Intel has finally released the Optane SSD 900P Series for consumers. If you’re into crazy fast speed storage, you’re going to love this. If you haven’t been keeping up with solid state drive (SSD) technology, the Optane is Intel’s latest kind of memory. Combining Intel’s own controllers with 3D Xpoint media, the Optane proves to be top of its class in speed and lower latency. The drive comes in a 280 GB 2.5 inch format, or a half height PCIe card format with a 280 GB or 480 GB model. Intel claims both formats can manage sequential reads up to 2500 MB/s and sequential writes at 2000 MB/s, while drawing 14W.
The Optane 900P is in fact the third Optane drive Intel has released, but it’s the first product that is targeting the high end consumer market. The previous products on the Optane line have been pushed mainly for use in data centers, where their high speed read and write performance is greatly beneficial. But these speeds are no longer reserved for data centers. Faster load times, and smoother gameplay can be expected – Intel says the Optane SSD 900P Series is four times faster than any rival NAND based SSDs.
Unfortunately, you can’t just drop an Optane SSD into any computer. In order to be able to use the drive to its full extent, you need to have specific recent Intel processors. Additionally, the fact that these drives are considerably power hungry, they’re pretty much consigned to desktops only. Drawing 14W under load and a significant 5W at idle, it’s not the kind of drive you can just pop in your laptop. Since the world is getting increasingly more mobile, hopefully Intel can come out with a lower powered version that’s suitable for laptops.
Image Credit: Intel
If you compare each performance area of the Optane 900P to its competitors, it wins every time hands down. But that’s not to say there aren’t some drawbacks. As previously mentioned, its limited use is obviously an issue, but it’s price is considerably higher than any other alternative. Just looking at other drives across the board, even considering the higher prices due to shortages of NAND, the average price per GB is around $0.30. The 280 GB version of the Optane 990P is $389.99, which comes in at a whopping $1.39 per GB – twice as expensive as high end competitors, and 5 times more expensive than other entry level drives. The drives come with a 5 year warranty, so if you keep backups like you should, you don’t have to worry about a dead drive on your hands.
Is the high price tag worth it? We think yes, definitely. This isn’t a hard drive you put in your daily beater; it’s not trying to be and it’s not priced as such. This is the top of the line, as fast as it gets, SSD. If you’re doing work that demands the fastest reading and writing speeds, this is the drive for you.
