Intel SSD DC S3710 Series 800GB Enterprise SATA SSD

Server Storage

Intel SSD DC S3710 Series 800GB Enterprise SATA SSD

Exhibit Type: Enterprise Solid-State Storage & Silicon Architecture Dossier
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Form Factor: 2.5-inch SFF (100.00 × 69.85 × 7.00 mm) in HPE 3.5″ Smart Carrier
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Interface & Protocol: SATA 6 Gbps (Revision 3.0) • AHCI / NCQ
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Controller & Memory: Intel PC29AS21CB0 (“Haleyville”) • 1 GB DDR3-1600 • Intel 20nm HET MLC
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Endurance Tier: Write-Intensive 10 DWPD • 16.9 PBW (16,900 TBW)
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Museum Inventory: 1 Unit (Intel SSDSC2BA800G4P • HPE 804671-B21 • CT UEYKE25Q79U0QZ • S/N 5CX60881LS • FW HPG6)

1. Technical Overview & Key Specifications Table

Category Property Specification
Drive Identity Model Name Intel® Solid-State Drive DC S3710 Series 800GB
Intel Generic Model Code SSDSC2BA800G4 (OEM Base) • SSDSC2BA800G4P (Physical Nameplate SKU)
HPE OEM Model Name MK0800GEYKE (HPE 800GB SATA WI SFF SC SSD)
HPE Marketing Description HPE 800GB 6G SATA Write Intensive-2 SFF 2.5-in SC 3yr Wty Solid State Drive
HPE Part Numbers Option P/N: 804671-B21 • Assembly P/N: 804638-003 • GPN: 804673-001
Museum Unit Serialization HPE CT: UEYKE25Q79U0QZ • CE SN: 5CX60881LS • ISN: BTHV546605MU800OGN
World Wide Name (WWN) 55CD2E404C144909 (IEEE OUI: 55-CD-2E Intel Corporation)
Firmware Revisions Factory Original: HPG1 • Upgraded Production: HPG6 (Aug 14, 2020)
Manufacturing Origin & Assembly Made in China • SA: H66429-300 • PBA: H33824-303 • Pb-free 2LI
Form Factor & Carrier Standard 2.5-inch SFF (7.00 mm z-height) mounted in HPE 3.5-inch LFF SmartDrive Carrier Tray
Bus Interface & Protocol SATA 6 Gbps (SATA Revision 3.0, 6/3/1.5 Gb/s) • AHCI / ATA8-ACS2 • NCQ (32 commands)
Commercial Launch Window January 2015 (High-endurance enterprise flagship replacing DC S3700)
Controller & DRAM Silicon Controller Model Intel PC29AS21CB0 (Code Name: “Haleyville” • 3rd Gen Enterprise SATA Controller)
Controller Architecture & Channels 8-Channel High-Performance Flash Controller • 32-bit RISC core architecture
Controller Predecessor Comparison Upgraded revision of PC29AS21CA0 (featured in S3700/S3500) optimized for 20nm HET MLC program timings
Error Correction Engine Proprietary Intel Enterprise Multi-Stage ECC Engine with advanced parity and soft-decision decoding
DRAM Cache Capacity 1,024 MB (1 GB) dedicated enterprise volatile buffer
DRAM Architecture & Packages 2× 512 MB DDR3-1600 SDRAM packages (front and rear PCB topology)
Address Mapping Architecture 1:1 full-span logical-to-physical address translation table maintained in RAM with zero external host paging
End-to-End Data Path Protection Full internal CRC32, parity, and ECC covering all internal SRAM, controller buses, DRAM, and flash interfaces
NAND Flash Memory Flash Manufacturer & Lithography Intel Corporation • 20 nm Planar High Endurance Technology (HET)
Cell Technology & Bits Per Cell Multi-Level Cell (MLC) • 2 bits per cell (4 discrete threshold voltage distributions)
High Endurance Technology (HET) Silicon gate oxide tuning, tailored thermal diffusion profiles, and proprietary cycling algorithms yielding enterprise endurance
Die Architecture Dual-plane monolithic dies supporting concurrent interleaved plane operations per channel
Flash Channel Interconnect 8 Flash Channels operating synchronously with multiple Chip Enables (CE) per channel
Raw Installed Flash Capacity 1,024 GB (1 TB) physical flash across 16 BGA packages
User Addressable Sectors (LBA) 1,562,824,368 Sectors (800,166,076,416 Bytes • 800.17 GB formatted capacity)
Factory Overprovisioning Reserve 224 GB (~28% factory overprovisioning spare pool) for continuous background garbage collection
Native Write Mechanics Deterministic direct-to-MLC writing with zero SLC cache degradation or write cliffs
Performance & IOPS Sequential Read (128KB, QD32) 550 MB/s (SATA 6 Gbps bus ceiling)
Sequential Write (128KB, QD32) 460 MB/s (Steady-state full-span dirty drive)
Random 4KB Read (QD32) 85,000 IOPS
Random 4KB Write (QD32) 39,000 IOPS (Steady-state enterprise preconditioned)
Random 4KB 70/30 Mixed IOPS 62,000 IOPS (Typical virtualized server workload)
Random 8KB Read / Write 52,000 IOPS Read • 19,000 IOPS Write
Average Latency (QD1) Read: 55 μs (0.055 ms) • Write: 66 μs (0.066 ms)
Quality of Service & Consistency 99.9% QoS: 500 μs Read / 5 ms Write • 90% Performance Consistency
Endurance & Reliability Drive Writes Per Day (DWPD) 10 DWPD (Guaranteed over 5 full years under 100% 4KB random writes)
Total Petabytes Written (PBW) 16.9 PBW (16,900 TBW) • Equivalent to 8.0 Terabytes written per day for 5 years
Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) 2.0 Million Operating Hours • Annualized Failure Rate (AFR): 0.44%
Uncorrectable Bit Error Rate < 1 sector per 1017 bits read (Enterprise datacenter benchmark)
Power-On to Ready Time 7.0 seconds (Clean shutdown) • Extended on capacitor power-loss recovery
Enterprise Warranty Coverage 5-Year Intel Enterprise Limited Warranty / 3-Year HPE Server Warranty
Electrical & Physical Operating Voltage & Rails 5V DC (±5%) or 5V + 12V DC dual supply support • Nameplate Rating: +5V @ 1.1A
Active Write Power Draw 5.9 W RMS Average (with PLP cap charging) • 8.8 W Burst • 11.1 W Max Burst
Active Read & Idle Power 3.0 W RMS Average Read • 600 mW (0.6 W) Idle
Operating Temperature Envelope 0°C to 70°C • Non-operating: -55°C to 95°C • Integrated thermal throttling telemetry
Dimensions & Bare Weight 100.0 mm (L) × 69.85 mm (W) × 7.00 mm (H) • Net Weight: 88 g (±2 g)
Enclosure & Carrier Construction Cast aluminum case with internal thermal pad heatsinking • HPE SmartDrive 3.5″ caddy with ejector handle
Enterprise Protection & Compliance Hardware Power Loss Protection Enhanced Power-Loss Data Protection (PLI) backed by discrete electrolytic hold-up capacitors
Cryptographic Security AES 256-bit hardware encryption engine • Sanitization via ATA Enhanced Secure Erase
Capacitor Health Self-Test Telemetry SMART Attribute AFh actively logs capacitor discharge time in μs, test intervals, and lifetime runs
Data Path Integrity Engine End-to-end CRC check and LBA tagging from host interface through internal bus to NAND cells
Regulatory Agency Certifications UL (cURus E139761) • CE • TÜV • FCC Class B • VCCI • KC • BSMI (D33025) • RCM (N232) • China RoHS (EFUP 20) • WEEE

