Intel released the 710 Series SSD, a SATA II drive, in a time wherein the market is already filled with SATA III devices. This drive is available at 
capacities of 100 GB, 200 GB and 300 GB. As a 3 Gbps SSD, the 710 series can only reach speeds of 270 MB/s (read) and 210 MB/s (write). Similarly, the drive has IOPS numbers of 38, 500 and 2,700 read and write respectively.
The 710 Series SSD uses Intel’s very own PC29AS21BA0 SATA II controller. This is responsible for handling the drives 20 MLC-HET 25 nm eMLC NAND Flash memory modules. The drive also has a 64 MB DRAM cache provided by Hynix. This SSD features an endurance rating of 3 Pb (Petabyte) which means it can withstand 15,000 writes with a 4k random workload.
This professional-grade drive from Intel also supports AES for data protection against external threats as well as internal system problems. Using a group of extra NAND flash, the 710 Series reconfigures itself automatically to reduce the possibility of data loss. Aside from this, the drive has a power safe write cache to ensure data is not lost when an unexpected power loss occurs. Lastly, the drive has a temperature sensor that can be monitored using two SMART attributes.
Specifications:
- Sequential Read: Up to 270 MB/second
- Sequential Write: Up to 210 MB/second
- NAND type: MLC
- Interface: SATA 2 3GBps
- Controller: Intel PC29AS21BA0
- Form Factor: 2.5 inches
- DRAM Cache: None
- Power Consumption (Active): 3.7W
- Power Consumption (Idle): 0.7W
- TRIM support: Yes
- SMART support: Yes
- Warranty: 3 years
- MTBF: 2,000,000 hours
Part Numbers:
- 100GB: SSDSA2BZ100G301
- 200GB: SSDSA2BZ200G301
- 300GB: SSDSA2BZ300G301
Reviews:
Where the 710 leaves me wanting more is that it doesn’t actually move the performance bar up at all. At best Intel is able to deliver the same performance it did nearly three years ago with the X25-E. While it is true that customers moving from spindles to SSDs will likely be just fine with the 710’s level of performance, I would like to see more.
The Intel 710 Series SSD is a great entry into the enterprise market and can be seen as an SSD, not only of excellent capacity, but of great performance and value as well. In order to get a clear picture of how we arrived at this, a number of factors had to be examined very closely.
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