850 evo 500gb vs 1tb: Compare Samsung 850 EVO 500GB vs SAMSUNG 870 EVO 1TB

Crucial P2 1TB vs Samsung 850 Evo 1TB mSATA: What is the difference?

1.SSD cache

Unknown. Help us by suggesting a value. (Crucial P2 1TB)

Unknown. Help us by suggesting a value. (Samsung 850 Evo 1TB mSATA)

SSDs with a DRAM cache utilise high-speed RAM as a cache. This results in higher performance than DRAM-less SSDs, which use a slower NAND cache or the system’s RAM (HMB).

2.Is an NVMe SSD

✔Crucial P2 1TB

✖Samsung 850 Evo 1TB mSATA

NVMe SSDs use the PCIe interface, which has a higher bandwidth than the SATA interface. This results in much faster read/write speeds compared to SSDs which use the SATA interface.

3.M.2 form factor

✔Crucial P2 1TB

✖Samsung 850 Evo 1TB mSATA

M.2 SSDs slot directly into the motherboard. Compared to 2.5″ SSDs, they are much easier to install and don’t require the user to connect and route data and power cables.

4.internal storage

1000GB

The internal storage refers to the built-in storage space available in a device for system data, apps, and user-generated data. With a large amount of internal storage, you can save more files and apps on your device.

5.SSD storage type

Unknown. Help us by suggesting a value. (Samsung 850 Evo 1TB mSATA)

The storage type determines how many bits of data are written to each memory cell. These storage types include SLC (one bit per cell), MLC (two bits per cell), and TLC (three bits per cell). The less bits that are written to each cell, the greater the speed and reliability.

6.PCI Express (PCIe) version

Unknown. Help us by suggesting a value. (Samsung 850 Evo 1TB mSATA)

Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) is a high-speed interface standard for connecting components, such as graphics cards and SSDs, to a motherboard. Newer versions can support more bandwidth and deliver better performance.

7.Controller channels

Unknown. Help us by suggesting a value. (Samsung 850 Evo 1TB mSATA)

The controller is a processor that manages the functions of the SSD. The number of channels refers to the number of storage chips that this controller can access at once. Typically speaking, the more channels that the SSD controller has, the greater the performance.

8.Terabytes Written (TBW)

Unknown. Help us by suggesting a value. (Samsung 850 Evo 1TB mSATA)

Terabytes Written (TBW) is a measurement of the SSD’s endurance, and often refers to the manufacturer’s warranty. A higher TBW can be an indication of greater reliability over time.

9.MTBF

1.5million hours

MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) is the manufacturer’s estimation of the average time for a device to fail.

Samsung 850 Evo 1TB mSATA vs Samsung 870 QVO 1TB: What is the difference?

1.SSD cache

Unknown. Help us by suggesting a value. (Samsung 850 Evo 1TB mSATA)

DRAM cache

SSDs with a DRAM cache utilise high-speed RAM as a cache. This results in higher performance than DRAM-less SSDs, which use a slower NAND cache or the system’s RAM (HMB).

2.Is an NVMe SSD

✖Samsung 850 Evo 1TB mSATA

✖Samsung 870 QVO 1TB

NVMe SSDs use the PCIe interface, which has a higher bandwidth than the SATA interface. This results in much faster read/write speeds compared to SSDs which use the SATA interface.

3.M.2 form factor

✖Samsung 850 Evo 1TB mSATA

✖Samsung 870 QVO 1TB

M.2 SSDs slot directly into the motherboard. Compared to 2.5″ SSDs, they are much easier to install and don’t require the user to connect and route data and power cables.

4. internal storage

1000GB

5.SSD storage type

Unknown. Help us by suggesting a value. (Samsung 850 Evo 1TB mSATA)

6.PCI Express (PCIe) version

Unknown. Help us by suggesting a value. (Samsung 850 Evo 1TB mSATA)

Unknown. Help us by suggesting a value. (Samsung 870 QVO 1TB)

7.Controller channels

Unknown. Help us by suggesting a value. (Samsung 850 Evo 1TB mSATA)

8.Terabytes Written (TBW)

Unknown. Help us by suggesting a value. (Samsung 850 Evo 1TB mSATA)

Terabytes Written (TBW) is a measurement of the SSD’s endurance, and often refers to the manufacturer’s warranty. A higher TBW can be an indication of greater reliability over time.

9.MTBF

1.5million hours

MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) is the manufacturer’s estimation of the average time for a device to fail.

