Samsung 960 EVO Preview With PM961

[Guest]

The rumor mill is buzzing about a TLC-powered successor to the 950 Pro NVMe SSD with 3D NAND. Samsung’s PM961 OEM SSD could be the low-cost 960 EVO that may predict will come to market soon, let’s take a closer look.

Samsung 960 EVO Preview With PM961 : Read more

 

[David_446]

I actually own both the SM961, 1TB srive and a PM961, 1TB drive. A friend of mine has access to them, he isn't an enthusiast but i am. I paid $580 and $490 respectively. A little expensive but I got them before most. I am running with the Samsung driver force installed and I have to admit, they BOTH fly. The temps rise only when running benchmarks, which I only ran once. My games take les than 10 seconds to load, FAST. File transfers ZIP!!! I did start out with the Windows driver but switched very soon after as my write speeds were very slow.

 

[littleleo]

So this is for a Product that has not come out and may come out this month or next month and doesn't exist right now. So you are using a existing OEM model and testing it and thinking it is close to what we should expect for the 960 Evo? I think it must be really slow there if you are doing these pseudo test in articles for a not released products. Seems like something I wouldn't expect from a Tom's.

 

[philipemaciel]

It would be nice to add SATA SSDs to this kind of comparison. For most of the readers, I believe, it would be useful to decide if it is worth the move away from SATA — which most of us are using anyway.

 

[David_446]

Well, I own both drives and appreciate the information. I acknowledge the article was in speculation of what to expect from a potential product. Much the same way the SM951 was for the 950pro. Both excellent performers. I was considering selling one of my drives to a friend, but after reading this, I think the prices I paid was reasonable for a component that is so hard to find and performs exceptionally well. If this is an indication of what you do in your "slow period" I for one am grateful. Any information is useful if you know how to use it. Thank you

 

[tripleX]

Most people probably don't recognize what investigative journalism is because it is so rare in the age of the Internets. The Samsung OEM SSDs have been the same as the retail SSDs for several generations now, so it isn't exactly rocket science to know this is the next one to come out.

Good show, Toms.

 

[CRamseyer]

It would be nice to add SATA SSDs to this kind of comparison. For most of the readers, I believe, it would be useful to decide if it is worth the move away from SATA — which most of us are using anyway.

With low-cost NVMe we will mix some SATA in the charts but for this review we wanted to go all NVMe. It's the lead for this category and shows where the new NVMe stands in relation to existing NVMe.

 

[Game256]

It's pretty strange that OEM-parts are selling all over the Europe but not presented at the biggest consumer market which is USA.

As for comparison of OEM and retail versions - yes, basically they're very close but I wouldnt' say they're the same. For example, Samsung SM951 256 Gb is significantly better than it's retail version Samsung 950 Pro 256 Gb.

 

[HERETIC-1]

Chris,why do you think Sammy goes with such a small SLC buffer?

Regularly read how Sammy is so far ahead of I/M,yet best I can
tell Sammy 3D is on 40nm and I/M is on 20nm-We know the downsides
that a smaller process brings,but the die to wafer benefits are huge...........

 

[jt_AJ1]

@LITTLELEO

wow seriously? do you honestly think these OEM drives are so far apart from retail product when they come out? makes me laugh when I see people think of ES are a lot worse than actual QS CPU chips.

PM961 is as good as it gets, fanboi

as always, great review!

 

[littleleo]

@LITTLELEO

wow seriously? do you honestly think these OEM drives are so far apart from retail product when they come out? makes me laugh when I see people think of ES are a lot worse than actual QS CPU chips.

PM961 is as good as it gets, fanboi

as always, great review!

Actually I sell the OEM versions too, and in some cases the performance and the Warranty is the same. What I'm saying is the article was a Samsung 960 EVO preview, but it was actually about the PM961. So just eval it as the PM961 with the info you expect the 960 EVO to have similar specs if you want to. I just feel this is a bit of a bait and switch article. I agree the specs are similar but, why not wait and eval the actual 960 EVO when released since it isn't that far to go. Most likely you will review it anyway, so this article will be rehashed.

