Intel 730 240GB Review

👤by Richard Weatherstone Comments 📅08-03-14
Conclusion

There are two sides to a coin as we all know and the same can be said of the Intel 730 SSD, at least the 240GB version. Read speeds were comparable to the leading SSDs currently available. Add to this the sleek metal design and the class leading 50GB of writes per day that are warranted for five years and you would be forgiven for assuming the Intel 730 is an amazing piece of hardware that is deserving of the highest accolade. Sadly, this is not the case.

While read speeds and IOPs are perhaps the most important considerations to make when buying an SSD, write speeds should also be considered. For the 480GB version of the Intel 730 SSD this is not an issue however for our sample, the 240GB, it clearly is as our benchmarks have shown. At an average of 270MB/s write speed it is little over half as fast as the best drives available. If you are upgrading from a mechanical drive, this will still appear to be seriously fast however, if you are used to a drive that can write at 500MB/s then you are equally likely to notice a drop in performance.



The drive is priced a little over the average at around the £175 mark and if long term durability (50GB of writes per day for the 240GB model over 5 years) does not rank high on your list there are faster drives on the market which cost less. We could of course recommend the 480GB model and for a single drive this certainly hits the mark if the specifications are to be believed but for just £10 more you could buy 2 of the smaller 240GB drives, run them in Raid 0 and enjoy even better performance.

We appreciate Intel’s foresight into making a drive which has the durability of an enterprise solution with the speed of an enthusiast component but the 240GB model we have reviewed today doesn’t break any boundaries in either department. Its is neither scorchingly fast nor offers more than more recent enthusiast drives in terms of durability. We recently reviewed the OCZ Vector 150 which matches Intel’s durability specification and has faster write speeds while doing so which makes it hard to recommend the Intel 730 240GB model over that SSD if durability is a major factor in your purchase. What the Intel has that the OCZ does not are capacitors preventing data loss which is sure to give peace of mind and a feature we would like to see used as standard in other drives.

To conclude then, the Intel 730 can hold its own against the current crop of SSDs where read speeds are concerned. It's also a class leader with regard to warranted writes which at 50GB per day matches the most recent enthusiast grade Vector 150 and should you opt for the 480GB version, is 20GB more than the closest competitor. Where this 240GB drive falls down (and falls down heavily) is its write speed. Were it not for the poor write speed performance of the 240GB model we would highly recommend taking a look at this drive but with such poor write performance, on its own we feel there are better, higher performing drives on the market that also cost less. For us, if you desire an Intel SSD, the 480GB 730 would be the one to consider.

The Intel 730 is a fast SSD with a huge 50GB of writes warranted per day however, if write speeds are important to you (and the bonus of 20GB of additional writes per day durability), we would advise you to go for the 480GB version.

Pros
+ A large 50GB of writes per day warranted
+ High read Performance
+ Full metal shroud

Cons
- Poor write speed




Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.


11 pages « < 8 9 10 11

Comments