Review Samsung 990 EVO 2TB SSD Review: A Hybrid Drive for a Hybrid Time

[Admin]

The Samsung 990 EVO is a hybrid drive with an identity crisis, not exactly sure what it’s trying to be. This balancing act produces good performance but disappointing power efficiency in what is essentially a budget drive.

Samsung 990 EVO 2TB SSD Review: A Hybrid Drive for a Hybrid Time : Read more

 

[Notton]

If it hits 74C on a desktop, it's going to hit 85C in a laptop. Unless you add a heat-spreader.

 

[Amdlova]

If it hits 74C on a desktop, it's going to hit 85C in a laptop. Unless you add a heat-spreader.

That heat comes from the speed of TLC burning the rated endurance.

 

[MisterZ]

What does the review mean by "a hybrid drive for a hybrid time" ?

 

[yeyibi]

Samsung has the best software support in the business

Actually, to extract the performance it sells, it needs Samsung Magician, a software that is always broken. Always fails to load with windows. Always disappears from the system tray.

Samsung released dozens of versions of Samsung Magician, and every one is broken.

 

[scrumpydrew]

Actually, to extract the performance it sells, it needs Samsung Magician, a software that is always broken. Always fails to load with windows. Always disappears from the system tray.

Samsung released dozens of versions of Samsung Magician, and every one is broken.

I've been using Samsung SSDs with Magician for 10 years and never had any issues?

 

[USAFRet]

Actually, to extract the performance it sells, it needs Samsung Magician, a software that is always broken. Always fails to load with windows. Always disappears from the system tray.

Samsung released dozens of versions of Samsung Magician, and every one is broken.

My Magician installs don't do that.
Across several systems.

 

[Heiro78]

I gotta say, you do great work. And I hope it's to your continued benefit that you are freelance versus a direct employee

 

[yeyibi]

I've been using Samsung SSDs with Magician for 10 years and never had any issues?

Lucky you. I had seen it broken on dozens of machines, specially with SATA units.
Just a week ago, Somebody asked me to fix his laptop, and there was the Magician, last version, broken just after the first reboot of a clean windows installation.

 

[scrumpydrew]

Lucky you. I had seen it broken on dozens of machines, specially with SATA units.
Just a week ago, Somebody asked me to fix his laptop, and there was the Magician, last version, broken just after the first reboot of a clean windows installation.

Hmm, maybe it's a SATA specific issue. Still, I must've hit the lottery with the software never busting on me

 

[USAFRet]

Hmm, maybe it's a SATA specific issue. Still, I must've hit the lottery with the software never busting on me

Magician works just fine with my 2x Samsung SATA drives. Both 860 EVO, 1TB.
As well as the 980 Pro.

 

[yeyibi]

Magician works just fine with my 2x Samsung SATA drives. Both 860 EVO, 1TB.
As well as the 980 Pro.

Hmm, maybe it's a SATA specific issue. Still, I must've hit the lottery with the software never busting on me

Anecdotal evidence is irrelevant.

Internet is full of people complaining about Samsung Magician not working.

Example at Samsung support, and this is only ONE thread of the same problem that has been going for years and years:
Magician 7.3.0 wont start

It's 5 pages long, with lot of people complaining, including typical

Sadly this is not the first time the update has broken the software.

I've tried every update since 7.1.1. None will open a window on the desktop. 7.3 is no exception. I always have to uninstall the latest version and reinstall 7.1.1.

Just upgraded from 7.2 to 7.3 and the software now doesn't launch. Went back to 7.2 and it starts up straight away.

Fix this Samsung, it's been months...

I have not been able to 7.3 to work on any machine Windows 10 or Windows 11, various hardware configs and different Samsung SSD's SATA and NVMe.

It had been broken since the first EVO, and Samsung NEVER CARED. Each version is broken, on all models, on all Windows, for years and years.

Is not only that it fails to load, but also when it loads, it frequently does not recognizes the unallocated space for overprovisioning, even when is more than the 10% specified.

The Overprovisioning space works on one version of the software, then updates, and stops working:
Error in Over Provision in Sumsung Magican after update from v5.x to 6.1.0

It has been a permanent, consistent, always returning problem.

Samsung simply doesn't care.

 

[USAFRet]

Anecdotal evidence is irrelevant.

Internet is full of people complaining about Samsung Magician not working.

Yes, I know.

I was simply stating that it is NOT 100% universal problem.

It DOES work for some.

 

[scrumpydrew]

I should note, I've been using it on an Intel Windows 7 build and an AMD Windows 10 build, no Windows 11, laptops or prebuilds. Maybe it disappeared from the system tray with an update once, but I was able to get it back tinkering with settings.

 

[AndrewJacksonZA]

software that is always broken. Always fails to load with windows. Always disappears from the system tray.

Samsung released dozens of versions of Samsung Magician, and every one is broken.