2. Controller Silicon, FTL Architecture & Deterministic Write Mechanics

At the silicon core of the Intel SSD DC S3710 lies the proprietary Intel PC29AS21CB0 “Haleyville” storage processor. Evolving directly from the legendary PC29AS21CA0 controller that powered the pioneer DC S3700 series, the CB0 stepping was re-architected with upgraded internal microcode execution engines specifically tuned for Intel’s second-generation 20nm High Endurance Technology (HET) MLC NAND flash.

Dedicated 1 GB DDR3 FTL Buffer

The DC S3710 pairs the PC29AS21CB0 processor with 1,024 MB (1 GB) of high-speed DDR3-1600 SDRAM split across dual surface-mount packages. This memory pool houses the entire 1:1 logical-to-physical address translation (FTL) table in volatile SRAM/DRAM. Because the entire metadata structure remains permanently memory-resident, command lookup latencies are capped at an ultra-low 55 μs, completely avoiding secondary metadata flash reads.

Zero-SLC-Cache Deterministic Writing

Unlike consumer SSDs that mask slow flash program speeds using dynamic pseudo-SLC cache buffers that inevitably collapse into catastrophic write cliffs, the DC S3710 operates with strict deterministic write pipelines. Data streams directly into 20nm HET MLC NAND flash at a sustained 460 MB/s sequential and 39,000 IOPS random write rate, guaranteeing 90% performance consistency indefinitely.

