Featuring our latest V-NAND technology and a newly enhanced Phoenix controller, Samsung 970 EVO Series NVMe M.2 SSDs deliver outstanding performance in Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe), with exceptionally fast sequential speeds outperforming our previous 960 EVO models. Plus, Samsung's Magician software solution provides advanced functionality for you to manage, monitor and maintain your drive. This model is packaged in a simple white box to support the needs of our solution providers.
Featuring our latest V-NAND technology and a newly enhanced Phoenix controller, Samsung 970 EVO Series NVMe M.2 SSDs deliver outstanding performance in Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe), with exceptionally fast sequential speeds outperforming our previous 960 EVO models. Plus, Samsung's Magician software solution provides advanced functionality for you to manage, monitor and maintain your drive. This model is packaged in a simple white box to support the needs of our solution providers.
Featuring our latest V-NAND technology and a newly enhanced Phoenix controller, Samsung 970 EVO Series NVMe M.2 SSDs deliver outstanding performance in Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe), with exceptionally fast sequential speeds outperforming our previous 960 EVO models. Plus, Samsung's Magician software solution provides advanced functionality for you to manage, monitor and maintain your drive. This model is packaged in a simple white box to support the needs of our solution providers.
Featuring our latest V-NAND technology and a newly enhanced Phoenix controller, Samsung 970 EVO Series NVMe M.2 SSDs deliver outstanding performance in Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe), with exceptionally fast sequential speeds outperforming our previous 960 EVO models. Plus, Samsung's Magician software solution provides advanced functionality for you to manage, monitor and maintain your drive. This model is packaged in a simple white box to support the needs of our solution providers.
Last updated at 05/11/2026 12:01:49
970 EVO NVMe Series 1TB M.2 PCI-Express 3.0 x 4 Solid State Drive (V-NAND)
Free delivery between 20–22 May
originally posted on bestbuy.com
I ordered this refurbished M.2 SSD to fill the second slot on my ATX form-factor motherboard. The SSD was re-packaged in manufacturer's original packaging, and that packaging survived shipping in an oversized brown box with no other padding. No shipping damage to the SSD.Once I had my PC's case open, I realized that the package did not include an M.2 screw to keep the drive attached to the motherboard. Thankfully I kept EVERYTHING from my original PC build, otherwise I would have had to go out and buy a new screw. This had me worried for a few minutes.Since I was adding a second drive, the SSD didn't show up at first in Windows Explorer. I found a tutorial online, formatted and assigned the volume using Windows Disk Management, and now it works great. Fast ... MoreI ordered this refurbished M.2 SSD to fill the second slot on my ATX form-factor motherboard. The SSD was re-packaged in manufacturer's original packaging, and that packaging survived shipping in an oversized brown box with no other padding. No shipping damage to the SSD.Once I had my PC's case open, I realized that the package did not include an M.2 screw to keep the drive attached to the motherboard. Thankfully I kept EVERYTHING from my original PC build, otherwise I would have had to go out and buy a new screw. This had me worried for a few minutes.Since I was adding a second drive, the SSD didn't show up at first in Windows Explorer. I found a tutorial online, formatted and assigned the volume using Windows Disk Management, and now it works great. Fast transfer speeds and I rarely see any hang-time when opening files. Good SSD for the money but you may need some DIY know-how to get it set up and working.