I think that might just be you and your specific hardware configuration. Myself and others here have had no major issues with Samsung Magician.

I just wish I could control the size of the RAM cache to bigger than 1GB. I have 64GB of RAM, let me set it to 16GB!

Anecdotal evidence is irrelevant.

You're right, and your evidence is also anecdotal.

 

[yeyibi]

I think that might just be you and your specific hardware configuration. Myself and others here have had no major issues with Samsung Magician.

You're right, and your evidence is also anecdotal.

Google "samsung magician not loading" "samsung magician not working", and you will see that is a widely extended problem.

If you restrict the search to tomshardware, it returns 1800 results

I did not had a problem with "a specific hardware configuration". I saw the same problem in dozens of different computers.

Maybe it disappeared from the system tray with an update once, but I was able to get it back tinkering with settings.

Opps. Another person with one problem.

 

[scrumpydrew]

Google "samsung magician not loading" "samsung magician not working", and you will see that is a widely extended problem.

If you restrict the search to tomshardware, it returns 1800 results

I did not had a problem with "a specific hardware configuration". I saw the same problem in dozens of different computers.


Opps. Another person with one problem.

I mean, it's the type of "problem" I've had with other programs like Google Drive, Steam, etc., and it took less than a minute to fix

 

[yeyibi]

I mean, it's the type of "problem" I've had with other programs like Google Drive, Steam, etc., and it took less than a minute to fix

You should get a job at Samsung, so you fix their 8 versions of their broken software.

 

[scrumpydrew]

You should get a job at Samsung, so you fix their 8 versions of their broken software.

You keep saying it is "broken" as if it is definitively broken, when for myself and others here and others I've spoken with, it clearly is not.

Cool it with the sophomoric replies

 

[PiersPlowman]

Actually, to extract the performance it sells, it needs Samsung Magician, a software that is always broken. Always fails to load with windows. Always disappears from the system tray.

Samsung released dozens of versions of Samsung Magician, and every one is broken.

PEBKAC.

 

[yeyibi]

PEBKAC.

That's an unwarranted insult.

 

[yeyibi]

You keep saying it is "broken" as if it is definitively broken, when for myself and others here and others I've spoken with, it clearly is not.

Cool it with the sophomoric replies

I'm not the only who say sis broken. Even Samsung support is full of people saying the same sw me.I provided links.

All you argument is your personal opinion, even when yourself said that you saw the program disappearing from the task bar.

Finding a problem proves that it exists.
Not finding the problem doesn't proves that it doesn't exists, so your argumentation is irrelevant.

 

[ukperson]

Would I buy a 990 evo, no as I don't buy dramless ssd's (this should just be a 990 with no evo in its name)

This topic could do with been clean up

It's very likely it's the "windows fast start up" feature that's causing problems, open up classic power management settings and the untick the fast start up option and now shutdown the pc and you see your uptime has reset to couple of minutes uptime (look in task manager > performance > cpu before rebooting if you see days uptime in there but you shutdown your pc yesterday fast startup is enabled)

Microsoft needs to auto disable this when ssd is detected as its pointless when using an SSD and marginally benefits a HDD (but it's negatives out way the slight boot speedup you get) personally fast startup should be removed and stick With prefetching

With it enabled it can and does causes glitches with antivirus software, drivers and instability in software due to updated files on the drive but system memory still has old copy loaded causing random Problems, fast startup is like the first thing I disable when I touch a PC

some PCs i come across have 100s of days of up time when enabled because the user never chosen restart and when it brakes Windows updates is usually when I see 100-300 days uptime because the update service stops working (most of the time it's under 30 days due to windows update actually making the pc Restart to finish updates)

samsung magician has no bearing if the Samsung SSD works or not (I personally never seen it not work on the 100+ PCs I have loaded it on and generally a waste a time anyway due to no firmware updates anyway on the models I buy) would I care if it didn't work no

 

[scrumpydrew]

I'm not the only who say sis broken. Even Samsung support is full of people saying the same sw me.I provided links.

All you argument is your personal opinion, even when yourself said that you saw the program disappearing from the task bar.

Finding a problem proves that it exists.
Not finding the problem doesn't proves that it doesn't exists, so your argumentation is irrelevant.

A strong biased assertion that is "broken" flies in the face of all that I've seen and experienced. What percentage of overall purchases has issues with the software? I find it curious that in my research of SSDs, no reviewers have ever mentioned problems with Samsung Magician, or that it would be the straw that breaks the camel's back. A search on Youtube for "Samsung Magician Problems" or "Samsung Magician sucks" brings up more videos about faulty Samsung hardware with specific models than with the software.

 

[USAFRet]

I think the debate over the Magician software working or not is over.
Some people think it is completely broken, others not.

Never the twain shall meet.

Lets end that part of the discussion in here, deal?