back to article We test Intel's 730 480GB SSD Skulltrail scorcher

While Crucial and Samsung have been making waves in the consumer SSD market with their affordable – well, kind of affordable – 1TB drives, there has been a noticeable silence from one of the giants in the consumer space – Intel. Intel 730 SSD Intel 730 SSD complete with the Skulltrail logo found on its gaming-centric …

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  1. Stu

    Is it technically overclocking...

    ...when it was done in-factory? Surely they're saying it can run at the higher rate 'naturally', not overclocked but just clocked faster because it's not being pushed harder than it was rated for?

    Anyway, these aren't out apparently for another 14 days according to the Intel site.

  2. BlueGreen

    "copying a 50GB folder of small files"

    That's a pretty useless description. Detail on how many files there were, what their size distributions was (if any) and whether there were any nested directories, would be helpful.

    ta

    1. Steve Knox

      Re: "copying a 50GB folder of small files"

      Another very important factor is the method of copying. If you're using Windows Explorer, it doesn't matter how fast the drive is -- there's a lot of per-file overhead in the OS.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Boffin

      Re: "copying a 50GB folder of small files"

      It was 5 million small text files. They all said "@BlueGreen asks dumb questions", oddly enough.

  3. Nigel 11

    Not overclocked

    Sorry to nit-pick, but over-clocked means operated at an un-blessed clock rate above the manufacturer's specification (and crossing one's fingers). In this case Intel has re-engineered or simply revalidated its own chip for a higher clock rate than previously used. They do the same thing with their CPUs from time to time.

    1. earl grey
      FAIL

      Re: Not overclocked

      How can you overclock a controller you under-clocked in the first place to flog your other stuff to the public?

    2. DaLo

      Re: Not overclocked

      Isn't that what Stu said?

  4. DNTP

    It has a skull on it so you need to get it.

    1. Willy the Jackass
      Flame

      It means "death to your wallet."

  5. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

    Where are the Comparison Benchmarks?

    You know the ones agains Crucial and Samsung?

    The price of this device is close to that of the 960Gb Crucial device. Can any extra performance justify the higher price or is it Intel trading on its name?

  6. 1Rafayal

    This component also charms Dolphins to such a degree that they instantly rise to the surface and start singing Bohemian Rhapsody, in Welsh.

  7. Mark York 3 Silver badge
    FAIL

    Expensive Downgrade

    "not to mention a 960MB Crucial M500 for maybe another 15 quid"

    1. vmistery

      Re: Expensive Downgrade

      Beat me to it. Still, get two in a RAID 0 and you should be able to get Windows XP on there and probably even Notepad++!

      1. Why Not?

        Re: Expensive Downgrade

        windows 7 + visual studio + sql server 2008 runs fine on 64GB.

        cut down on your porn collection!

  8. Vociferous

    As an enthusiast...

    ...I find it a bit... hm... condescending that enthusiast gear is always designed for 13-year-olds. Skulls. Huh.

    Clearly enthusiast gear should be ferrari-red with stealth design and ultra-bright LEDs in no less than four different colors.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: As an enthusiast...

      Yep, I agree on that. I wanted a play boring steel box to place my then-new PC in... they only had ones with acrylic windows and high-power blue leds. I could have covered it, but it had many inserts, er cuts, including one for a huge 25cm low-speed ultra-quiet fan, making this task all but impossible or for real enthusiasts. Sigh. Even taking off the led of some fans is impossible.

      So much for trying to sleep with that thing on. It rests on the living room now.

      At least my toddler won't complain it's too dark when she wants to go to the loo.

  9. Aaron 10
    Mushroom

    Intel 320

    "...you can expect a certain level of reliability that accompanies the Intel logo."

    That's what I thought until I purchased a 160GB Intel 320 SSD. Within a week it did the whole "your partition is now 8MB" thing. Fortunately I found instructions to fix it and waited for updated firmware to appear and fix the problem. Haven't had a problem since, but the first taste was pretty sour.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm confused by your units

    A 'tadge'

    Is that somewhere between a 'tad' and a smidge(on)?

  11. Faster

    Slower than 512GB 840 Pro

    The CrystalDiskMark results for my 512GB Samsung 840 Pro are better in every category:

    528.9/504.2

    474.7/492.7

    38.65/124.4

    392.8/354.5

    This drive cannot be used in a laptop because it draws so much power under load (and at idle) and it generates so much heat.

    This is a niche product for Intel fanboys who are looking for Intel reliability and are willing to sacrifice performance.

  12. Matt_payne666

    how can intel launch a 'flagship' product when the write speed on the smaller drive is half that of a bunch of commodity drives?? I was hoping 550 read 550 write, or thereabouts... or improved garbage collection to safely run them behind a real raid controller....

    5 year warranty is due to the extra time needed to write files to the thing!

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