It's like going to see a new model car in a showroom and the guy tells you that model isn't in yet but this other model is so close to it and we can add the same features so it will be the same, right? It is a little bit of a let down.

 

[jt_AJ1]

@LITTLELEO

wow seriously? do you honestly think these OEM drives are so far apart from retail product when they come out? makes me laugh when I see people think of ES are a lot worse than actual QS CPU chips.

PM961 is as good as it gets, fanboi

as always, great review!

Actually I sell the OEM versions too, and in some cases the performance and the Warranty is the same. What I'm saying is the article was a Samsung 960 EVO preview, but it was actually about the PM961. So just eval it as the PM961 with the info you expect the 960 EVO to have similar specs if you want to. I just feel this is a bit of a bait and switch article. I agree the specs are similar but, why not wait and eval the actual 960 EVO when released since it isn't that far to go. Most likely you will review it anyway, so this article will be rehashed.

It's like going to see a new model car in a showroom and the guy tells you that model isn't in yet but this other model is so close to it and we can add the same features so it will be the same, right? It is a little bit of a let down.

no brother, if performance in OEM version that comes in laptop are different likely there are some restriction placed. I guess you didn't read chris's review when he first did a pcie m.2 drive a yr or 2 ago so you wouldn't know.

 

[littleleo]

@LITTLELEO

wow seriously? do you honestly think these OEM drives are so far apart from retail product when they come out? makes me laugh when I see people think of ES are a lot worse than actual QS CPU chips.

PM961 is as good as it gets, fanboi

as always, great review!

Actually I sell the OEM versions too, and in some cases the performance and the Warranty is the same. What I'm saying is the article was a Samsung 960 EVO preview, but it was actually about the PM961. So just eval it as the PM961 with the info you expect the 960 EVO to have similar specs if you want to. I just feel this is a bit of a bait and switch article. I agree the specs are similar but, why not wait and eval the actual 960 EVO when released since it isn't that far to go. Most likely you will review it anyway, so this article will be rehashed.

It's like going to see a new model car in a showroom and the guy tells you that model isn't in yet but this other model is so close to it and we can add the same features so it will be the same, right? It is a little bit of a let down.

no brother, if performance in OEM version that comes in laptop are different likely there are some restriction placed. I guess you didn't read chris's review when he first did a pcie m.2 drive a yr or 2 ago so you wouldn't know.

Your argument just furthers my point why bother to evaluate a product that has not been released using an OEM version which JT has pointed out OEMs are very different?

Actually in my experience dealing with SSD there have been some OEM models close in performance and warranty to the retail version. There are also many that are not since they are tuned differently or have to make a price point so perhaps the grade A units are not used but lesser quality units from the run. There are a few variables that come into play.

 

[CRamseyer]

I already addressed this issues. There are other low-cost NVMe products coming to market. You guys already know about the Intel 600p and the Patriot Hellfire but there are more that I can't mention yet.

 

[cornbreadman_]

I just hope they keep the black PCB with the 960 Pro!
Was going to purchase the SM961 until I heard about this.

 

[ciacco85]

Why don't you test the performance of build for the developer? I don't know, I've red that building Chrominum Project is a really long operation and it would be interesting to benchmark this kinf of situation, expecially between SATA and NVMe drive

 

[brunoland]

David_446 Sep 12, 2016, 11:44 AM

I actually own both the SM961, 1TB srive and a PM961, 1TB drive. A friend of mine has access to them, he isn't an enthusiast but i am. I paid $580 and $490 respectively. A little expensive but I got them before most. I am running with the Samsung driver force installed and I have to admit, they BOTH fly. The temps rise only when running benchmarks, which I only ran once. My games take les than 10 seconds to load, FAST. File transfers ZIP!!! I did start out with the Windows driver but switched very soon after as my write speeds were very slow.

1.) So you are saying that sammy driver works on these two?
2.) Are there be any diffrent drivers with 960 serie?
3.) Can you use Magician Software (most probably not)?