Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesIntel introduced the DC P4500 and DC P4600 enterprise NVMe SSD families in May 2017. The P4500 was the capacity-focused, read-intensive model; the P4600 was designed for mixed workloads and substantially heavier random writes. Both used Intel 3D TLC NAND, a PCIe 3.1 x4 interface, NVMe 1.2, power-loss protection and enterprise telemetry. They remain useful mainly as installed or carefully evaluated legacy hardware—not as a default choice for a new 2026 deployment.
What Intel announced in 2017
Intel positioned the drives for cloud infrastructure, software-defined and converged storage, data caching, and high-drive-count servers. The announcement concerned enterprise products rather than consumer SSDs, so predictable behavior, serviceability, health reporting and data protection mattered as much as peak throughput.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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Intel SSD DC P4500 4.0TB, 1/2 HEIGHT | $1,500.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Intel DC P4500 1 TB 2.5" Internal Solid State Drive (950688) | $285.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Intel DC P4500 4 TB Internal Solid State Drive - PCI Express - Plug-in Card | $1,400.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
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SSD DC P4500 Series | $3,800.00 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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Intel® Optane SSD P4800X Series (375GB, 1/2 Height PCIe x4, 20nm, 3D XPoint) Single Pack | $1,252.55 | Buy on Amazon |
Contemporary coverage reported production with major cloud providers and general availability targeted for June 2017. It described pricing only as competitive; no launch MSRP is established in the available material. (Tom’s Hardware, 2017)
The announcement was dated May 2, 2017 in contemporary indexing. (The SSD Review)
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P4500 versus P4600: later Intel specifications
The following values come from Intel’s later product briefs, not necessarily the first configurations shipped in 2017. “Up to” figures are vendor specifications measured under particular test conditions; they are not application guarantees.
| Attribute | DC P4500 | DC P4600 |
|---|---|---|
| NAND | Intel 3D TLC | Intel 3D TLC |
| Primary workload | Read-intensive, capacity-oriented cloud workloads | Mixed workloads and cloud data caching |
| Later listed capacities | 1, 2, 4 and 8 TB | U.2: 1.6, 2 and 3.2 TB; AIC: 2 and 4 TB |
| Sequential performance | Up to 3,300 MB/s read; 1,900 MB/s write | Up to 3,280 MB/s read; 2,100 MB/s write |
| Random performance | Up to 645,000 read IOPS; 65,600 write IOPS | Up to 702,500 read IOPS; 257,000 write IOPS |
| Interface and protocol | PCIe 3.1 x4; NVMe 1.2 | PCIe 3.1 x4; NVMe 1.2 |
| Form factors | Ruler, U.2 2.5-inch 15 mm, HHHL low-profile AIC | U.2 and AIC |
| Random/JEDEC endurance | Up to 0.75 DWPD, 7 PBW | Up to 2.9 DWPD, 21.7 PBW |
| Sequential endurance | Up to 4.62 DWPD, 19.8 PBW | Up to 4 DWPD, 29.2 PBW |
| Maximum listed read/write power | 10 W / 20 W | 9.9 W / 20.7 W |
| Published warranty term | Five years | Five years |
Sources: Intel DC P4500 product brief and Intel DC P4600 product brief. A historical warranty term does not establish coverage for a used drive purchased in 2026.
Why launch articles show different capacities
Launch-era reporting listed the P4500 at 1, 2 and 4 TB and the P4600 at 1.6, 2, 3.2 and 4 TB, alongside somewhat different performance and endurance numbers. Those are best treated as a separate 2017 snapshot. Product line expansion, qualification and test methodology can account for the differences; combining both sources into one undated table would be misleading. (Tom’s Hardware)
Rank #2
- Storage Capacity: 1 TB.
- Form Factor: 2.5-Inch, 15mm.
- Interface: PCIe NVMe 3.1 x4.
- Sequential Read Speed (Up To): 3200 MB/s.
- Sequential Write Speed (Up To): 600 MB/s.
What the 3D TLC platform changed
Contemporary reporting identified first-generation 32-layer 3D TLC NAND with 384 Gb dies. TLC stores three bits per cell, increasing density and potentially reducing cost and rack footprint compared with lower-density enterprise media. It generally has less write endurance than enterprise MLC, so controller behavior, overprovisioning, garbage collection and workload discipline become more important. (Tom’s Hardware)
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That trade-off explains the product split. A P4500 can be sensible for predominantly read traffic, while the P4600 supplies considerably more random-write headroom for mixed or cache-heavy work. TLC is not inherently better or worse than MLC; suitability depends on writes, capacity and service-life requirements.
Controller and firmware design
Intel described a new controller, reported by contemporary coverage as having 12 channels and four chip enables per channel, versus 18 channels in earlier generations. Intel and reviewers attributed much of the consistency improvement to controller and firmware work rather than NAND alone. (Tom’s Hardware)
Rank #3
- Upc: 735858321297
- Weight: 0.650 lbs
Firmware behaviors reported for the platform
- More submission and completion queues, with queue distribution across processor cores.
- “Snap reads” to avoid unnecessary NAND-page processing.
- Suspension of background operations such as garbage collection when foreground work requires it.
- Coalescing or suspending TRIM activity.
- Improved consistency while background maintenance competes with host I/O.