Review of Samsung 850 Evo, 860 Evo and 860 Pro SSDs

2016 SSD test methodology

We planned a small update of the test methodology at the beginning of this year, but we decided to postpone it a little so that we can compare three more interesting drives with all previously studied. What is so interesting about them? First of all — the manufacturer and his history.

Unlike many other companies operating in this market, Samsung stood at its origins (so to speak), and it has always been «interested» in high-end devices. In particular, it was Samsung 64 GB SSD SATA-2 about ten years ago that was one of the few competitors of the Intel X25-M at the time of the release of the latter, and in a number of scenarios it then remained unsurpassed. Of course, this did not save him: like all «first generation» devices, high speed performance was achieved through the use of fast, but very expensive SLC memory. The X25-M showed another way to improve performance: combining a [relatively] inexpensive MLC flash with an intelligent controller. The end result was a fast $600 80GB device that Samsung and others could only answer with a $1,000 64GB model.

The company drew the right conclusions, immediately starting to develop controllers. At first they were sold to many manufacturers, but there were not enough stars from the sky. On the other hand, this made it possible to accumulate the necessary experience and finally decide on the directions for further development. Two serious decisions were made: firstly, to sell the business of hard drives (so as not to interfere), and secondly, to produce solid-state drives completely of our own design, and without giving the components to the outside. The first at that time seemed a bold but risky step: after all, hard drives had a very stable demand due to prices, so flash memory could not compete directly with them. However, with t. z. For the largest semiconductor manufacturer, it was logical to just work on making it possible 🙂 What the company did in the following years, especially having such a serious trump card up its sleeve as independent production of everything necessary, as well as first place in terms of production of flash memory specifically. As a result, controllers could always be «fitted» to memory, and memory to controllers, and Samsung depended much less on market conditions than most manufacturers — rather, the company determined it. Many promising areas were also correctly calculated in advance. In particular, more than four years ago we already got acquainted with the Samsung SSD 840 Evo — in fact, the company’s second attempt (the first was the «regular» 840) to create a fast and reliable drive based on TLC memory, which no one used for this then. And he didn’t even try. It cannot be said that there were no rough edges at all, but valuable experience was gained. In particular, the SLC caching technology was tested at the same time.

It would seem, what is special here? Now TLC memory is already familiar — everyone uses it. And SLC cache too. But that was, remember, in 2013. And around the same time, Samsung decided to go into «3D» flash memory, as the traditional approach of keeping «ordinary» cells and reducing production rates began to gradually come to a standstill. However, in those years, all manufacturers started talking about the transition to 3D NAND, since everyone was in a similar position. But from conversations to implementation, a lot of time always passes — someone overcomes this path faster, someone more slowly. Samsung managed to get ahead of everyone: already in mid-2014, the first commercial products using V-NAND (as the developer called it) appeared. At first, the company configured this memory exclusively as MLC, to work in a more gentle mode, but since 2015, the number of crystals that can work reliably with eight levels has begun to increase, which allows you to store three bits of information. Note, by the way, that Samsung prefers not to use the abbreviation «TLC» when referring to «3-bit MLC». In principle, this is quite correct, although some may be confusing. But for most buyers, it is important, after all, not what is called, but how it works. And today we will study this using the example of three Samsung products — two completely new and one also almost new.

Samsung V-NAND SSD 850 Evo 500 GB

The first drives in the line with this name appeared, as already mentioned, in 2015. In principle, they were very similar to the 840 Evo, but they used 32-layer 3D of the same capacity instead of 128 Gbit planar crystals. The assortment has slightly thinned: 120 / 250 / 500 / 1000 GB — without an interesting intermediate model with a capacity of 750 GB. The older model even retained the same tri-core MEX controller as in the 840 Evo, while the rest received dual-core, but improved MGX, paired with LPDDR2 memory with a frequency of 1066 MHz and a capacity of up to 1 GB. At the same time, the drive (like its predecessor) was positioned as a competitor to mid-range devices — at that time mainly using MLC memory. However, even those often had only a three-, not five-year warranty, which has become the hallmark of the Evo family. Including the 2 TB modification that appeared a little later — which at that time was a very serious value, so it required the appearance of a special MHX controller (at the same time, the DRAM cache in this model was transferred to faster LPDDR3 memory).

