Intel 335 240GB SSD Review Storage   Page 1

Reviewer: Jon Coulter Article Publish Date: 12/25/2012

 

 

 

 

Introduction

 

 

 

 

Intel is back again with another MLC/SandForce Based drive sporting Intel’s customized firmware. This drive is the newest in Intel’s 300 Series of Solid State Drives. The Intel SSD 335 we are going review today is basically an update to the 330. The 335 is sporting faster and more power efficient 20nm NAND Flash Memory. There are probably some firmware improvements to go along with the newer NAND but overall the 335 is a 330 with 20nm NAND Flash.

The 330 came in a variety of sizes 60GB, 120GB, 180GB, and 240GB. The 335 breaks with traditional size offerings and comes in a one size fits all 240GB capacity. We’re not sure how much sense this makes because the 335 is a mainstream drive and 120GB mainstream drives outsell all others.

The 335 like the 330 is only available in a 9.5 mm Z-Height enclosure which somewhat limits its marketability with most new laptops requiring a 7mm Z-Height for installation. The 330 when it launched was one of the top performing mainstream drives available. Will the 335 be able to follow in 330’s footsteps? It’s going to be tougher this time because there are many more options and newer generation controllers available today than when the 330 was launched.

One thing Intel has in its favor is that SandForce based drives generally outperform others with data on the drive which is by far the most important performance metric. Well let’s see what Intel has to say about their new mainstream 335 240GB SSD:

The Intel® SSD 335 Series delivers leading performance for Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA)-based computers in a 240 GB capacity.

By combining Intel® 20nm NAND Flash Memory technology with SATA 6Gb/s interface support, the Intel® SSD 335 Series delivers sequential read speeds of up to 500 MB/s and sequential write speeds of up to 450 MB/s.

The industry-standard 2.5-inch form factor enables interchangeability with existing hard disk drives (HDDs) and native SATA HDD drop-in replacement with the enhanced performance, reliability, and ruggedness offered by an SSD.

As compared to standard SATA HDDs, Intel® SSD 335 Series offers these key features:

• High I/O and throughput performance
• Increased system responsiveness
• High reliability
• Enhanced ruggedness