So sánh intel pro 2500 và 535s năm 2024

Intel offers the Pro 2500 in three formats and has a broad range of capacities. The 2.5-inch form factor has 120, 180, 240, 360 and 480GB storage options. The single-sided version of the M.2 80mm (2280) is 180GB only, whereas the double-sided version is either 240GB or 360GB. The M.2 60mm (2260) double-sided offers 180GB and 240GB capacities. Bear in mind that the M.2 options are SATA based and not PCI-E based.

As befitting the market at which they are aimed, the Pro 2500 drives come loaded to gills with data protection. For a start, these are self-encrypting drives (SED) using 256-bit encryption that is hardware based. The drives have support for TCG Opal 2.0 (the Pro 1500 only supported v1.0) and IEEE-1667 for Microsoft’s eDrive, although this is turned off by default.

eDrive if you want it, enabled from the Intel SSD Pro Administrator Tool

If you want to use IEEE-1667, it can be turned on by using the new Intel SSD Pro Administrator Tool, a command line utility that also allows IT administrators to perform a complete PSID revert, should the drive's encryption key get lost. By using Intel’s vPro and SCS (Intel Setup and Configuration software), IT admins can also remotely manage the drives and they also supports third party management software.

LSI Sandforce controller...

Opening up the drive (bang goes the warranty) reveals that, as with the Pro 1500, Intel is using an LSI SandForce SF-2281 controller but with its own firmware. The big surprise is that the SF2281 is looking after third-party NAND. Yep, not an Intel chip in sight. Instead there are 20nm MLC NAND chips manufactured by SK Hynix.

...and not an Intel NAND in sight

Fear not though, Intel says that the memory has gone through the same vetting procedure as its own products - even so, it’s still a surprising move. In the 240GB drive there are 16(eight per side of the PCB) 16GB (2 8GB dies per package) of these SK Hynix NAND chips.

Sequential read/write performance across the range, regardless of format, is quoted as up to 540MB/s reads and 490MB/s writes. My 240GB review sample sailed past both claims when tested with the ATTO benchmark, giving scores of 555MB/s for reads and 533MB/s for writes.

ATTO and AS SSD results – click for a larger image

As it’s a SandForce controller, it comes as no great surprise to see that it handles data that is compressed better than uncompressed data. This can be seen in the CrystalDiskMark benchmark. The default uncompressed benchmark gives a sequential read score of 478.8MB/s and a write score of 288.9MB/s. Switching to the compressed data benchmark the Read score rises to 523MB/s but the best performance jump is in the Write where the MB/s figure jumps to 520.1MB/s.

CrystalDiskMark results: uncompressed (left), compressed (right)

When it comes to real life testing, a 50GB folder (28,523 files) took a shade over 10 minutes (at 72MB/s) while a 17GB Blu-ray image took just under three minutes (at 101MB/s) and a 4GB image took 36 seconds at 101MB/s. Intel claims the drive has an endurance of 36.5TB, which works out to be around 20GB of host writes a day for the length of its five-year warranty.

The Reg Verdict

The Intel SSD Pro 2500 leads on from the previous Pro 1500 model offering better, more secure hardware encryption and introduces the Intel SSD Pro Administrator Tool which allows better disk management for IT bods, which is all good. Yet on the other hand, it uses a controller that is very long in the tooth and it doesn’t have any form of power loss protection, which these days can be found in consumer SSDs, never mind one designed for the business environment. Close, but no cigar. ®

Business SSD that ticks a lot of boxes for administration and security but misses one useful trick.

Last year Intel introduced the SSD Pro 1500, the company's first SSD for the business segment. The business market is different from the typical client market in the sense that businesses tend to value security and manageability over performance and price. According to a study performed by the Ponemon Institute, the average cost of a lost corporate laptop is around $50,000, which consists of lost intellectual property, data breaches and legal costs. The same study highlights that on average, 2.32% of corporate laptops are lost in one year with the total cost of lost laptops being $6.4 million per organization on average. As a result of the cost, It is obvious that companies want to minimize the damages since the value of the data is constantly increasing and so is the number of devices we carry with us.

The easiest and most efficient way to protect data is to encrypt it. While the Pro 1500 used the same SandForce SF-2281 controller as Intel's client SSDs, the Pro 1500 brought support for hardware accelerated encryption in the form of TCG Opal 1.0 compliance. The benefit of Opal is the fact that it utilizes the drive's built-in hardware encryption, which is more secure than software encryption (for instance software can always corrupt or be negated by malware) and does not degrade performance. Additionally, Opal is much easier to manage than ATA passwords because ultimately all management is done by software, meaning that all the benefits of software encryption are present (e.g. remote wiping and other IT admin features).

With the Pro 2500 Intel is updating the Opal spec to 2.0 as well as adding support for the IEEE-1667 standard, which is required for Microsoft eDrive. The Opal 2.0 spec adds some manageability features (like support for more administrators and users per device) and it also brings support for varying block sizes. Moreover, Intel is also including a new SSD Pro Administrator Tool with the Pro 2500 that brings PSID revert functionality.

