Samsung 970 EVO SSD Review: The 64-Layer Refresh

[stollen123]

Is Samsung SSD 970 EVO compatible with Dell xps 15 9560?

 

[AlistairAB]

I wouldn't exactly call the MX500's read/write speeds of 560/510 MB/s and 95/90k IOPS "catching up". It surprised me when I read that so I went to double check. The MX500 is not even as fast as the 960 EVO (Actually, it's less than half as fast) much less the 970, and it's more expensive, at 121.99 being the least expensive I could find one for, although the double storage space is nice, users looking for fast drives are more worried about performance than they are about doubling the capacity of a much slower drive.

Unless you can show conclusive performance versus pricing, with links, I'm afraid I can't agree with the validity of some of the information shown here.

This is for you, Darkbreeze I'm not sure why you think the 960 evo is that fast (make sure to focus on QD1-4, QD32 is just marketing for 99 percent of people), when the MX500 is really really fast! I own both drives. The random read sustained over QD 1-4 is really the same. Here's a graph as proof:

MX500 1tb is 72 MB/s random 4k read, QD1-4
Samsung 960 EVO 1tb is 101 MB/s.

Pretty small difference for double the price!

 

[AlistairAB]

No, it's not. Especially not when it comes to random read/write speed. Those operations are significantly slower than the 960 EVO, at least on paper. As far as sequential speeds, it's slower as well, but not by enough that you'll likely notice it overmuch. Still, if the prices are the same or within a reasonable distance of each other I'd easily choose the 960 over the WD Black.

101 vs 89 MB/s, pretty close

Samsung found a good way to exaggerate the performance of their NVMe drives. I feel stupid having paid 1000 dollars CAD at launch for 1TB 960 EVO, and finding out that the 960 EVO barely outperformed my 850 Pro in real world use.

Get the cheapest 2TB SSD with good performance that you can find in my opinion. Crucial MX500 (2TB drive for $520 CAD is the best I've found).

 

[eodeo]

How do any of these drives compare to older models like Samsung 840 evo? What's it like using 970 evo as a daily driver vs an older sata 3 model? Is it worth upgrading? Is it worth upgrading if m.2 option is non existent on the host motherboard? How fast does Win start? Games? Programs?

That would be very interesting to know.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Personally, I'd never purchase a drive that large as the OS drive anyhow. I have, likely, 20-30 more programs installed than most users will ever have. And those are applications that actually get used, often, and can't imagine ever having a need for an OS drive that large for my purposes. And we know the performance differences between the ~250-500GB models is significantly different than for the bigger ones, so I'm not sure your comparison is relevant to me.

But whatever. Glad your happy with what you have. I'll be happy with the E12 based drive I get whenever they release.

 

[CRamseyer]

I should have an E12 here this week for a preview article going into Computex (early June).

 

[Darkbreeze]

Nice. I'm really interested in those since reading the previous article on them a few weeks back.

 

[gdmaclew]

The price at Newegg for the Samsung 970 EVO (500GB) is currently $229.99 (and that's on sale for the next 3 days).

 

[kinney]

Shoot. I was hoping to replace my 960 Pro 1TB with a 970 Pro 2TB. Well, serves me right for not buying that last year. I'm going to hold now, but eventually have to pickup the 2TB Evo and the associated performance loss. Which should be fine, but I've always used MLC configurations.

 

[CRamseyer]

We should see a number of 2TB NVMe drives at Computex. Silicon Motion also has the higher tier SM2262EN coming soon. The Phison E12 will be out soon and both companies will supply the tools for 2TB versions to partners.

 

[kinney]

We should see a number of 2TB NVMe drives at Computex. Silicon Motion also has the higher tier SM2262EN coming soon. The Phison E12 will be out soon and both companies will supply the tools for 2TB versions to partners.

Interesting, but MLC? 2TB 960 Pro is what I should've gone with when I had the chance. I'd get one now but not buying the old controller again. I'll just see what comes out soon... hardly a big hurry for me.

 

[ethanl]

I like the HP EX920 better

 

[Philballer17]

I'm sticking with my 860 PRO and never turning my head for anything else.

 

[kiniku]

If you are an average gamer that does some productivity on the side, in other words, you're not dealing with copying or manipulating very large files on a routine basis an SATA Samsung EVO 860 is the best drive for MOST those people.