Intel Optane SSD 800P 118GB M.2 PCIe SSD Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing and Availability

At the time of review, Intel’s Optane SSD 800p is widely available. You can find it on Amazon for £224.06 and $238.00. That’s sadly slightly more than the RRP of $199.

Conclusion

If you have read our review of the smaller 58GB Intel Optane SSD 800p, then there wasn’t a whole lot of surprises in this review. Well, maybe the fact that Optane SSDs perform equally well no matter the capacity. That part shouldn’t surprise you as such as that’s one of the strong points of this drive, but it isn’t normal when compared to other SSDs.

It doesn’t matter what kind of data you throw at the drive, how full it is, or how much it has been used; it continues to perform according to specifications. And that’s just awesome! One of the situations where the Optane SSD 800p truly shines is with low queue depths, and that is where most people will have their workloads. That is no surprise either as that’s what it was designed to do.

The access times is another place where Intel’s 3D XPoint NAND shines, which is used on this drive. You get very low latencies and thereby quick access times. That is something which becomes very clear when we look at the PC Mark 8 storage benchmark. These tests simulate real-work workloads, and the results speak for themselves.

On top of the great performance, the drive is highly compatible. The system it is installed in will see it like any other PCIe-based SSD. So there’s no need to have the latest generation to use it. The 2280 form factor and single-sided design also make it compatible with most systems.

What if Intel Adjusted It a Bit?

If Intel would double the capacity to 240GB and lowered the price by 20-30%, then I think the Optane 800p would become the go-to drive for those who understand how storage works.

Pros

• Low latency
• Great performance
• Compatible with close to any modern system
• Consistent performance across all fillage scenarios and conditioning
• Built to scale well in RAID

Cons

• Higher price than normal NAND drives
• Low capacity options when compared to other drives

“Intel’s Optane SSD 800p is a truly impressive drive. It costs a little more than traditional drives, but it delivers the performance where it truly matters.”

We would like to thank Intel for this sample.