Intel SSD Pro 2500 Series 240GB Enterprise SSD Review
Final Thoughts & Conclusions
The Intel SSD Pro 2500 Series is currently available in a wide range of capacities and two different form factors; 2.5 inch (120GB, 180GB, 240GB, 360GB, and, 480GB) and M.2 (180GB, 240GB, and 360GB). All SSD Pro 2500 series drives come backed by a 5-year warranty. The Intel SSD Pro 2500 Series uses hardware-based 256-bit AES encryption and is compatible with TCGs Opal version 2.0 features along with Microsoft eDrive.
When it comes to performance the Intel SSD Pro 2500 is the successor to the Intel SSD Pro 1500 series and unfortunately we don’t happen to have one of those available to compare this drive to. We pulled out the original OCZ Vertex 3 240GB SSD from 2011 that uses an earlier revision of the SandForce SF-2281 controller and found that the Intel SSD Pro 2500 was similar to that in terms of performance although it had much better idle power efficiency. Overall performance was right where we expected to see a SandForce driven product to be. This particular SandForce controller loves compressible data, but slows down a bit when it comes to incompressible data. This is why we were seeing 550 MB/s read and 525MB/s write in benchmarks like ATTO and just 468MB/s read and 284MB/s write in CrystalDiskMark. Here are the test results from the AS SSD Compression Benchmark if you wanted to visually see them again. Once you get over 50% compression the read speeds level off, but the write speeds gradually improve along with the amount of compression. The SandForce SF-2281 controller might not be on the cutting edge when it comes to performance, but it is stable and we have been using it here at Legit Reviews for our test systems since 2011 and have put thousands of hours and written hundreds if not thousands of TB of data to the drives with very few issues.
Pricing on the Intel SSD Pro 2500 series is higher than what one might expect, but you have to keep in mind that this isn’t a consumer drive and that drive is aimed at the enterprise market where corporations are willing to pay a premium for stability, encryption and the 5-year warranty.
Intel SSD Pro 2500 Series 2.5″ SSD Pricing:
- Intel Pro 2500 120GB – SSDSC2BF120H501 – $119.99
- Intel Pro 2500 180GB – SSDSC2BF180H501 – $159.99
- Intel Pro 2500 240GB – SSDSC2BF240H501 – $199.99
- Intel Pro 2500 480GB – SSDSC2BF480H501 – $305.00
Overall the Intel Pro SSD 2500 series appears to be a solid choice for a company looking for a business-class SSD that is stable and has a magnitude of software utilities available to help manage the drives. Very few companies have such a knowledge of what large IT departments need, but luckily Intel does and the Pro series of drives have the needed hardware and software for installation in that environment.
Legit Bottom Line: The Intel Pro SSD 2500 Series aren’t the fastest cutting edge drives that money can buy, but these self-encrypting drives (SED) have been designed to be reliable for use in a business-class environment where manageability is key.