8-Channel Parallelism vs. SATA Link Saturation:
The Intel PC29AS21CB0 controller coordinates 8 independent, synchronous flash channels. In this 800GB capacity, 16 multi-die MLC packages provide multiple interleaved Chip Enables (CE) per channel. This massive internal parallelism yields over 2.0 GB/s of raw internal flash bandwidth, allowing the controller to execute continuous background block reclamation, wear leveling, and capacitor self-tests without inducing command queue latency spikes on the 600 MB/s SATA III interface.

3. Monospace ASCII Silicon Architecture & Storage Topology Map

A comprehensive hardware schematic illustrating the internal interconnect topology between host interface, Intel PC29AS21CB0 controller, DDR3 cache, hardware power-loss protection capacitor bank, and the 8-channel flash array:

+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                       INTEL SSD DC S3710 SERIES 800GB ENTERPRISE SATA ARCHITECTURE                 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
                                                  |
                         [SATA 6 Gbps Interface: 7-Pin Data + 15-Pin Power (5V / 12V)]
                                                  |
                +---------------------------------v----------------------------------+
                |                                                                    |
                |               INTEL PC29AS21CB0 CONTROLLER SILICON ("HALEYVILLE")  |
                |              (Enterprise 3rd Gen SATA ASIC • 8-Channel Architecture) |
                |                                                                    |
                |  +---------------------------+       +--------------------------+  |
                |  | Protocol Front-End Engine |       | Back-End Flash Engine    |  |
                |  | SATA 6 Gbps Link & NCQ 32 |       | Wear-Leveling & GC Alloc |  |
                |  | End-to-End CRC32 Checker  |       | 1:1 FTL Mapping Manager  |  |
                |  +-------------+-------------+       +-------------+------------+  |
                |                |                                   |               |
                |  +-------------v-----------------------------------v------------+  |
                |  |      Intel Enterprise Multi-Stage ECC & Parity Protection    |  |
                |  |            (Iterative Soft-Decision & Defect Repair)         |  |
                |  +-----------------------------+--------------------------------+  |
                |                                |                                   |
                |  +-----------------------------v--------------------------------+  |
                |  |  8-Channel Synchronous Flash Interface (32 Total CE Targets) |  |
                |  +--------------------------------------------------------------+  |
                +----------------------+---------------------------+-----------------+
                                       |                           |
        +------------------------------v---+           +-----------v---------------------+
        |    DEDICATED DRAM CACHE BUFFER   |           | HARDWARE POWER LOSS PROTECTION  |
        |  1,024 MB (1 GB) DDR3-1600 SDRAM |           | Discrete Electrolytic Capacitor |
        |  Dual 512 MB Surface-Mount Chips |           | Hold-Up Array • Telemetry AFh   |
        +----------------------------------+           +---------------------------------+
                                       |
          +----------------------------+----------------------------+
          |                            |                            |
+---------v--------+          +--------v---------+         +--------v---------+         +--------v---------+
| FLASH CHANNELS   |          | FLASH CHANNELS   |         | FLASH CHANNELS   |         | FLASH CHANNELS   |
| Channels 0 & 1   |          | Channels 2 & 3   |         | Channels 4 & 5   |         | Channels 6 & 7   |
| (8 CE Targets)   |          | (8 CE Targets)   |         | (8 CE Targets)   |         | (8 CE Targets)   |
+---------+--------+          +--------+---------+         +--------+---------+         +--------+---------+
          |                            |                            |                            |
+---------v------------------++--------v------------------++--------v------------------++--------v---------+
| PACKAGES 0 - 3             || PACKAGES 4 - 7            || PACKAGES 8 - 11           || PACKAGES 12 - 15         |
| Intel 20nm HET MLC NAND    || Intel 20nm HET MLC NAND   || Intel 20nm HET MLC NAND   || Intel 20nm HET MLC NAND  |
| 4× BGA Packages (PCB Top)  || 4× BGA Packages (PCB Top) || 4× BGA Packages (Bottom) || 4× BGA Packages (Bottom)|
| Dual-Plane Monolithic Dies || Dual-Plane Monolithic Dies|| Dual-Plane Monolithic Dies|| Dual-Plane Monolithic Die|
+----------------------------++---------------------------++----------------------------++-------------------------+
| TOTAL RAW FLASH: 1,024 GB (16 Packages × 64 GB raw • 32 Concurrent Flash Planes)                            |
| USER CAPACITY: 800 GB (1,562,824,368 LBA Sectors) • FACTORY OVERPROVISIONING SPARE: 224 GB (~28% Pool)         |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

4. High Endurance Technology (HET), 20nm MLC Physics & 10 DWPD Longevity

The defining attribute of the Intel SSD DC S3710 series is its uncompromising endurance rating: 10 full Drive Writes Per Day (DWPD) for 5 consecutive years. On this 800GB drive, this equates to 16.9 Petabytes Written (16,900 TBW), or approximately 8.0 Terabytes written every single day of its operating life.