Similar to the Pro 1500, Intel's vPro technology is supported in the Pro 2500. vPro and Intel's Setup and Configuration Software allow for remote management of the whole system including the encrypted drive, which makes the life of an IT administrator much easier since there is no need to physically access the device.

Another difference compared to the Pro 1500 is that the Pro 2500 will also be available at retail. The Pro 1500 was limited to OEMs and SIs, which is why we never got to review the drive. Intel said that initially it was easier to go through the OEMs to make sure the system shipped with the necessary software for Opal encryption, but nowadays the software support is much better.

Intel SSD Pro 2500 Specifications Capacity 120GB 180GB 240GB 360GB 480GB Form Factors 2.5" 2.5", M.2 2280 & M.2 2260 2.5" & M.2 2280 2.5" Controller SandForce SF-2281 NAND SK Hynix 64Gbit 20nm MLC Sequential Read 540MB/s 540MB/s 540MB/s 540MB/s 540MB/s Sequential Write 490MB/s 490MB/s 490MB/s 490MB/s 490MB/s 4KB Random Read 24K IOPS 41K IOPS 41K IOPS 45K IOPS 48K IOPS 4KB Random Write 80K IOPS 80K IOPS 80K IOPS 33K IOPS 37K IOPS Idle Power 5mW (DevSleep) / 55mW (Slumber) Max Power 3.4W 4.0W 4.9W 5.5W 5.8W Encryption TCG Opal 2.0 + IEEE-1667 (eDrive) Endurance 36.5TB (20GB/day for 5 years) Warranty Five years

Given that we are dealing with an SF-2281 based drive, the performance figures do not present any surprises. With compressible data even the 120GB model achieves nearly 500MB/s in sequential writes, although what is notable is that when going above 240GB the random write performance takes a rather substantial hit. This is unique to SandForce and I have seen it with other drives as well but I am not sure what exactly is causing it. I am guessing that the decrease is due to SandForce's NAND mapping table design and structure because the size of the table increases with capacities. Since SandForce does not use any external DRAM for caching of the NAND mapping table, the table size is limited and likely needs a lot more defragmentation and optimization at the higher capacities to fit in the controller's integrated SRAM cache.

Probably the most interesting tidbit of the Pro 2500 is the usage of SK Hynix NAND as this is the first time Intel is sourcing third party NAND from someone other than Micron. Bringing on SK Hynix as a new supplier will not change Intel's commitment to IMFT nor will it affect Intel's supply agreement with Micron -- it is simply an effort to guarantee sufficient NAND supply in the future. Intel already experienced some NAND shortage over the past year, so an additional NAND source is necessary as the demand for SSDs continues to grow.

Intel's contract with SK Hynix includes pre-packaged and pre-validated NAND, although Intel still does their own additional validation to ensure that the NAND meets the same quality standards as their own NAND. Intel also guaranteed that the SK Hynix NAND is SKU specific and they will not be using multiple NAND suppliers in one product. In other words, buyers do not have to beware that the NAND in the Pro 2500 or any other Intel SSD is going to change without a notice. Currently Intel is only using SK Hynix NAND in the Pro 2500 but there will be more products with SK Hynix NAND in the future.

Our 240GB sample has a total of sixteen NAND packages with each package having two 64Gbit (8GB) dies inside. Since the Pro 2500 is a SandForce drive, the capacity of one die is dedicated to RAISE parity to protect against page and block level failures.

Playing With The SSD Pro Administrator Tool

The SSD Pro Administrator Tool is a simple command line utility for IT administrators that is provided with the Pro 2500. The main function of the tool is to provide IT administrators with a way to perform a PSID revert in case the encryption key is lost. The PSID is a 32-character code that is printed on back of the SSD and basically, without the PSID and the PSID revert tool, the SSD would be a brick in case the encryption key is lost. Obiously all the data in the drive will be lost but the drive itself can be repurposed.

Unfortunately I could not get eDrive to work on my system in order to try the PSID revert because without active Opal encryption, the PSID revert command will not run at all. I really hate how difficult it is to get eDrive working because of all the requirements. With third party encryption tools, enabling Opal encryption should be as simple as flipping a switch but with eDrive that is certainly not the case (at least with a typical DIY desktop -- corporate PCs may be a different story).

Another feature in the tool is for enabling eDrive. By default, the eDrive support is not enabled (i.e. listed as 'False') but enabling it only requires a single command. The command will not actually enable the eDrive BitLocker encryption but will rather just make the drive "eDrive ready" as Intel calls it. To enable hardware accelerated BitLocker encryption, you will have to do the same steps as with any other eDrive capable drive. Intel told me that the reason behind eDrive support being disabled by default is that during the Windows install process, BitLocker encryption will automatically be enabled if the drive and the rest of the platform support eDrive (like many corporate laptops do). As many businesses use third party encryption software, having BitLocker encryption on by default would just slow down the initial install process, so Intel decided to disable eDrive and have an option to enable it if needed.