originally posted on ebay.com
Thanks to Black Friday, I jumped on the opportunity of picking two of these. Design wise, the black PCB has that nice and simple design that is clear for the ones wanting something more "simple" and "professional" looking. While some persons criticize the Elpis revision over the older Phoenix version of this unit, the newer control does have some real-world benefits compared to what Phoenix could do. It's important to note that the cache on the Elpis is much, much higher than what Phoenix could handle, generally x3 the amount. The flaw/drawback is mostly that once that's filled up, the Elpis control operates slower than the Phoenix. This could be an issue for some when it comes to larger files, but for anyone else who's more of a regular user this is fine. The TBW ... MoreThanks to Black Friday, I jumped on the opportunity of picking two of these. Design wise, the black PCB has that nice and simple design that is clear for the ones wanting something more "simple" and "professional" looking. While some persons criticize the Elpis revision over the older Phoenix version of this unit, the newer control does have some real-world benefits compared to what Phoenix could do. It's important to note that the cache on the Elpis is much, much higher than what Phoenix could handle, generally x3 the amount. The flaw/drawback is mostly that once that's filled up, the Elpis control operates slower than the Phoenix. This could be an issue for some when it comes to larger files, but for anyone else who's more of a regular user this is fine. The TBW on these isn't all too special, but it should be fine for the general person picking up a TLC SSD. Of course though, with Black Friday it's hard to not recommend a 2TB NVME for just 189.99$, quite a steal for a good PCIe 3 unit with a decent 1200TBW. The only real problem that may come for some users is related to the higher temperatures that the Elpis causes when it's under load. This generally seems to be an extra 10 degrees Celsius over how Phoenix operated, which could result in issues for some persons who maybe a little restricted or tight when it comes to the open space available for an SSD. I do recommend getting a heatsink (Even if it's just a small copper plate with some thermal pads) to maintain that temperature under some form of control if it gets a little too hot for the drive's safety. On a brighter note, Elpis does allow for what seems to be rather low temperatures while the drive is idling.
originally posted on bestbuy.com
I bought this to replace a failing NVMe Windows 10 system drive. (I used Acronis software and a USB enclosure to clone the original drive). As a replacement drive, it seems to be working fine, but I have a few gripes about the documentation.First, Samsung's website mentions downloading drivers and software, but the included documentation really doesn't talk about that. It just tells you to refer to your PC's instructions for installation.Attempting to install the Samsung driver unceremoniously failed, and you cannot install the Samsung utility software without their driver. After digging around support websites, it appears that it probably failed because I have RAID enabled in my BIOS. Although I'm not currently using RAID on this PC, I have used it on other ... MoreI bought this to replace a failing NVMe Windows 10 system drive. (I used Acronis software and a USB enclosure to clone the original drive). As a replacement drive, it seems to be working fine, but I have a few gripes about the documentation.First, Samsung's website mentions downloading drivers and software, but the included documentation really doesn't talk about that. It just tells you to refer to your PC's instructions for installation.Attempting to install the Samsung driver unceremoniously failed, and you cannot install the Samsung utility software without their driver. After digging around support websites, it appears that it probably failed because I have RAID enabled in my BIOS. Although I'm not currently using RAID on this PC, I have used it on other machines and like to have it as an option. This strikes me as kind of a silly limitation. And frankly, the drive seems to be working just fine with Microsoft's driver, so I'm not really clear what big advantage there would be to using Samsung's driver and utility.Finally, the package does not say it is compatible with Windows 11, which I will be upgrading to someday. Again from digging around support websites, it appears that the Samsung driver will run under Windows 11, but will not support some of the game performance features of Windows 11. In my opinion, this is one more reason to stick with the Microsoft driver.And as a side note: the serial number on the side of the box was missing a letter at the end, so I couldn't register the product with Samsung without pulling the drive out of the PC I'd just installed it in to get the last character of the S/N. Another needless oversight in my opinion.
