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 benchmark's don't 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 it's 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 don't 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 600MB/s (even as low as 150MB/s 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 it's 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 2000MB/s. Not as fast as the benchmark, but leaps and bounds better than the ADATA and the other PCIE NVME drives I've 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 that's 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 read/write 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 Samsung's confidence int their drives.
This drive blew me away, so much, I just ordered another one. I honestly don't think other "similar" drives are even in the ballpark on performance (The WD N750 might be the closest, but it's still not on the level of this drive in REAL-WORLD performance for file copies). If you're considering saving a few bucks on a cheaper PCIe NVME drive, I'd 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 you'll be happy that you did.
Note the nvme mounting screw is not included. Check your motherboard kit or buy a new one.
Total nightmare to install on a Dell Inspiron 14 laptop. Samsung software only works if it senses a Samsung drive. I mounted the Ssmsung drive in a USB enclosure to clone my existing drive. WRONG! it now identifies as the enclosure name and the Samsung software cannot work as it does not recognize the drive as Samsung. Stupid way to do things Samsung. It makes upgrading to your drive very difficult and your cloning software useless. Had to find a third party cloning program. Tried 3 of them until the last one worked. Wasted many hours to get it to work. Documentation is horrible and the software worse. However, once I got it to work.....WOW! What a difference from the Dell NVME 128gb drive. Way, way faster. Proven by benchmarking program. Very happy with the performance. Makes a big difference. SAMSUNG please make it easier for customers to migrate their data.
I'm using this SSD on a PCIe adapter card because my older Z97 motherboard doesn't support x4. The system is a little quicker, but not much of a gain over the 850 EVO it replaced. I have only really noticed deletion is quicker. I usually transfer files to external drives so I don't benefit from the speed boost much. I like to have the fastest, greatest thing so it was worth the upgrade for me.
Note if using a PCIe adapter card:
Even if a motherboard has multiple PCIe slots, this does not mean they all support GEN3. If you are experiencing half speeds, try a different slot.
The Samsung Data Migration software is very useful, cloned my OS drive to my new Evo 970 plus un less than 30 minutes.
Feature Product
- Specially designed for tech enthusiasts, hardcore gamers, and professionals who need unrivaled performance and superior reliability
- Boasts exceptional endurance with up to 600 terabytes written
- The 970 EVO Plus achieves random Write speeds up to 57% faster than the 970 EVO
- Reliability (MTBF):1.5 Million Hours Reliability (MTBF)
Description
The 970 EVO Plus is specially designed for tech enthusiasts, hardcore gamers, and professionals who need unrivaled performance and superior reliability
This thing is as advertised, which is kinda rare in PC hardware. Check out the diskmark scores and see for yourself.
I used macrium reflect free version to clone my older 256GB ssd to this guy, enabled the UEFI bios to handle it and off I go.
Couple things to keep in mind with this drive or any NVME drive. Enable support in the BIOS. Without that, the drive will not be recognized. It's not DOA, you have to enable NVME in the UEFI(bios).
My board, z170 s didn't like any devices connected to SATA1 and SATA2 in order to work with this drive. The bios found it, but Windows 7 had a fit. It took me a bit to figure this out. Also, if you clone another OS drive to this one, pull the other drive and save any potential hassle.
I'm keeping my other drive for a bit just in case this thing fails because they model is new and ... well ya know..
I bought this before the price jumped up because once word gets out that this thing is as good as it is, the price is gonna skyrocket.
(Instructions on how I installed this on my Z97 board are near the middle of the review)
I spent a small fortune on my current PC at the end of 2015. Enough so that its still plenty fast for all my needs. I upgraded the Video card last year to a GTX 1080. I figured I could get 1 or 2 more years out of it with a new SSD. The intel SSD I was using had about 40% of its life span left, but its read write speeds were in and around 150 mbs.
This nvme ssd blows those numbers out of the water. Granted its not really noticable on boot or opening programs but I expect when I load up my HTC Vive I should get a nice performance boost.
Regardless I will save that for another day because I just spent 3 hours trying to get this SSD functioning with my 4 year old mother board.
For anyone interested this is what I would have done in its proper order had I known everything I needed to do.
I bought this storage controller on amazon: Addonics M2 Storage Controller - Plug-in Card Components Other ADM2PX4 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KDM75XK/)
I installed the nvme into the storage controller and plugged it into the 1st PCIe slot on the motherboard.
Installed Samsung Data Migration tool and Samsung NVME driver (both downloaded from the Samsung website).
I opened computer management in windows and assigned the nvme to a drive letter.
I then cloned my C:\ drive to the nvme drive using the data migration tool.
I downloaded the latest bios for my z97 motherboard from EVGA and copied the .bin file to a small usb drive formatted fat32 (if youre using bios 1.07 it wont recognize the nvme as a boot drive).
I shutdown my computer, opened the case and disconnected the C: drive.
I plugged in the usb drive with the new Bios and restarted the computer.
I went into the bios and updated it to the latest version (its in the save tab).
When it was done, the computer restarted and it booted from the new NVME drive.
Installed (500GB) and works great! Installed in my Dell Latitude 5580 laptop and my ASRock X99 Taichi desktop. Both reaching advertised speeds (your results may vary... depending on the system and configuration). The picture is from my x99 Desktop.
I would not recommend this because of the price. It's cool to have an SSD bolted to the motherboard and not needing to mount it somewhere else in the case. Much cleaner look. It is as fast as advertised but going from a sata SSD to this.. You can't tell under most use cases. Booting windows goes from 7ish seconds to 5. Games load maybe 10-20% faster. The big difference is install times. Blazing fast even for 50plus gig games. If i didn't already need more storage; and just bought this for the speed, then it wouldn't be worth it at all.
Let me start off by saying I concurrently own the 960 EVO, 970 EVO, and now the 970 EVO Plus all at 1 TB storage capacities. Each of them have been blazing fast, significantly faster than standard/traditional sata SSD's. Clearly the 970 EVO Plus outperforms the previous iterations but that was to be expected and is an excellent NVMe drive that typically reaches its claimed read and write speeds.
All that being said, this SSD is geared toward a targeted consumer group, specifically PC enthusiasts or professionals. For starters, you need to have a compatible motherboard on your PC or laptop that can support M.2 drives. Chances are that if you are looking into this product, you probably already know if your hardware does and that's why you're researching this. Furthermore, this SSD is expensive (although not ridiculously so) compared to older sata SSD's. You can currently purchase the Samsung 860 EVO 1TB for $127.99. The 970 EVO Plus drive is almost double the price but almost 7x the performance. However, you have to put it into perspective with previous NVMe's and the market saturation that has occurred with SSD'S (the 960 EVO initially launched at a MSRP of $419.99 for 1 TB), $249.99 for an NVMe drive starts to sound incredibly reasonably priced.
Now, if you're a gamer or the average user who basically only stores media (pictures, videos, etc) then you should probably stick to a sata SSD with a larger storage capacity. You'll get more for your money as NVMe drives are marginally better with load times in games. However, if you are a content creator/professional who consistently moves large files that can take advantage of the read and write speeds , this drive would be an excellent choice as there is a night and day difference compared to a sata SSD. Regardless, this is a quality product and you won't be disappointed in the performance.
*Please note that if installing on a PC motherboard you do not receive a screw with drive. You will have to buy it separately or see if your motherboard supplies one.
0 comments:
Post a Comment