can be easier than that.
I think that the U.2 versions of the Intel SSDs were among the hardest thing to use due to the rarity and price of the U.2 cables, and M.2-to-U.2 or PCIe-to-U.2 adapters. Recall seeing here Threads about that.


Good information regarding the 750 vs P3700 at the following links:
Comparing the 750 against the P3700 is ridiculous cause it cost like 3 times more. I think the best comparison should be between the Intel 750 and the P3500, as they were around the same price range. Half a year ago I was helping a friend with a system and I already looked for that comparison, the P3500 had significantly more endurance and was slighty faster in writes, and at times it was available for less than the 750, making it the absolute best choice. I think the non-specifications difference was in the Firmware (Optimized for consumer workloads vs enterprise workloads, through I don't know how important this is. I would think that enterprise should be more a more consistent performer and that would make it better overall).
P3600 had significantly more endurance than the P3500, as did the P3700 over the P3600. They also had more write IOPS, but that paled to the endurance difference, that was like an order of magnitude, if I recall correctly.

Intel later released newer SSDs like the P3520 and I think others but I lost track of where they fall compared to the 750/P3500/P3600/P3700 cause they were not all around upgrades, instead, they had another set of pros and cons compared to the previous in that line. P3520 was better in some things and worse in others than the P3500, so I wasn't really convinced when I had to choose between the two.
 

Jeggs101

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I don't think the 750 officially supports power loss protection. The caps are there but no official support
 

T_Minus

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SAS3 requires a SAS Controller. A PCIe NVMe SSD is standalone and works anywhere you have a PCIe 4x Slot or better available. I doubt it can be easier than that.
I think that the U.2 versions of the Intel SSDs were among the hardest thing to use due to the rarity and price of the U.2 cables, and M.2-to-U.2 or PCIe-to-U.2 adapters. Recall seeing here Threads about that.



Comparing the 750 against the P3700 is ridiculous cause it cost like 3 times more. I think the best comparison should be between the Intel 750 and the P3500, as they were around the same price range. Half a year ago I was helping a friend with a system and I already looked for that comparison, the P3500 had significantly more endurance and was slighty faster in writes, and at times it was available for less than the 750, making it the absolute best choice. I think the non-specifications difference was in the Firmware (Optimized for consumer workloads vs enterprise workloads, through I don't know how important this is. I would think that enterprise should be more a more consistent performer and that would make it better overall).
P3600 had significantly more endurance than the P3500, as did the P3700 over the P3600. They also had more write IOPS, but that paled to the endurance difference, that was like an order of magnitude, if I recall correctly.

Intel later released newer SSDs like the P3520 and I think others but I lost track of where they fall compared to the 750/P3500/P3600/P3700 cause they were not all around upgrades, instead, they had another set of pros and cons compared to the previous in that line. P3520 was better in some things and worse in others than the P3500, so I wasn't really convinced when I had to choose between the two.

Just because a P3500 is a better comparison to a 750 doesn't make it ridiculous to compare to a p3700.
You've been here a year, you should know by now people rarely pay retail ;) ;) and most here will say the p3500 is not worth spending the $ on vs a P3600 you can get for slightly more, and a lot more capacity (1.2-1.6TB P3600/05 <700$).

Also, your point about NVME vs. SAS3 is silly... sure if you're installing a SINGLE PCIE NVME that's easy, but if you want to install 4x NVME (2.5") or 4x SAS3 (2.5") or more... it's much easier today to install SAS3 drives since backlpanes, chassis, etc, are readily available and very affordable. You still need some type of HBA to run 2.5" NVME just like SAS3 so in that regard they're exactly the same, it's the connection/backplane/chassis that's harder/more $$ to get without going retail/stupid $$.
 

Ayfid

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Samsung 960 pro - seems to be the top dog for pro/consumers atm.
The problem with a 960 is that they don't have power loss protection, and so sync/write-through writes flush and disable the cache, which totally destroys the drives performance and greatly reduces endurance. A lot of server workloads do these kind of writes.

I don't think the 750 officially supports power loss protection. The caps are there but no official support
It does ("Enhanced Power Loss Data Protection: Yes").
 
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Kneelbeforezod

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I hope to get my P3500 next week. Seller had to evac for the Hurricane - He was in Naples. Sent me an email via Ebay letting me know. So hopefully i can post some numbers soon.
 

vrod

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I hope to get my P3500 next week. Seller had to evac for the Hurricane - He was in Naples. Sent me an email via Ebay letting me know. So hopefully i can post some numbers soon.
Holy moly, priorities I must say :D I think I would perhaps take care of other stuff in that event

If anyone are interested I know a guy here in germany who sells P3700 800gb's (fujitsu engineering samples) for 350€. I got a 1.6 and 2tb from him for 900€ and they work perfectly. Just if someone would be interested