970 EVO NVMe Series 1TB M.2 PCI-Express 3.0 x 4 Solid State Drive (V-NAND)
Free delivery between 20–22 May
I ordered this refurbished M.2 SSD to fill the second slot on my ATX form-factor motherboard. The SSD was re-packaged in manufacturer's original packaging, and that packaging survived shipping in an oversized brown box with no other padding. No shipping damage to the SSD.Once I had my PC's case open, I realized that the package did not include an M.2 screw to keep the drive attached to the motherboard. Thankfully I kept EVERYTHING from my original PC build, otherwise I would have had to go out and buy a new screw. This had me worried for a few minutes.Since I was adding a second drive, the SSD didn't show up at first in Windows Explorer. I found a tutorial online, formatted and assigned the volume using Windows Disk Management, and now it works great. Fast ... MoreI ordered this refurbished M.2 SSD to fill the second slot on my ATX form-factor motherboard. The SSD was re-packaged in manufacturer's original packaging, and that packaging survived shipping in an oversized brown box with no other padding. No shipping damage to the SSD.Once I had my PC's case open, I realized that the package did not include an M.2 screw to keep the drive attached to the motherboard. Thankfully I kept EVERYTHING from my original PC build, otherwise I would have had to go out and buy a new screw. This had me worried for a few minutes.Since I was adding a second drive, the SSD didn't show up at first in Windows Explorer. I found a tutorial online, formatted and assigned the volume using Windows Disk Management, and now it works great. Fast transfer speeds and I rarely see any hang-time when opening files. Good SSD for the money but you may need some DIY know-how to get it set up and working.
Thanks to Black Friday, I jumped on the opportunity of picking two of these. Design wise, the black PCB has that nice and simple design that is clear for the ones wanting something more "simple" and "professional" looking. While some persons criticize the Elpis revision over the older Phoenix version of this unit, the newer control does have some real-world benefits compared to what Phoenix could do. It's important to note that the cache on the Elpis is much, much higher than what Phoenix could handle, generally x3 the amount. The flaw/drawback is mostly that once that's filled up, the Elpis control operates slower than the Phoenix. This could be an issue for some when it comes to larger files, but for anyone else who's more of a regular user this is fine. The TBW ... MoreThanks to Black Friday, I jumped on the opportunity of picking two of these. Design wise, the black PCB has that nice and simple design that is clear for the ones wanting something more "simple" and "professional" looking. While some persons criticize the Elpis revision over the older Phoenix version of this unit, the newer control does have some real-world benefits compared to what Phoenix could do. It's important to note that the cache on the Elpis is much, much higher than what Phoenix could handle, generally x3 the amount. The flaw/drawback is mostly that once that's filled up, the Elpis control operates slower than the Phoenix. This could be an issue for some when it comes to larger files, but for anyone else who's more of a regular user this is fine. The TBW on these isn't all too special, but it should be fine for the general person picking up a TLC SSD. Of course though, with Black Friday it's hard to not recommend a 2TB NVME for just 189.99$, quite a steal for a good PCIe 3 unit with a decent 1200TBW. The only real problem that may come for some users is related to the higher temperatures that the Elpis causes when it's under load. This generally seems to be an extra 10 degrees Celsius over how Phoenix operated, which could result in issues for some persons who maybe a little restricted or tight when it comes to the open space available for an SSD. I do recommend getting a heatsink (Even if it's just a small copper plate with some thermal pads) to maintain that temperature under some form of control if it gets a little too hot for the drive's safety. On a brighter note, Elpis does allow for what seems to be rather low temperatures while the drive is idling.
I bought this to replace a failing NVMe Windows 10 system drive. (I used Acronis software and a USB enclosure to clone the original drive). As a replacement drive, it seems to be working fine, but I have a few gripes about the documentation.First, Samsung's website mentions downloading drivers and software, but the included documentation really doesn't talk about that. It just tells you to refer to your PC's instructions for installation.Attempting to install the Samsung driver unceremoniously failed, and you cannot install the Samsung utility software without their driver. After digging around support websites, it appears that it probably failed because I have RAID enabled in my BIOS. Although I'm not currently using RAID on this PC, I have used it on other ... MoreI bought this to replace a failing NVMe Windows 10 system drive. (I used Acronis software and a USB enclosure to clone the original drive). As a replacement drive, it seems to be working fine, but I have a few gripes about the documentation.First, Samsung's website mentions downloading drivers and software, but the included documentation really doesn't talk about that. It just tells you to refer to your PC's instructions for installation.Attempting to install the Samsung driver unceremoniously failed, and you cannot install the Samsung utility software without their driver. After digging around support websites, it appears that it probably failed because I have RAID enabled in my BIOS. Although I'm not currently using RAID on this PC, I have used it on other machines and like to have it as an option. This strikes me as kind of a silly limitation. And frankly, the drive seems to be working just fine with Microsoft's driver, so I'm not really clear what big advantage there would be to using Samsung's driver and utility.Finally, the package does not say it is compatible with Windows 11, which I will be upgrading to someday. Again from digging around support websites, it appears that the Samsung driver will run under Windows 11, but will not support some of the game performance features of Windows 11. In my opinion, this is one more reason to stick with the Microsoft driver.And as a side note: the serial number on the side of the box was missing a letter at the end, so I couldn't register the product with Samsung without pulling the drive out of the PC I'd just installed it in to get the last character of the S/N. Another needless oversight in my opinion.
