Deal? - Engineering Sample Intel 200GB s3710, Best Offer accepted at $90

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T_Minus

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"Demo Units. Sealed in original static bag. Never opened"

"Enterprise SSD - Production Hardware, marked as Engineering Samples"
 
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Continuum

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Jun 5, 2015
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The listing appears to indicate that the drives are ESes. From the item description: "Enterprise SSD - Production Hardware, marked as Engineering Samples."

I'm familiar with the (for lack of a better term) issues/concerns (i.e. lacking features, intel property etc.) surrounding ES processors. Do ES ssds have similar issues/concerns?
 

T_Minus

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In my opinion ES SSD / HD is scarier than CPU because with CPU (in my experience) things don't work, and you get blue screens in windwos, no booting, etc... I can't imagine an ES HD/SSD silently killing your data... ???
 

smithse79

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Sep 17, 2014
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"Demo Units. Sealed in original static bag. Never opened"

"Enterprise SSD - Production Hardware, marked as Engineering Samples"
I've never dabbled in ES hardware before. What kind of drawbacks could I be expecting if I got one of these?
 

T_Minus

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Technically speaking the risk from an ES SSD is really no different than a retail ES SSD as you COULD always 'lose' all your data...

But, I'm not sure if they have PLP or other potential feature disabled, broken, etc...


IMHO you spend the $$$ on Enterprise SSD for a reason, don't handicap that and buy an ES version.


Enterprise CPU are a different animal in my experience, if you buy 'late model' they are often identical to retail, and you can run tests to check. A SSD may test fine but lack a feature you can't test for or may start corrupting data that you don't find out about for a week or two, and now your backups are corrupt too (ya I've been there).
 

helsyeah

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Aug 22, 2015
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Nice catch guys, I didn't read the description close enough. I was wondering why more had not been purchased yet.

Guess I'll be testing one out, and see what I can learn from it.
 

T_Minus

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Curious to see myself, I put in an offer on 1 too :) Time to investigate ES SSD a bit more!!
 

helsyeah

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Aug 22, 2015
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So interesting (and a bit disappointing) I found this mentioned in Intel's latest Solid State Datacenter Tool: Intel® Download Center

The tool does not update firmware on Engineering Sample (ES) drives
I'm not sure if that means that the drive is simply incompatible with the latest FW, or if they just don't want ES drives to get the benefits of the newer FW.
 

Fritz

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I offered 90 bucks and he counter offered 109. Think I'll pass.
 

helsyeah

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Aug 22, 2015
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Yeah, until its know what we're looking at for firmware and such with the drives, I don't think these are worth it.

On the FW note, I've dug up some earlier versions of the Intel SSD Datacenter tool (2.2.1) that don't mention NOT being able to update ES drives.

I also found that the Intel SSD Toolbox that does not mention the ES FW update restriction.

Once my drive comes in, I'll see what the various tools say & let me do.
 
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Patriot

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The 200gb model is also only 300MB/s sequential... :/ probably bet an older larger intel drive that is faster for the same price...
 
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neo

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Mar 18, 2015
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I lowballed him an offer of $70 and was countered with 109. I'll pass.

The 200gb model is also only 300MB/s sequential... :/ probably bet an older larger intel drive that is faster for the same price...
Yep, exactly. That was the main reason I went the 400 GB S3710 for my ZFS SLOG/ZIL.
 

Jeggs101

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Dec 29, 2010
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I offered $80 and got $109 too. Pass.

I mean slow low capacity drive = boot drive. ES is scary and >50 cents/ gb is not that good anymore.
 

T_Minus

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There really is no comparison of those 2 drives.

Capacity is the really only thing.

The differences in performance are rather large :D
 

MiniKnight

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Mar 30, 2012
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There really is no comparison of those 2 drives.

Capacity is the really only thing.

The differences in performance are rather large :D
ES = "scary" from a FW side. Higher risk of data loss with the S3710 here so I'd trust the 320
Performance = S3710 - although sequential read not that far if it's really 300MBps. 4K S3710
Write endurance = S3710 (assuming ES FW holds out)
Capacity = 3x more for the 320, even if you did 100GB OP
Price ~30% less for the S3710

Just thinking aloud.
 

whitey

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Jun 30, 2014
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DAMN, those went quick, after my good luck w/ s3600 ES drives I wanted to pick one of these up possibly for another zfs pool zil device.
 

canta

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Nov 26, 2014
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honestly.. I always stay away with engineering sample on SSD
why?
I am working with Hardware/Software related and knowing that ES is just a sample for testing that has many issue not fixed and can not be upgraded :D.

some of my toys are ES. these are just for playing not for use..