The Silicon Physics Behind High Endurance Technology (HET):
While standard consumer Multi-Level Cell (MLC) flash guarantees approximately 3,000 program/erase (P/E) cycles before dielectric breakdown, Intel’s High Endurance Technology achieves an astonishing over 50,000 P/E cycles on planar 20nm silicon. Intel achieved this breakthrough through three interrelated engineering vectors:

  1. Silicon Doping & Oxide Purity: Thickened, defect-free tunnel oxide layers engineered to withstand high electron tunneling potentials without developing parasitic traps.
  2. Precision Cell Cycling Algorithms: Pulse-shaping program voltages that incrementally nudge electrons into the floating gate, avoiding structural oxide stress.
  3. Massive 28% Factory Overprovisioning: 224 GB of spare flash enables the controller to absorb random 4KB writes across fresh, unfragmented physical blocks, reducing the Write Amplification Factor (WAF) to near unity.

Drive Model & NAND Architecture Endurance Rating (DWPD) Lifetime 5-Year TBW Target Datacenter Duty
Intel SSD DC S3710 800GB (20nm HET MLC) 10.0 DWPD 16,900 TBW (16.9 PBW) Write Intensive (ZFS SLOG, OLTP DB, Logging)
Intel SSD DC S3610 800GB (20nm Standard MLC) 3.0 DWPD 5,300 TBW (5.3 PBW) Mixed Use (Virtualization, Web, File)
Intel SSD DC S3510 800GB (16nm Standard MLC) 0.3 DWPD 460 TBW Read Intensive (Boot, Web Hosting)
Micron 5210 ION 1.9 TB (64L 3D QLC) 0.2 – 0.8 DWPD 280 – 2,803 TBW Read-Centric Archival / Media Streaming
Consumer SATA SSD 1 TB (TLC / QLC) 0.1 – 0.3 DWPD 300 – 600 TBW Client Desktop / Laptop (No PLP Protection)

5. Enterprise Power-Loss Protection (PLP) & Advanced SMART Telemetry

A primary vulnerability of enterprise storage arrays is unexpected host power severance while uncommitted write buffers reside in volatile memory. Intel’s Enhanced Power-Loss Data Protection (PLI) integrates discrete hold-up capacitors directly onto the PCB, providing sufficient auxiliary energy to safely write all in-flight data and commit the DRAM FTL journal into non-volatile MLC NAND flash.

ID SMART Attribute Name Threshold Enterprise Functional Role & Measurement
05h Re-allocated Sector Count 0 (None) Reports cumulative retired physical flash blocks since leaving the factory.
09h Power-On Hours Count 0 (None) Cumulative operational hours across the entire lifespan of the SSD.
0Ch Power Cycle Count 0 (None) Total complete power cycle events recorded by the controller.
AAh Available Reserved Space 10% Normalized available pool of overprovisioned factory reserve blocks (starts at 100).
AEh Unexpected Power Loss Count 0 (None) Unclean host shutdowns occurring without prior STANDBY IMMEDIATE command.
AFh Power Loss Protection Failure 10% Capacitor Discharge Health Telemetry: Bytes 0-1 log capacitor discharge time in μs (valid: 25 to 5,000,000 μs); Bytes 2-3 log minutes since last test; Bytes 4-5 record lifetime test count.
B8h End-to-End Error Detection Count 90 Detects and reports LBA tag mismatches across internal data pathways.
BBh Uncorrectable Error Count 0 (None) Flash read errors that exceeded the ECC engine’s recovery capacity.
C2h Device Internal Temperature 0 (None) Direct PCB temperature telemetry reported by on-die thermal sensors.
E1h Total Host Writes 0 (None) Raw counter increments by 1 for every 65,536 sectors (32 MB) written by host.
E9h Media Wearout Indicator 0 (None) Normalized value declines linearly from 100 to 1 as average erase cycle count approaches maximum rated endurance.
EAh Thermal Throttle Status 0 (None) Byte 0 reports throttling percentage (0 = No Throttle, 100 = 100% throttling); Bytes 1-4 report total lifetime throttle events.