Before purchasing the 970 EVO, I checked the ASUS website re: supported hardware. This was not listed. I wrote to Asus support and they could not answer my question, so I took a gamble, but I hedged my bet with a plan. I also purchased an ORICO Aluminum M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure Ultra-Slim M-Key PCIe to USB3.1 Gen2 Type-C 10Gbps External NVMe SSD Case Storage up to 2TB- Grey.Before you read this, let it be known that I am an advanced user and like making things work that are not supposed to. In this case, forcing windows 7 into hardware designed and built for Windows 10. I tried several times to install a fresh copy of Windows 7 to the 970 EVO, but it would continually hang up. We are talking letting it run over night and over the course of days.Windows 10 installed ... MoreBefore purchasing the 970 EVO, I checked the ASUS website re: supported hardware. This was not listed. I wrote to Asus support and they could not answer my question, so I took a gamble, but I hedged my bet with a plan. I also purchased an ORICO Aluminum M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure Ultra-Slim M-Key PCIe to USB3.1 Gen2 Type-C 10Gbps External NVMe SSD Case Storage up to 2TB- Grey.Before you read this, let it be known that I am an advanced user and like making things work that are not supposed to. In this case, forcing windows 7 into hardware designed and built for Windows 10. I tried several times to install a fresh copy of Windows 7 to the 970 EVO, but it would continually hang up. We are talking letting it run over night and over the course of days.Windows 10 installed just fine, but I prefer windows 7. The ultimate goal is to do a dual boot Win 7 & 10.Note, building machines since 1996, A+ Certified PC tech since 2000. Every machine I build for myself is a dual or multi boot, because I can. Ex- Machine 1, built in 1998. runs DOS 6.22, WFWG 3.11, Windows 95B-OS2, Windows 98SE and WinNT4, by way of System Commander on a Tyan Tomcat 2 server board, P 233 MMX and 64 MB 60n EDO, ATI All-In-Wonder 8MB video card, and yes, it still runs today. It's my DOOM and Duke Nukem 3D DOS game toy box.Now, about the board. I like to push it. I want the newest hardware and the oldest software. This board has the chipset and SATA ports I demand, and drivers for Windows 7 where available. I only buy AMD as I will never forgive intel for putting so many competitors out of business, ex. Cyrix to which I was a fan.The Samsung migration software will not work to image the NVMe to a hard drive, only from a hard drive to the NVMe. SO...I used Macrium Reflect to image the 960 500GB NVMe to a WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB Internal SSD. I removed the 960 EVO 500GB NVMe from the MoBo and inserted the 970 EVO 1TB.Booting off of the WG 500G SSD, I used the Samsung migration software to image to the 970 EVO. This worked fine. Now, while I am at this point, I installed a fresh win7 to an SSD. The 960 EVO is now in the ORICO Aluminum M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosure. I moved all the files from the 960 NVMe to the 970 NVME in the third partition, then put the 960 back into the MoBo and imaged the clean install of Win7 to prove it works, then imaged it back to the original install, and it works.End result: 970 EVO success in migrating my original install of Win7. A clean back up install and original installs mirrored on Seagate SATA drives for quick recovery stored in a safe place. A bootable OS on the 960 NVMe in ORICO enclosure with 380GB of free space to use, on a USB plug that is way faster and cheaper than thumb drives.WIN, WIN and WIN.Original Specs...ASUS Prime X370-Pro AM4 AMD X370 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 HDMI ATX Motherboards - AMDCPU SocketSAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 500GB NVMe PCI-Express 3.0 x4 Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-V6E500BWTeam T-Force Vulcan 16GB (2 x 8GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 2400 (PC4 19200)4 of the SAMSUNG 860 EVO Series 2.5" 500GB SATA III V-NAND 3-bit MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) in raid 0.ASUS Dual GeForce GTX 1060 DirectX 12 DUAL-GTX1060-O3G 3GB 192-Bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 HDCP Ready Video CardThermaltake SMART Series SP-750M 750W ATX 12V V2.3 & EPS 12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified ...Windows 7 PRO installed via USB drive on EUFI BIOS. Windows 10 to be installed as well.
