Intel Enterprise SSD: D3 SATA, DC P4510 NVMe, the Move to Solidigm and UK Prices

Intel enterprise SSD is now Solidigm

SK hynix has announced that it completed the first phase of acquiring Intel's SSD business and its Dalian NAND flash manufacturing facility in China, and said the acquired business would be known as Solidigm. So a drive sold under Intel's name is one of Intel's own models, and the business behind it now carries the Solidigm name.

That matters when you read a listing. The D3 brief cited here carries a 2018 Intel copyright, and some Intel listings on Amazon.co.uk name models such as the S4520, P4500 and P4600. We have not found an Intel document covering those, so this page prints no specification for them; check the model and part number with the seller. The Solidigm D7 page covers NVMe drives sold under the new name.

Intel enterprise SSD SATA: D3-S4510 and D3-S4610

Intel's product brief describes the D3-S4510 and D3-S4610 as SATA data centre SSDs on 64-layer Intel 3D NAND TLC, and says they are compatible with existing SATA setups for an easy storage upgrade. Both are SATA 6Gb/s, both come in the same 2.5-inch, 7 mm body and the same six sizes, and both carry a 5-year limited warranty.

The two share their sizes, their body and their read speed, so the choice between them is about writes. The S4610 has the higher endurance rating and about 40% more random write on our arithmetic, 51,000 against 36,000 IOPS, for 0.1 W more active power. For a server that rewrites a lot it is the stronger of the two; for one that mostly reads, the S4510 does the same job.

• Sizes for both models: 240GB, 480GB, 960GB, 1.92TB, 3.84TB and 7.68TB. The brief also writes the larger three as 2TB, 4TB and 8TB, and marks the 7.68TB as available in 2019.
• Body for both: 2.5-inch, 7 mm thick.

An Intel enterprise SSD at 960GB, in this brief, can be either model: the S4510 960GB or the S4610 960GB. The brief gives endurance for each series rather than per size; on our arithmetic a 960GB S4510 at up to 2 DWPD is rated for up to about 1.92 TB written a day, and a 960GB S4610 at 3 DWPD for about 2.88 TB.

The SATA table holds no listings right now. Each row shows its condition, new or used.

Intel enterprise SSD NVMe: the DC P4510

Intel's DC P4510 brief describes PCIe SSDs in 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB and 8 TB in the U.2 2.5-inch, 15 mm form factor, and 15.36 TB in the E1.L form factor.

• Interface: PCIe 3.1 x4, NVMe 1.2.
• 128K sequential read / write, U.2: up to 3,200 / 3,000 MB/s.
• Endurance, U.2: up to 13.88 PBW.
• MTBF: 2 million hours.
• Security: TCG Opal 2.0 and a built-in AES-XTS 256-bit encryption engine.
• Power loss imminent (PLI) protection with a built-in self-test, which Intel says guards against data loss if system power is suddenly cut.

The endurance figure is an 'up to', and the brief does not tie it to one capacity, so we do not turn it into a daily write rate. The P4510's U.2 sizes are the round 1, 2, 4 and 8 TB rather than the 960GB and 1.92TB-style steps of the SATA drives, which helps when matching a listing title to the right brief.

The NVMe table holds 2 listings right now. A P4500 or P4600 row is not a P4510, and we have not found an Intel brief for either.

Intel enterprise SSD SATA or NVMe: what decides it

The bay decides before speed does. The D3 drives are 7 mm SATA drives, while the P4510 is a 15 mm U.2 drive on PCIe, so they need different connections in the server. Check your server's own documents for the interface, the connector and the drive height it accepts.

Intel enterprise SSD price on Amazon.co.uk

The table below holds every Intel enterprise SSD listing we track, including some whose interface we cannot confirm and so appear in neither table above. It holds 2 listings right now. Prices are pounds sterling inc VAT, sorted per TB.

Many of these are models with no brief cited here, and some are used. Before you press Buy on Amazon, match the model name against the briefs above, and ask the seller about a used drive's remaining endurance. Both Intel briefs cited here are copies hosted by a UK reseller rather than on an Intel address, so treat them as Intel's wording at the time of printing. The enterprise SSD page sets SATA, SAS and NVMe side by side.

In-stock alternatives

None of these is the product this page covers: they are what is in stock on Amazon.co.uk beside it right now. Each row says why it is listed. Check the interface, form factor and part number against your system before buying.