SUMMARY

NVMe drives have never been more affordable. The Intel 600p represents a fantastic value, offering PCIe M.2 drives at the lowest prices on the market.

85

Overall
Score


BUILD QUALITY80

PERFORMANCE80

VALUE95

WHERE TO BUY

Intel 600p M.2 SSD 128GBFrom $64.99

Intel 600p M.2 SSD 256GBFrom $84.99

Intel 600p M.2 SSD 512GBFrom $155.99


Recently Intel launched it’s 600p line of M.2 SSD’s. The series looks to offer NVMe/PCIe high end performance, for lower than SATA SSD prices. I took a look at the 256GB model.

Affordable NVMe Drive That Performs

intel 600p ssd front

Intel 600p 256GB SSD Specs

SEQUENTIAL READ1,570 MB/s
SEQUENTIAL WRITE540 MB/s
RANDOM READ71,000 IOPS
RANDOM WRITE112,000 IOPS
INTERFACEPCIe 3×4
MEMORY TYPE3D TLC NAND
CONTROLLERSilicon Motion SM2260 NVMe
FORM FACTORM.2 80mm

intel 600p ssd back

Installation

The 600p is no different than any other 80mm M.2 ssd. Simply insert the drive into your m.2 slot. and screw it down.

Performance & Benchmarks

The Intel 600p is targeted at people who may normally be looking for an entry level upgrade. The drive uses 3D TLC NAND memory, as opposed to the MLC chips found in high end drives like Samsung’s 950 Pro line. This limits its max performance, but by how much?

For the first set of performance tests I chose Crystal Disk Mark. I compared the 600p to a Samsung 850 Evo, since they are in the same price bracket.

Crystal Diskmark Performance Test

Intel 600p 256GBSamsung 850 EVO 500GB
SEQUENTIAL READ Q32T11,473 MB/s547.5 MB/s
SEQUENTIAL WRITE Q32T1590.5 MB/s520 MB/s
4K RANDOM READ Q32T1285 MB/s396.5 MB/s
4K RANDOM WRITE Q32T1506.8 MB/s354.9 MB/s
SEQUENTIAL READ1176 MB/s534.6 MB/s
SEQUENTIAL WRITE599.6 MB/s486.2 MB/s
4K READ36.34 MB/s41.06 MB/s
4K WRITE164.6 MB/s141.6 MB/s

As you can see in the results above the 600p compares favorably to the popular Samsung 850 EVO line. It beats it in every write test, while losing both 4K read tests.

4K read speeds test the drive while transferring large amounts of small 4 Kilobyte files. The Intel 600p is not ideally suited for tasks or workflows that really hammer the drive. If your workflow requires you to constantly access tons of files this isn’t the drive for you.

If you are using this as a boot drive, and running games or basic programs off of it you shouldn’t have any issues.

Passmark Diskmark Performance Test

SEQUENTIAL READ1,462 MB/s
SEQUENTIAL WRITE509 MB/s
RANDOM SEEK444 MB/s
OVERALL SCORE8736

Passmark Diskmark Comparison Chart

SCORE
SAMSUNG 960 EVO13558
Intel 600p 256GB8736
SAMSUNG 850 EVO4592

The 600p’s Passmark score of 8736 puts it firmly between popular MLC NVMe drives, and MLC SATA drives when it comes to performance. The super cheap pricing makes the 600p series a no brainer if you are looking for a new hard drive on a tight budget.

The drives come in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB variants. Check the links above for pricing. You can also watch the video below if you want to learn a little more about the drives. You can also find a full system utilizing the 600p 256GB model with benchmarks here.

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