6. Authentic Hardware Photography & Physical Silicon Inspection

High-resolution physical optical inspection of the museum’s Intel SSD DC S3710 800GB unit mounted in its authentic Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) 3.5-inch SmartDrive carrier converter tray:

Exhibit 6.1: Physical Drive in HPE Smart Carrier LFF Converter Frame

Intel SSD DC S3710 Series 800GB Enterprise SATA SSD in HPE 3.5-inch SmartDrive Carrier Tray

Museum Hardware Artifact: Authentic Intel SSD DC S3710 800GB enterprise solid-state drive (Model: SSDSC2BA800G4P, HPE Model: MK0800GEYKE, Option P/N: 804671-B21) mounted in an HPE 3.5″ SmartDrive converter frame featuring hot-swap ejection handle, thermal ventilation fins, and blue vibration-damping grommets.

Production Nameplate Data Decoded

  • Intel SSD DC S3710 Series 800GB: Primary Intel enterprise model designation.
  • Model: SSDSC2BA800G4P: Intel ordering code for 800GB 2.5″ 7mm form factor.
  • HPE Model: MK0800GEYKE: HPE enterprise firmware SKU for Write Intensive (WI) duty.
  • CT: UEYKE25Q79U0QZ: HPE Component Tracking identifier.
  • CE SN: 5CX60881LS: Holographic authenticity tracking serial number.
  • ISN: BTHV546605MU800OGN: Internal factory barcode tracking identifier.
  • SA: H66429-300 • PBA: H33824-303: Intel factory stock and printed board assembly revisions.
  • WWN: 55CD2E404C144909: IEEE registered unique 64-bit storage identifier.

Carrier Mechanics & Electrical Conformity

  • Electrical Nameplate: +5V 1.1A indicates nominal active power draw of 5.5 W, aligning precisely with Intel Table 8 measurements.
  • HPE Smart Carrier Tray: Part 804673-001 converts the 2.5″ drive to standard 3.5″ LFF bays, providing quick-eject latches and LED light guides for drive activity/fault state.
  • Acoustic & Vibration Dampening: Integrated blue silicone isolation bushings decouple server chassis vibration from the SSD’s delicate internal soldered BGA matrix.
  • Thermal Ventilation: Cast aluminum heatsink side fins facilitate passive airflow channeling across the drive chassis inside dense server backplanes.

7. Curator’s Assessment & Homelab Applicability

The Intel SSD DC S3710 represents the pinnacle of SATA enterprise solid-state engineering. Built during an era when planar NAND endurance was prioritized above absolute die stacking density, the S3710 occupies an elite tier that modern QLC and TLC drives simply cannot match:

  • The Ultimate ZFS SLOG (Separate Intent Log) Device: In TrueNAS, Proxmox VE, and enterprise ZFS deployments, synchronous write performance depends entirely on the write-log device. Consumer drives without full power-loss protection (PLP) or with pseudo-SLC caching induce high latency spikes under synchronous ZFS writes. The S3710 combines full hardware PLP, sub-70 μs write latency, and 16.9 PBW endurance, making it the definitive SATA SLOG accelerator for mission-critical pools.
  • Unbreakable Virtual Machine Root & Database Storage: Heavy random write workloads, such as transactional databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB), Redis caching instances, and time-series telemetry loggers (InfluxDB, Prometheus), rapidly exhaust the write cycles of client SSDs. The S3710 absorbs 10 full drive writes per day without breaking a sweat, providing continuous, deterministic 39,000 IOPS write throughput.
  • Enterprise Peace of Mind via Hardware PLP: Sudden power interruptions that corrupt unbuffered FTL tables in consumer drives are seamlessly handled by the S3710’s hold-up capacitor bank. In-flight write buffers and DRAM FTL journals are safely committed to 20nm HET MLC NAND every single time.
  • Museum Hardware Provenance: Mateo’s Museum preserves 1 physical unit of the Intel SSD DC S3710 Series 800GB (Intel Model: SSDSC2BA800G4P, HPE Model: MK0800GEYKE, HPE Option P/N: 804671-B21, Assembly P/N: 804638-003, GPN: 804673-001, HPE Component Tracking CT: UEYKE25Q79U0QZ, Holographic Serial: 5CX60881LS, Internal Serial: BTHV546605MU800OGN, WWN: 55CD2E404C144909). The drive was originally provisioned with factory firmware HPG1 and subsequently upgraded to HPE production release HPG6 (August 14, 2020), securing updated PLP discharge diagnostics and thermal management routines. Mounted in its authentic 3.5″ SmartDrive carrier frame, this unit represents a masterclass in datacenter silicon reliability.