Intel Demos SSD Overclocking News Offering K-series Unlocked SSDs in The Future

       This month, Intel turned heads at several technology conference by demonstrating solid-state disk overclocking something that has never been possible before, due to the inability to access the controls that would allow it at both the PAX prime conference and at its own Intel Developer’s Forum, Chipzilla trotted out a prototype SSD with custom software that allows a user to tweak both the clock speed of the SSD’s onboard memory controller and the speed of the memory bus that transmits data between the controller and the NAAND flash. Intel says it is considering offering the technology to consumers, but for now it’s just testing the waters.

EXTEME TUNNING, INDEED
In the demonstrations, Intel loaded up its Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) software and used it to control a prototype enterprise drive. The demonstrator began by changing the speed at which the SSD’s onboard controller was running, taking it from its stock 400MHz all the way up to 625MHz. Next, the demonstrator altered the frequency of the memory bus used by the memory bus used by the NAND flash; going from 83MHz to 100MHz. Intel ran a few benchmarks to show the performance gains. Admittedly, gains were modest, with most scores improving by roughly 10-15 percent; some benchmarks responded better to overclocking than others. What was most impressive was the ease at which the gains were brought about—a simple flick of the swith, essentially—but we’re skeptical that anyone in the “real world” would even notice such a difference in what is already an incredibly fast device. The average user would barely notice a boost in sequential read speeds from 450MB/s to 500MB/s, for example.
RISKY BUSINESS

The bigger question here isn’t whether overclocking will improve performance, as we know it will, but rather whether it will shorten an SSD’s lifespan or compromise data integrity in any way. So far, Intel hasn’t offered any specifics on what kind of impact it will have, but we know it will have some impact because, well, that’s how overclocking works. Intel was also handing out surveys at PAX that asked people what they thought about SSD overclocking, and that included scary responses such as: “[I support] Unlimited Overclocking, the OS can always be re-installed,” and, “l’d trade the life of the drive for more speed.”
FOR INTEL ONLY
If Intel brings this product to marked, it will be in the form of new K-series “unlocked” SSDs that are similar to its K-series CPUs. There’s also a high probability that the setting will include bus-frequency adjustment, controller clock speed, and power-consumption levels, as well. As an example, you could possibly adjust the SSD’s power setting like you do your display’s, telling it to sip power if you’re using a laptop, or guzzle as much juice as needed if you’re on a desktop.
COLOR US UNCONVINCED
Though we appreciate Intel’s initiative in the one, we have to say that the integrity of our data and more precious to us than a hardly noticeable speed gain. We love overclocking, and we love SSDs, but in our opinion, we should just keep the two separate for now.