Intel 330 SSD Raid 0 Review (2x180GB)

While the next SATA standard, SATA Express, is on the horizon, it is not ready for prime time just yet. Meanwhile, the SATA 6 GBps interface is largely saturated by most high-end SSDs today, so your options if you want greater speeds are either a PCIe drive or hooking up two or more drives with RAID striping. Two drives in RAID 0 using an integrated RAID controller is an affordable, although not fault-tolerant, way of boosting those transfer rates.

In this review we will take a look at how the Intel 330 performs in RAID 0. The 330 series barely needs an introduction; it is another range of SandForce SF-2281 based drives from Intel and basically a consumer-oriented version of the 520 series. It’s not quite as fast but still offers more than enough performance for most home users and workstations. One drawback, particularly for professional users, is the shorter warranty period of 3 years instead of 5.

Compared to the newer 335 series, the 330 consists of older (but better) 25nm NAND instead of the less durable 20nm modules found in the 335, making the 330 the best option hands down at the drives’ current price points.

What sets the 330 apart from the host of other SSDs with the same controller is that Intel’s drives use a proprietary firmware that is supposedly more reliable. This may not be entirely true at all times, but the 330 has been thoroughly tested and there haven’t been any major hiccups thus far.

Also, the 330 uses synchronous NAND instead of asynchronous like some other affordable drives. For these reasons, Intel drives sell at a small price premium to other, similar drives with the SandForce 2281 controller.

Test setup:
Gigabyte GA-Z77N
Intel Core i7-3770K 3.5 GHz
Kingston HyperX XMP Red 1600MHz (2x8GB)
2x 180 GB Intel 330 SSDs, firmware version 330i
Intel SATA RAID Controller version 11.1.0.1006
Windows 8 Pro

But let’s move on to the results…

NAND Flash Revenue Expected To Rise 8% This Year

According to an IHS iSuppli report the market for NAND flash memory, including SSDs, will grow 8% this year. The report mentioned that the major sales drivers are ultrabooks which are equipped with solid state drives.

The number for the industry last year was $21.2 billion and the projected revenue this year is $22.9 billion. By 2016, the revenue is expected to rise to $30.9 billion because of the increase in consumption of NAND flash-based products like ultrabooks as well as smartphones and tablets.

The earnings for last year were below expectations and experts believe it was because of the lack of enthusiasm for tablets in the last quarter. The success of the iPad and Amazon’s Kindle Fire is undeniable but you cannot say the same for other tablet brands.

The longer battery life, faster boot-up times and thinner body of ultrabooks make the portable computer appealing for users. If this is right, the NAND consumption in the PC segment will account for 15% of overall NAND flash supply.

Besides ultrabooks, smartphones could help boost the NAND industry revenue. It is expected that 626 million of smartphones will be shipped out this year. That accounts for 5.7 billion GB of NAND flash consumption for 2012 which is 2.6 billion GB higher than last year.