For $199 plus tax, I would say the 2TB Samsung 970 evo plus is really good for it's price. It's a better value than sata ssd's of the same value and price. It's a couple less cables to deal with which is nice.Arrived pretty quickly and box was in good condition, barely any scratches or scuffs. Unboxing it, you get the drive itself; I was very surprised to see how small NVME really is compared to SATA.Installation was relatively painless; make sure your MB has an m.2 slot that supports pcie 3.0 x4. I used windows disk management to format the drive and used samsung migration to move OS and all my data onto this new drive, then downloaded samsung magician for further utility. I recommend downloading the NVME driver from samsung's website as when you install the ... MoreFor $199 plus tax, I would say the 2TB Samsung 970 evo plus is really good for it's price. It's a better value than sata ssd's of the same value and price. It's a couple less cables to deal with which is nice.Arrived pretty quickly and box was in good condition, barely any scratches or scuffs. Unboxing it, you get the drive itself; I was very surprised to see how small NVME really is compared to SATA.Installation was relatively painless; make sure your MB has an m.2 slot that supports pcie 3.0 x4. I used windows disk management to format the drive and used samsung migration to move OS and all my data onto this new drive, then downloaded samsung magician for further utility. I recommend downloading the NVME driver from samsung's website as when you install the drive for the first time, it uses microsoft's nvme drivers. Downloading the samsung drivers provided a small boost to all stats as seen above.Drive runs relatively warm but not hot with my use. It idles around 45-52c and when gaming, it's between 55-65c without a heatsink on it.Gaming on it is a beast, load times are very fast and very little stuttering in games, especially compared to HDD's and Dramless ssd's. Downloads are very fast as well.One thing to note, it's been know samsung has made revisions of their 970 evo plus drives to have the elpis controller which is found on the 980 pro; that has slightly worse sustained writes when doing heavy workloads. My 2TB which has P/N MZVLB2T0HALB, has the old phoenix controller which is slightly better all round, drive was made in 2021 11 03 in Thailand.
