Introduction, Specifications and Packaging

A LARGER consumer 3D XPoint SSD!

Introduction:

Over the past couple of days, we saw some rumors and e-tailer appearances of the Intel SSD 905P. Essentially an incremental upgrade to the 900P, with a few notable differences. Specs see a slight bump across the board, as do capacities, but the most striking difference is Intel’s apparent choice to move forward with the blue-LED enabled design seen in a press deck slide that began circulating last year:

That upper right design seemed pretty cool at the time, and I never thought we would see it materialize, but less than 24 hours ago this arrived at the office:

Note: The color is user adjustable – we just don't have the software for it yet .

*edit* colors are configurable via command line, using the most recent SSD toolbox app. The possible colors are limited (literally red/green/blue/off – that's it), but I've confirmed that the setting does persist after reboot / power cycling / changing systems. This is a welcome change over other RGB-enabled components that require software to always be installed to control (or even turn off) lighting. Here's a look at the other two colors:

*end edit*

Well now that it’s here, let’s see what it can do!

Specifications:

The 905P lineup ratchets up the capacities previously available with the 900P. The add-in card (HHHL) form factor gets a bump up to a sole 960GB part, while the U.2 2.5” form factor moves up to 480GB (it was previously only available in the 280GB capacity for the 900P). Performance specs are a slight nudge higher than the 900P. Random reads moves from 550k to 575k, writes from 500k to 550k, sequential reads from 2.5 to 2.6GB/s, and writes from 2.0 to 2.2GB/s. Operating temp range upper limit moved from 70C to 85C.

Packaging:

The same premium packaging seen with the 900P with the exception of the Star Citizen branding present on that model (seen here). I confirmed with Intel that while the 900P is still shipping with a Star Citizen license, while the 905P does not. Seems odd given the 905P is a more premium product/capacity, but I digress (for now – more on that when we look at pricing).