Samsung 850 Pro SSD Review: 3D Vertical NAND Hits Desktop Storage

[2Be_or_Not2Be]

Looking forward to future generations of 3D Vertical Nand on M.2 / M.2 Ultra interface. Too bad SATA 3 is all maxed out and the next generation standards are not yet mainstream for the masses which is holding back SSD performance. As far as this drive goes, it's only slightly faster than MX100 but costs double. I don't think it's worth it. MX100 512GB sounds like a perfect stop-gap until M.2/SATAe drives arrive with 1-1.5TB/sec throughput. Perhaps Samsung will give us 95% of the performance for a fraction of the price in the 850 EVO.

Price/performance are not the only factors to consider here. You have much greater write endurance with the 850 as well as being much better in performance consistency & latency. Those factors alone might convince you to use these in servers instead of some 15k SAS drives. I wouldn't consider the Crucial MX100 for a server, but I would consider the Samsung 850 Pro.

 

[Toddskins]

I think that most of you who are nay-saying, completely miss the point. For one, the "out the gate" price on the 850 is typical of all business leaders competing for pole position. The price helps to reaffirm it as the superior product. Then, the price begins to drop into the reach of the masses. It's normal. Next, not being happy about the newest invention because it seems to be throttled by the SATA 3 protocol is silly. There is ALWAYS a mismatch between current uses, existing technology, and technologies on the drawing board. Nobody stops developing because the other has not caught up yet.

If I had some to invest, I'd be buying Samsung stock right now.

Good Job SAMSUNG! Hear, hear!

 

[cmartin011]

They have to break the limits of pci express so they can open up more lanes for fast storage especially 4 of these in raid in Sata 3 Or soon SATA express platform will eventually be the bottle neck especially in the next generation 3d Nand cells

 

[mapesdhs]

That's why I keep saying Intel should update the 'mainstream' chipset to have 32 lanes,
not the woeful 16 it has atm, and then move whatever happens after X99 upwards to 80
or something, so 6/8/10/etc.-core top-end systems can have full x16/x16/x16/x16
CF/SLI/Gcompute without the need for PLEX chips or somesuch, in both cases leaving
plenty of lanes left over to provide all the new storage connections without having to mess
around with lane allocations and port choices. Are you listening, Intel? Make it good, I'll buy it.

Ian.

 

[cryan]

I think that most of you who are nay-saying, completely miss the point. For one, the "out the gate" price on the 850 is typical of all business leaders competing for pole position. The price helps to reaffirm it as the superior product. Then, the price begins to drop into the reach of the masses. It's normal. Next, not being happy about the newest invention because it seems to be throttled by the SATA 3 protocol is silly. There is ALWAYS a mismatch between current uses, existing technology, and technologies on the drawing board. Nobody stops developing because the other has not caught up yet.

If I had some to invest, I'd be buying Samsung stock right now.

Good Job SAMSUNG! Hear, hear!

I think Samsung probably has the best margins in the business, but I also believe that the new 3D NAND is still in its early production phases. One day, all the flash that Samsung crams in its consumer electronics devices will most likely be V-NAND. But for now, it makes sense to use what little flash can be made in SSDs.

And yeah, that means slapping a fairly high sticker on it. Most people do not need this drive, and for those I say look to Crucial or the EVO, or any of the other mainstream solutions.

Don't get disheartened because SATA III still holds these drives back. First, it's not just SATA but AHCI, and second, the AHCI-based PCIe solutions (including the XP941) aren't much better than one 850 Pro.

Regards,
Christoper Ryan

 

[wolverine96]

I still love my 256GB 840 Pro, and would buy more of the same as of now.

 

[WyomingKnott]

I'm running an SSD on a motherboard with SATA II ports. Yes, it throttles the performance, but for what I do with the machine it flies as far as I am concerned. "Good enough."

 

[Brogan]

I still love my 256GB 840 Pro, and would buy more of the same as of now.

Amazon has the 850 Pro 256GB on pre-order sale for $199.99.

The 840 Pro is $198.71

Think I know which one I'm buying.

 

[wolverine96]

Amazon has the 850 Pro 256GB on pre-order sale for $199.99.

The 840 Pro is $198.71

Think I know which one I'm buying.

That is true. However, I am sure the price will go up after the release date. So if you want to buy it, buy it now!

 

[Novuake]

Sigh the bots are back!

 

[dgingeri]

I'm not so sure the price will go up after release. It might a little bit, but I doubt by more than 10%. More than likely, due to market forces developing right now, we're likely to see these drop by 15-20% over the next 6 months. Other manufacturers are developing their technology and production techniques as well. We're going to have competing drives at lower prices pretty soon, and that will force prices down. It's a good time to be needing SSDs.

Unfortunately for me, I have two of the higher end drives already. The upgrades available would give me less than a 5% boost. These are great drives, but they're just not for me right now. If my 840 Pro or 840 EVO go out, then I'll buy an 850 Pro.

 

[Draven35]

IOPS can't crank up to RAM levels... because of bandwidth.

 

[Shooterz]

I need help connecting the wires that connect to the mother board connect to the hard drive and connect to the disc drive correctly for a Dell computer tower

 

[Brogan]

I need help connecting the wires that connect to the mother board connect to the hard drive and connect to the disc drive correctly for a Dell computer tower

I think it's the red wire.... No! It's the blue! The Blue!

 

[Flying-Q]

I need help connecting the wires that connect to the mother board connect to the hard drive and connect to the disc drive correctly for a Dell computer tower

Post a question on the main forum under the storage category giving more detail about your difficulty and I'm sure you will get an answer in minutes.

 

[at00]

The product table on page 1 identifies these new Samsung SSDs as "Samsung EVO 850 Pro ..." but shouldn't they be called "Samsung 850 Pro ..."?

 

[fwupow]

Bought one today from Amazon, They charged me 119.99 at the time. I'm gonna put it in my desktop PC. I've never had an SSD before. I was sold on the V-Nand and the performance. I also don't like buying old technology when something newer and better has come out. I'm not a power-user, but can your PC ever power-up fast enough? Mine is OFF most of the time, but when I need to use it, I want it ON now! Everyday I have to put up with the misery of computers that sit there doing Lord-Only-Knows-What after I've pressed, clicked or entered something. The ultimate achievement in electronic devices is to build something that is instantly responsive. The user experience has actually deteriorated in some areas like web-surfing, where there are some many auto-play videos and ads that page load times get ridiculous. Well, anyhow, I can't wait to install this thing and discover how fast my PC goes from dead-cold OFF to apps open and ready. If it's drastically faster, then it's worth 120 bucks.

 

[4COM]

Where is the Plextor M6E ?

After being highlighted twice in the first two test pages, it disappears from all remaining tests ! Are the forward voluntarily to put the 850 Pro?