These are architecture and firmware descriptions attributed to Intel and contemporary reviewers, not independent guarantees for every server configuration.
NVMe 1.2, telemetry and NVMe-MI
The drives used NVMe 1.2 over PCIe 3.1 x4. Their enterprise value included management capabilities: standard SMART and health information, custom telemetry pages, thermal and endurance data, latency-distribution monitoring, firmware-management functions and multiple namespaces for logically partitioning a device. Intel also identified out-of-band management through NVMe Management Interface (NVMe-MI) in its product briefs.
NVMe-MI is platform-dependent. A compatible server backplane, management controller and software stack are required; putting a drive in a generic PCIe adapter does not automatically provide out-of-band access, hot-plug serviceability or complete telemetry.
Rank #4
Reliability and power-loss protection
- End-to-end data protection.
- Power Loss Imminent protection using capacitors and power-management components.
- Firmware-assisted handling of data and metadata during an unexpected interruption.
- Intel-specified uncorrectable bit-error rate of less than one sector per 1017 bits read.
Intel’s end-to-end protection and comparative silent-data-corruption claims reflect its stated test method and comparison set; they are not a universal reliability ranking. Power-loss protection helps preserve in-flight data and metadata, but it does not replace backups or protect against filesystem corruption, controller failure, malware or operator error. (Intel P4500 brief)
Which model fits which workload?
Choose a P4500 when
- Reads dominate and write churn is modest.
- Capacity per server matters more than sustained random-write performance.
- The device will serve read caching, content distribution, analytics reads or similar workloads.
- The lower random-write endurance rating is acceptable.
Choose a P4600 when
- Work is mixed or write-heavy, especially data-cache or write-back activity.
- Higher random-write IOPS and endurance justify the capacity or cost trade-off.
- Write bursts and background maintenance require additional headroom.
- The server can provide validated firmware and adequate cooling.
Do not select either drive from headline IOPS alone. Queue depth, block size, read/write ratio, sustained versus burst behavior, fill level, overprovisioning, RAID or SDS layers, CPU and PCIe topology, firmware, temperature and filesystem behavior all affect results.
One launch report cited 500-microsecond 99.99th-percentile latency for a specific 4K queue-depth-1 workload, described as eight times better than the DC P3700. That is a test result under stated conditions, not a general latency guarantee. Intel also noted that benchmark results depend on system configuration and that published results predated Spectre and Meltdown software patches. (Tom’s Hardware; Intel P4600 brief)
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Best Value
- Intel SSD DC P4800X PCIe
- 375GB SSD
- SSD Type : TLC
- PCI-Express-v3-x4 - HHHL
- IOPS : 550K
Deployment checks for existing drives
- Identify the form factor. Ruler, U.2 15 mm and AIC require different chassis, backplanes or adapters; they are not drop-in equivalents.
- Verify PCIe topology. Confirm a full x4 path, appropriate bifurcation and backplane support.
- Confirm serviceability. U.2 and ruler installations need server-level hot-plug and cooling support.
- Check firmware provenance. Prefer the server OEM’s validated package over an unverified generic image.
- Validate management features. NVMe-MI, namespaces and telemetry require compatible operating-system, hypervisor and management support.
- Measure remaining endurance. Compare expected host writes with SMART wear data, DWPD and PBW, not capacity alone.
- Plan sanitization. Use supported NVMe Format NVM or Sanitize procedures and follow organizational data-destruction policy.
- Check RAID or HBA support. Older controllers may not support NVMe or expose its health data correctly.
Security and lifecycle status in 2026
Intel security advisory INTEL-SA-00535 lists all versions of the DC P4500 and P4600 as affected by CVE-2021-0148. Intel directs operators to obtain mitigated firmware from the system manufacturer; where applicable, it also documents Intel Memory and Storage Tool CLI and NVMe Format NVM or Sanitize-based guidance for non-Opal products. (Intel security advisory INTEL-SA-00535)
This does not mean every installed drive must be discarded. Identify the exact model and firmware, check the OEM support matrix, schedule maintenance, validate recovery procedures and replace the device when no supported firmware or platform path exists. The PCIe 3.x interface also makes these legacy drives unsuitable for projects that require current Gen4/Gen5 bandwidth or modern platform support.
Common legacy-hardware mistakes
- Using a P4500 for heavy random writes and exhausting endurance faster than planned.
- Putting a P4600 in a consumer adapter and assuming NVMe-MI, hot-plug and telemetry remain available.
- Buying a ruler drive without a compatible chassis.
- Comparing 2017 results directly with modern Gen4 or Gen5 SSDs.
- Trusting advertised capacity without checking power-on hours, wear, SMART data and firmware history on used drives.
- Assuming the original five-year warranty still applies to second-hand hardware.
Bottom line for a new deployment
The DC P4500 and P4600 were significant 2017 enterprise NVMe products: Intel combined 3D TLC density with stronger firmware scheduling, telemetry, namespaces and power-loss protection. The P4500 remains the read-heavy, capacity-oriented choice; the P4600 is the materially stronger mixed-workload and write-endurance option. In 2026, evaluate either only as legacy infrastructure or verified used hardware, with OEM firmware, security status, remaining endurance, form-factor compatibility and platform support checked before service.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