If you know anything about how NAND flash works, you’d understandably be hesitant to purchase a Refurbished (let’s be honest here) USED SSD because they wear out after being written/read enough times. In this case the warranty is done after 300 terabytes have been written to the 500GB disk. I decided to take a gamble on these because I planned on using a pair in my Synology NAS for cached data acceleration (even if the SSD failed, data wouldn’t be lost). I was pleasantly surprised when i encountered a drive that was written to very little, never overheated, and restarted less than a dozen times. (Using SMART to check the drive stats) By my math, the SSD has at least 99.7% of its life left. The cherry on top was my ability to register Samsung’s 5 year warranty to ... MoreIf you know anything about how NAND flash works, you’d understandably be hesitant to purchase a Refurbished (let’s be honest here) USED SSD because they wear out after being written/read enough times. In this case the warranty is done after 300 terabytes have been written to the 500GB disk. I decided to take a gamble on these because I planned on using a pair in my Synology NAS for cached data acceleration (even if the SSD failed, data wouldn’t be lost). I was pleasantly surprised when i encountered a drive that was written to very little, never overheated, and restarted less than a dozen times. (Using SMART to check the drive stats) By my math, the SSD has at least 99.7% of its life left. The cherry on top was my ability to register Samsung’s 5 year warranty to July 2027 (drive was purchased in January 2023). No clue where Best Buy is getting these from, but I’d buy these again. (For Best Buy, you’d probably move more of these units if you could guarantee that the drives have had less than a terabyte written in the description)
The M.2 SSD drives are some of the most important components for making a PC Laptop feel fast and responsive. These are 5 times faster than the SSD drives 50 times faster than HDD and are designed for use with PCIe connector. Computers with this type of storage have improved Boot Time and are 10 times faster in loading heavy software, video games or thousands of complex files. Additionally, M.2 slots can access the PCIe bus which essentially means your SSD will run much faster than a SATA SSD the M.2 drives with a PCIe interface have increased performance and take advantage of NonVolatile Memory Express NVMe protocol which increases the performance and has a reduced latency. Now lets move on to the hero of our reviewThe Samsung 970 EVO Plus is an absolutely ... MoreThe M.2 SSD drives are some of the most important components for making a PC Laptop feel fast and responsive. These are 5 times faster than the SSD drives 50 times faster than HDD and are designed for use with PCIe connector. Computers with this type of storage have improved Boot Time and are 10 times faster in loading heavy software, video games or thousands of complex files. Additionally, M.2 slots can access the PCIe bus which essentially means your SSD will run much faster than a SATA SSD the M.2 drives with a PCIe interface have increased performance and take advantage of NonVolatile Memory Express NVMe protocol which increases the performance and has a reduced latency. Now lets move on to the hero of our reviewThe Samsung 970 EVO Plus is an absolutely fantastic and a wildly fast NVMe M.2 drive.Its an excellent option for almost any user with a PC that supports PCI Express drives, the M.2 form factor, and the NVMe protocol and also a great option for the HighEnd enthusiasts, Gamers, Videographers, CG Artists, VFX Designers etc. looking for the best consumer grade performance. The 970 EVO Plus drive is offered in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities, and performance rises along with capacity, which is standard operating procedure for SSDs due to the parallelism in their design. Its speeds are beyond belief with a noticeable performance jump when using computer 3D modelling software, intensive CAD work or playing Counter Strike 1.6 funny guy.The speed, physical size, and capacity are impressive and the price while higher than 2.5inch SSDs are pretty reasonable for what you get in performance. In case you are going to install Window on this disk Make sure your system is using the UEFI platform rather than the old BIOS platform to take full advantage of the latest technology and all of its advantages.This means your System Drive will have a GPT Volume rather than an MBR Volume. GPT is more corruptionresilient and has better partition management. Its the newer and more reliable standard. You will have to boot into your UEFI interface, and Turn Off CSM likely under BOOT Options before installing Windows or directly afterwards as well as when you update your UEFIBIOS. Its good to doublecheck the CSM setting stays off whenever you add another storage drive as well.As a 3D Motion Designer, I am very pleased with its performance.I bought a 500GB version, it feels a bit small but thats enough if you want to install a bunch of software and not a lot of games in one go. Pros Fantastic Performance Fast PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 storage High Endurance Low Latency Up To 2TB Capacity Cons No complaints I have been using this M.2 NVME SSD for 1 year and there have been no issues at all. It has performed flawlessly.Highly recommended
