Samsung 960 Pro v.s. SM961

[Maalikm]

To Tom's Hardware community
I am building a new gaming PC, and I need lightning fast storage for it. However, I do not need, nor can I afford a $300 512GB SSD. So I found the 256GB SM961 OEM SSD.

From my understanding, there should not be any difference in performance between the retail and OEM versions of these drives, but is that the case, is there any tangible difference between the two?

From
Confused Gamer

 

[R_1]

OEM or Original Equipment Manufacturer parts do not come with packaging, manual, drivers, or any of the other bells and whistles that a retail product comes with - be aware sometimes this includes warranty- as that will be the OEM responsibility for support.the actual parts is the same, the labels have been changed and model numbers changed but the parts should be identical. -True for MOST OEM PARTS

http://ssd.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Samsung-PM961-NVMe-PCIe-M2-256GB-vs-Samsung-960-Evo-NVMe-PCIe-M2-250GB/m174249vsm200373

the 2% variance will not be noticeable outside of benchmarks and is within testing error margin

 

[madmatt30]

They are not the exact same drive.
The 960 pro has a native turbowrite function to boost writes from what I read.

The sm961 is actually faster in some scenarios (between the pro & evo)

 

[R_1]

The drives in question are not identical. oops
my first post was on OEM parts in general.
the 960 and 961 have different capacities, the 960 reserves 6GB for some reason. maybe the turbo? the 961 gives you the 6GB.

 

[pressboxphoto]

Ref: http://www.fudzilla.com/reviews/42798-samsung-s-third-generation-sm961-256gb-nvme-ssd-reviewed?start=3

"Over-provisioning is a technique that allocates a set amount of spare area on the drive to give the controller more room to perform garbage collection routines, often giving higher random read and write performance in some situations but making no difference in others. Some manufacturers employ this technique right out of the box, offering consumers 250GB and 480GB drives instead of the full 256GB or 500GB capacities."

 

[JohnnyLucky]

I do not recommend OEM solid state drives for the following reasons:

1. There is no warranty from the ssd manufacturer. With one exception, OEM ssd's were never meant to be purchased by consumers. Instead, the OEM drives were designed and configured for use by individual computer manufacturers like Dell, Lenovo, Apple, HP, Acer, etc.. etc. Technical support is the responsibility of the pc manufacturer.

2. OEM ssd's very rarely have the same specifications and configurations as consumer drives. In fact, the same OEM drive such as the 961 may have numerous different specifications and configurations. When negotiating for OEM drives, companies will specify which features and components they may or may not want. One company may specify fewer features to reduce costs while another company may specify additional features to get ahead of the competition. That is why Samsung has so many Model, Part, and SKU numbers for each OEM drive.

Benchmarks are referred to as "synthetic benchmarks" for a reason. They are not real. With very few exceptions the benchmarks are designed so that ssd manufacturers can change settings and testing methods in order to show their products in the best light possible. At best, the benchmarks are only a very rough approximation of what kind of performance to expect.

SSD's might improve some aspects of gaming such as load times, but they usually do not improve actual gameplay or FPS.

If you are on a limited budget, I would suggest a standard SATA 3 6Gb/s ssd such as the Samsung 850 EVO instead of the SM961. The 850 EVO is Samsung's best selling ssd. It performs exceptionally well, and has a proven track record. There are other ssd's which would also meet you needs.

I maintain a consumer ssd database that is listed in a sticky at the very top of this forum section. Here is the link:

http://www.johnnylucky.org/data-storage/ssd-database.html

The database is divided into various categories; displays basic information for each model; and contains links to technical reviews. The reviews are divided into two groups - English language reviews and reviews in many other languages. There are no advertisements, pop-ups, or other distractions. It is strictly a hobby. Scroll down to any ssd's you might be interested in and follow the links to the technical reviews.