Samsung SM951 NVMe vs 950 Pro

[Lemarsghast]

I am still deciding on either a 128gb sm951 nvme from ramcity or a nice black looking 256gb 950 pro. The prices are $132 and $200, respectively. Which one is better?

The 950 has 2200 mb/s read and 900 mb/s write but it is more expensive.

The sm951 has 2000 mb/s read and 600 mb/s write but less space.

Thanks and BOTH are nvme, the sm951 is not the ahci version

 

[Supermuncher85]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9396/samsung-sm951-nvme-256gb-pcie-ssd-review
The samsung seems faster in pretty much every single benchmark. My money would go samsung.

Or to quote anand "All in all, the SSD 750 remains as the best option for very IO intensive workloads, but for a more typical enthusiast the SM951-NVMe provides better performance" so lots of small IO 750 everything else samsung

 

[The Original Ralph]

actually both the units the OP referenced are samsung

the 950 PRO's advantages are:

1) it is a "retail" unit so you have warranty support from samsung direct. The 951 is "OEM" unit, and your warranty is only from the vendor. The 950 PRO's warranty is 5 yrs vs the 3 yrs for the SM951 i've seen the vendors quoting.

2) as a retail unit, samsung provides the necessary driver for NVMe use with win 7, 8.1 & 10

3) the 950 has newer tech, ie V-Nand

Personally, i'd go with the 950, but either one, read the reviews and note you should seriously consider installing active cooling, ie a fan moving air across the controller of either SSD

 

[Supermuncher85]

Ops you are right, don't know why I kept on thinking intel 750. Yeah 950 with the warranty would be my choice as well.

 

[Lemarsghast]

k thanks for you opinions. I am going for the 950 cuz of extra space, warranty as you said and the black pcb. And it's only a $68 dollar difference for twice the space.

 

[zeone]

Actually, the SM951 will throttle less so you should be able to achieve the quoted speeds for a longer period the the 950 pro. The write speeds you quote for both drives are much less than the actual speeds. The 950 pro will run cooler but throttles the speed when it gets warn.

 

[The Original Ralph]

I'm not sure the 950 PRO will throttle more than or earlier than the sm951 - johnnylucky pulled up a review that tested for the thermal throttling on the 950 on a german website - if the google translation is accurate, then throttling does not begin (or thermal set temps reached) until 120 GB of continuous writing

regardless, with either the 950 or 951, a user would be smart to incorporate some active cooling, and not just case fan cooling (the german website tested using a number of cooling combos, with case fans, fans from adjacent graphics cards, etc

link to the article in German:

http://www.computerbase.de/2015-10/samsung-ssd-950-pro-...

link to a Google translation into English:

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=ht...

The Google translation is a little rough

below is a shot i've probably posted now 20 times, but it's a fairly simple idea that i've employed with my xp941

and if it helps anyone figure what i did there, i simply took a pc of thin walled 2" aluminum angle, cut a 1.6" pc, and bored it with a 1.5" hole - in the picture below, i've added an extension to move the fan further out over the xp941 board so the fan is blowing directly over the controller, under the "ICC (circle) 20"

 

[BattlePizza]

Bought the 256GB SM951 NVMe and my new rig just a few days before the 950 PRO came out (seriously, I just got my hands on it when I heard that 950 PRO was revealed). Performance-wise, they are very similar, and I don't worry much about warranty. I'd say just buy what you can get, as they are both extremely capable SSDs.But why don't you consider 256GB SM951s? They should be cheaper than 950 PROs of the same capacity, cuz they are older. It is sold at $188 in my country.

 

[mdriggs]

Does anyone know if the NVMe driver Samsung supplies for the 950 PRO also works for the SM951?

 

[The Original Ralph]

Does anyone know if the NVMe driver Samsung supplies for the 950 PRO also works for the SM951?

a couple of users on another forum have reported success using it, as well as the NVMe driver HP offers on it's web, as HP uses or offers the 951 on some of it's models as an accessory or option