Micron RealSSD P400m Enterprise SSD Review

Performance Summary: The array of benchmarks we ran do a good job of illustrating the Micron RealSSD P400m’s performance-related strengths and weaknesses. In terms of IOPS and read / write bandwidth, the RealSSD P400m trails competing enterprise-class drives like the Intel DC S3700 most often than not. The Micron RealSSD P400m, however, offers very consistent performance, regardless of data type, and remains competitive at higher queue depths.


The Micron RealSSD P400m Enterprise Solid State Drive

All of the numbers on the previous pages point to a drive that doesn’t necessarily stand-out from the crowd in terms of performance. What the numbers don’t show are the underlying technologies that improve the Micron RealSSD P400m’s long-term endurance and reliability. Unfortunately, those things aren’t easy to test, but its combination of custom MLC NAND and in-house developed DRAM and firmware, coupled with Micron’s ability to manufacture, test and qualify all aspects of the drive at their own facilities should make for a reliable, dependable end product. As we’ve mentioned, the Micron RealSSD P400m is rated for ‘at least’ 10 fills per day for 5 years, or roughly 3PB (petabytes) of writes for the 200GB drive we tested here. That’s nothing to sneeze at.

Expected pricing for the Micron RealSSD P400m in quantity is still in a state of flux, but individual drive pricing at CDW puts the 200GB drive we tested at $725, or roughly $3.62 per GB. That price currently makes the RealSSD P400m  more expensive than Intel’s recently released DC S3700 series of solid state drives, which is difficult to justify looking back at our performance numbers. We suspect final street prices will be somewhat lower once the drive is shipping in volume to multiple resellers, however. If you’re in need of a reliable, enterprise-class SSD though, that should stand up to strenuous workloads over the long-haul, the Micron RealSSD P400m should serve you well.

 

  • High Endurance
  • Consistent Performance
  • Physical Power-Loss Protection
  • Somewhat Pricey
  • Generally Trails Some Lower Priced, Enterprise SSDs

Marco Chiappetta

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com

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