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Introducing the Intel SSD 670p

By March 7, 2021No Comments

One of the most popular of the first-generation NVMe solid state drives for mainstream computing was the Intel 660p SSD. When it launched in summer 2018, the 660p marked the arrival of quad-level cell (QLC) flash architecture on the consumer market.

Compared to previous architectures, QLC flash is roughly 25 percent denser, which translates into drives being able to cram more data into the same amount of physical material.

This means manufacturers can make larger capacity drives at a lower cost, and by the time the 2-terabyte iteration of the 660p came on the market in fall of 2019, you could pick up one up for eight or nine cents per gig of storage.

And now, the next generation of QLC flash technology has arrived.

The Intel 670p SSD makes several important improvements over the previous generation.

  • It retains the same low-cost per gigabyte value proposition, coming in 2 terabyte-, 1 terabyte-, and 512 gigabyte-capacity drives.
  • Performance has doubled over the previous generation for both random and sequential reads.
  • Intel has designed a new controller to execute the firmware onboard the drive and has extended the use of a dynamic single-layer cell (SLC) cache—up to 280 gigabytes in a 2 terabyte SSD.

The 670p is optimized for a 70 – 30 read-write mix — which is ideal for real-world PC usage. It is designed to deliver responsiveness when running an operating system, work applications, and for video streaming and gaming.

For these workloads, the 670p is shown to outperform other QLC- and triple-layer-cell drives on the market.

Historically, endurance has been a mark against QLC-type drives. Having more bits packed into memory cells means more wear and tear for write heavy workloads.

Intel 670p makes massive improvements in durability over the 660p, specifically an 85 percent gain in terabytes written. This translates to being able to write over 200 gigs a day, every day, for five years.

Source: Intel internal testing

The benefits of NVMe drives are most apparent for anyone who works like big files – video editing in 4K, or a sequential operation like a virus scan, for example.

For day-to-day usage, you might see a couple of seconds off your boot time, and a general feeling of snappiness when opening games or large applications.

With the pricing trends and projections for NVMe SSDs being what they are, drives like the Intel 670p SSD appear to be the future of mainstream data storage.

Intel 670p solid state drives are available now on Newegg.

Intel 670p SSD Pricing and Availability

Intel 670p SSD, 2 TB
Intel 670p SSD, 1 TB

Intel 670p SSD, 512 GB

See all Intel internal SSDs on Newegg 

Author Adam Lovinus

A tech writer and Raspberry Pi enthusiast from Orange County, California.

More posts by Adam Lovinus