Intel 600p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD Review

ATTO

Version and / or Patch Used: 3.05

ATTO is a timeless benchmark used to provide manufacturers with data used for marketing storage products. When evaluating ATTO performance we focus on the drive's performance curve.

Sequential read/write transfers max out at 1,894/584 MB/s exceeding Intel's factory specs. Keep in mind this is our OS volume, and it is filled to 75% of its total capacity. The highest sequential write performance is achieved at 32KB transfers. The highest sequential read performance is achieved at 1MB transfers. Performance takes a nose dive when transfers exceed 8MB.

Sequential Write

We only chart up to 8MB transfers, so this chart does not reflect the plummeting performance shown by the above screenshot when sequential transfers exceed 8MB. This behavior is common to all three 600p capacity points we are testing.

The 512GB model is able to remain steady across our chart. The 128GB and 256GB models display exceptionally poor and choppy performance that is lower than a typical SATA SSD for some, or all of the charted transfer sizes. The 128GB model doesn't even come close to hitting its 450 MB/s factory specification for sequential writes.

Surprisingly, the 256GB and 512GB models are running with the pack at 4KB transfers, but other than that, the rest of the drives in our test pool leave the 600p's in the dust. Samsung's 960 EVO is similar to Intel's 600p in that they are both 3D TLC flash-based NVMe products.

Sequential Read

Intel NVMe SSDs display a markedly inferior performance curve that ramps up slowly when running ATTO. Of the three capacity points we are testing, only the 512GB model is able to attain factory spec'd sequential read speeds when data is on the drive.

Anvil Storage Utilities

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.1.0

Anvil's Storage Utilities is a storage benchmark designed to measure the storage performance of SSDs. The Standard Storage Benchmark performs a series of tests; you can run a full test or just the read or write test, or you can run a single test, i.e. 4k QD16. When evaluating performance with Anvils, we focus on total score.

Scoring

Anvil's scoring gives a good indication of a drive's overall performance. In terms of overall scoring, the 600p's do not deliver a score that is anywhere near what we have come to expect from NVMe SSDs. The 128GB model actually scores lower than many SATA-based SSDs.

(Anvil) Read IOPS through Queue Depth Scale

With our configuration, we are able to attain 130K random read IOPS at QD128 with the 512GB model. This matches Intel's factory specification of 128K max random read IOPS.

This chart leaves us with nothing nice to say about the 600p - so we will say nothing at all and just let the chart speak for itself.

(Anvil) Write IOPS through Queue Scale

With our configuration, we are able to attain 137K random write IOPS at QD64 with the 512GB model. This exceeds Intel's factory specification of 128K max random write IOPS.

On the write side of things, the 600p's are delivering random write performance that is more in-line with what we would expect from an entry-level NVMe SSD. The 256GB and 512GB models are exceeding factory max random write specifications. The 128GB model, although it is not performing to factory specs, is performing equally with Samsung's 256GB 950 Pro at QD2 and higher.