Intel SSD 660p: 512GB Of NVMe Storage For $99 USD

The random read and write performance was understandably on the low-end for the 660p with QLC NAND memory. A few of the drives were left out from these runs due to an oversight in the result run process.

As far as the drive operating temperature under load, it had an average temperature of 49 Celsius while being benchmarked and overall was quite good relative to many of the other M.2 NVMe SSDs being tested.

While the benchmarking is short given the period of time since purchasing this Intel SSD 660p 512GB drive on launch day earlier this week, the performance is looking decent when factoring its price. The Intel 660p is certainly able to offer a significant performance boost if you are still on a SATA 3.0 SSD and especially hard drives. At $99 for the 512GB model (SSDPEKNW512G8) or $199 USD for the 1TB model, this is certainly the most affordable NVMe M.2 drives we have seen to date. Heck for a reputable SATA 3.0 SSD like the Crucial MX500 500GB it's still retailing for about $90 USD or the Samsung 860 EVO 500GB SSD at $120.

As of writing the Intel 660p SSDs can be found in-stock at NewEgg. If you would like to see how your own Linux system(s) compare to the storage benchmarks shown in this article, simply install the Phoronix Test Suite and run phoronix-test-suite benchmark 1808099-RA-INTEL660P43.