First and foremost, this drive is fast with nearadvertised speeds see story below for more details. The response time and consistency has been exceptional, and my cold boot time on Windows 10 after enabling several MSI boot optimizations is now 2 seconds flat. Still amazes me several weeks later.Truthfully, I went through many hoops to get this SSD working with my motherboard MSI Z97GD65. However, this was due to my motherboard not having an m.2 port it has mSata which is significantly different and was my fault for not verifying this before my purchase. MSI was very gracious however, as about a year or so prior they released an update to their BIOS which added support for m.2 drives perfect I ordered an m.2 PCIE x4 adapter, updated the BIOS using a spare USB drive, ... MoreFirst and foremost, this drive is fast with nearadvertised speeds see story below for more details. The response time and consistency has been exceptional, and my cold boot time on Windows 10 after enabling several MSI boot optimizations is now 2 seconds flat. Still amazes me several weeks later.Truthfully, I went through many hoops to get this SSD working with my motherboard MSI Z97GD65. However, this was due to my motherboard not having an m.2 port it has mSata which is significantly different and was my fault for not verifying this before my purchase. MSI was very gracious however, as about a year or so prior they released an update to their BIOS which added support for m.2 drives perfect I ordered an m.2 PCIE x4 adapter, updated the BIOS using a spare USB drive, and installed my new hardware. Initially, the drive was successfully detected by Windows 10 I had to rightclick on the start menu and then initialize the drive via Disk Management. My goal however was to migrate Windows over to this SSD to get off my 1TB HDD RAID setup. I went to a free faithful tool of mine Clonezilla. After installing the latest stable to a USB stick and booting off the stick, I eventually reached an unrecognized error during the process. Disappointed but not discouraged, I read on a forum post that the dev builds of Clonezilla were on a newer version of Linux with better drive technology support. So I gave it a shot and they were right Migration took about an hour for 500GBs of written data, and Ive been a happy camper since. The m.2 adapter causes a slight loss in performance yielding 85 of advertised read 2700MBs, yet still 100 of advertised write 1800MBs.I bought this drive for the performance, endurance and futureproofing. I expect this SSD to remain my main drive after building a new desktop a few years down the road. The performance is insane, taking my rapid loads from a dedicated SATA3 SSD for games to an entirely new level. For anyone still reading, my recommendations are to ensure your computer is compatible with m.2 at PCIE x4 speeds, that you are okay with your main GPU lane dropping to PCIE x8 MAYBE dropped 12 fps for me with my GTX 1080 and dual monitors, and that theres plenty of ventilation around the SSD to ensure that top speeds are consistent during huge data transfers.
All I can say is wow I returned an ADATA XPG SX8200 PRO 500GB for this one and am so glad I did. All PCIE NVME drives are not created equal and benchmarks dont mean anything because they are synthetic and the drives are built to show the best performance on the benchmarks, which can be a far cry from how they actually perform. First the XPG SX8200 Pro website only gives you the best specs from the 1TB drive and its nearly impossible to find the slower performance information of the 512GB and 256GB drive on their website should be a big hint to performance since they dont easily publish it, or list the smaller drive specs on the main page. Second, the bench marks were pretty close on cyrstal diskmark, but when I was actually testing 9GB file copies to and from the ... MoreAll I can say is wow I returned an ADATA XPG SX8200 PRO 500GB for this one and am so glad I did. All PCIE NVME drives are not created equal and benchmarks dont mean anything because they are synthetic and the drives are built to show the best performance on the benchmarks, which can be a far cry from how they actually perform. First the XPG SX8200 Pro website only gives you the best specs from the 1TB drive and its nearly impossible to find the slower performance information of the 512GB and 256GB drive on their website should be a big hint to performance since they dont easily publish it, or list the smaller drive specs on the main page. Second, the bench marks were pretty close on cyrstal diskmark, but when I was actually testing 9GB file copies to and from the XPG, it was often below 600MBs even as low as 150MBs steadily. It did perform better at times, but it was so spotty and nowhere near the benchmarks on a regular basis, I either got a dud or its just not as good as the specs are in real world performance. Yeah, it was about 30 cheaper than the the new Samsung EVO PLUS 970, but in the end, the price difference was waaaaay overshadowed by the real world performance.So, when I got the 500GB Samsung EVO PLUS 970, I popped it in the same slot that the ADATA was just in and not only did it surpass the specs of the CrystalDisk Mark bench, but the real world file copies using the same file as before, were steadily around 2000MBs. Not as fast as the benchmark, but leaps and bounds better than the ADATA and the other PCIE NVME drives Ive had the ability to test with. Also, those speeds stayed constant for the entire file copy, where most other drives fluctuate up and down. I know that even larger file copies will eventually slow down when the cache runs out, but thats the same for all PCIe NVME drives that are using TLC or anything other than MLC flash. And, Samsung is upfront with not just the benchmark readwrite performance of the drives when using TurboBoost with the cache, but also the performance speeds you can expect when the cache runs out. No other manufacturer is showing that and that shows Samsungs confidence int their drives.This drive blew me away, so much, I just ordered another one. I honestly dont think other similar drives are even in the ballpark on performance The WD N750 might be the closest, but its still not on the level of this drive in REALWORLD performance for file copies. If youre considering saving a few bucks on a cheaper PCIe NVME drive, Id highly suggest you do your own large file copies and see if your cheaper drive really handles how it says it will based off of the superficial benchmark tests. Otherwise, save yourself the disappointment and just get the Samsung EVO PLUS to begin with and youll be happy that you did.
EDIT I had to figure out the differences in all this new hardware from SSD SATA to SSD NVMe. Cell Types. TLC (Triple Level Cell) Less Durable Slower, fits 3 bits per cell cheaper. MLC (Multi Level Cell) Best Durability / Speed Ratio for the price fits 2 bits per cell SLC (Single Level Cell) Best Durability / fastest Speed OVERLY PRICED fits 1 bit per cell Of course with the more bits on a cell the more capacity there is right but then the more read and writes causing quicker MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) So I'm like ok great I know my cell types now what in the world is Samsungs V-NAND compared to this 3D-NAND You'll be happy to know it's the same technological standard Samsung just calls it V-NAND So 2D planar layer cells: to be fit onto the die and that's it ... MoreEDIT I had to figure out the differences in all this new hardware from SSD SATA to SSD NVMe. Cell Types. TLC (Triple Level Cell) Less Durable Slower, fits 3 bits per cell cheaper. MLC (Multi Level Cell) Best Durability / Speed Ratio for the price fits 2 bits per cell SLC (Single Level Cell) Best Durability / fastest Speed OVERLY PRICED fits 1 bit per cell Of course with the more bits on a cell the more capacity there is right but then the more read and writes causing quicker MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure) So I'm like ok great I know my cell types now what in the world is Samsungs V-NAND compared to this 3D-NAND You'll be happy to know it's the same technological standard Samsung just calls it V-NAND So 2D planar layer cells: to be fit onto the die and that's it you're out of room 3D nand (Samsungs V-NAND) technology allows for these single layer configurations to be stacked ontop of each other like floors on a skyscraper. Because of this technology Now we can stack a bunch of MLC Types on top of each other giving us capacity and theorectically more endurance (life span) I'd imagine. (Samsung Software allows you to provision a section of the partition 10% to be stored for extra use as the SSD Controller sees fit. This will increase the life of the drive quite a bit. ) Now for SATA vs. NVMe SATA Max Speed is 6G(b)its / ps. This was great for old rotary HDD's. Then SSD's came into play. The SSD's utilized the 600M(B)ytes / ps or so speed of SATA. This is a bottle neck because the SSD is much faster then the SATA interface allows it to perform at. So came the NVMe (Non Volatile Memory)express I believe. This replaces SATA as the SSD replaces the HDD NVMe also consumes the PCIe Lanes on the main boards' system as the bus to the CPU NVMe 1.3 whats that compared to 1.4 Thats the NVMe Revision Standard. Just like PCIe Gen 1 or Gen 2 Gen 3 or 4 It's the version So what about 64L V-NAND of 64L 3D-NAND Remember V-nand is Samsungs term the rest of the world calls it 3D-nand The 64L or 64 Layers is how high the Cells are stacked this is the 3D or V part of it 64 Layers of Cells stacked 3 dimensionally comapred to the regular NAND which were 1 layer only. So now we have more choices 64 Layers of TLC 64 Layers of MLC 64 Layers of SLC Does your brain hurt yet? Happy hunting theres more to be learned but that is a good start.