Significantly surpassed in the second generation 850 Evo, which already used 48-layer 3D NAND with 256 Gb crystals. In principle, this, all other things being equal, would make it possible to convert the model range from “120 / 250 / 500 / 1000 / 2000 GB” to “250 / 500 / 1000 / 2000 / 4000 GB”, which was done, but also by other equal companies not limited. By switching, for example, the DRAM cache from LPDDR2 to LPDDR3 in the entire line, etc. However, these improvements were mostly cosmetic and did not affect performance too much. Yes, this was not required — a streamlined production process made it possible to produce fast and reliable memory, while competitors were still taking only the first steps along this path.

And at the end of last year, the company once again updated the 850 Evo — since production had already been transferred to 64-layer memory: more cost-effective. There are no fundamental changes between the models, so, like the previous «upgrade», this one went quietly: just from a certain moment, supplies of old-style drives stopped and only new ones began to be shipped. One could look for some differences in terms of modifications — in particular, devices with a capacity of 1 TB or more began to use 512 Gb crystals, but in 250 and 500 GB, 256 Gb remained to maintain the performance characteristics at the same level. And cache memory type LPDDR3 based on «megabytes per gigabyte of capacity.» The warranty, of course, remained five years — limited to TBW according to the formula «75 TB for every 250 GB», i.e. 150 TB for our hero.

The main thing for the buyer, in general, in all these evolutionary changes was the constant price reduction. Other manufacturers, as a rule, achieved a similar effect by releasing new models — Samsung preferred to modify the existing one. As a result, the 850 Evo at the end of its life cycle is not the same 850 Evo as it was at the beginning. In 2015, these drives did not try to compete in price with the cheapest SSDs on the market — for this, Samsung sometimes released planar TLC devices, such as the 750 Evo or 650. In 2017 they already could. At the same time, their speed characteristics at least did not decrease — the introduction of TLC memory in products from other companies, as we have already noted more than once, was usually accompanied by a decrease in performance and reliability. However, three years is a long time: during this time, both controller manufacturers and 3D NAND from other suppliers have “pulled up”. To which Samsung prepared not even one, but two answers.

Samsung V-NAND SSD 860 Evo 500 GB

Just a few months after the last «upgrade» 850 Evo, the company released a new line of drives — on the same memory. Almost the same: nothing has changed in models from 1 TB, and the 500 GB modification (which we will test today) received 512 Gb chips similar to the older ones, instead of 256 Gb. Thus, under some conditions, it may lag behind its predecessor, which can be considered a disadvantage. But quite predictable: 500 GB no longer causes any reverence, gradually turning into a running volume, at a price affordable for many users. Why do you need to reduce the cost — even at the cost of reducing some speed characteristics.

Since this will not always happen: the new series of drives also received a new MJX controller. It remained dual-core, but the clock frequency has almost doubled, which allows you to work with more complex algorithms. In particular, for the first time in many years (since the very appearance in the 840 Evo!) the SLC cache has changed. Previously, it was static, but now, if necessary and there are free cells, the new controller can use some of them in the SLC mode, postponing the «compression» of data «for later» — when the load decreases. In practice, this means that if the 840 Evo and all 500 GB versions of the 850 Evo could only accept 6 GB of data at high speed (3 GB static SLC cache for every 250 GB of capacity), then in the similar 860 Evo the limit is increased already up to 22 GB. In principle, the latest Silicon Motion controllers (such as SM2258 or SM2259) can record in the SLC mode at least all free cells (i. e., up to a third of the total capacity of the device), but in practice the first value is sufficient. Strictly speaking, for most users who are not fond of “hunting parrots” in benchmarks, 6 GB was more than enough, but since competitors have appeared, one must somehow respond to this.

In principle, an increase in TBW to maintain warranty conditions can also be considered a response to external influences. For example, last year’s Intel 545s series drives come with a five-year warranty, but limited to 72TB for every 128GB of capacity. In the 850 Evo, we recall, 75 TB by 250 GB, i.e. almost half as much. And in the 860 Evo, it’s already slightly larger, since the previous value is doubled: 150 TB for every 250 GB. In general, no one bothered the company to do this before. And not only because the drives are physically capable of this — just when they are used «as intended» in ordinary personal computers, the recording volumes are much more modest. Why do manufacturers limit them? To protect yourself a little from a fairly popular «non-purpose» use — when consumer drives with a long warranty are installed somewhere in the server: there are backups, but «will be covered» — they will change. Naturally, this reduces the sales of devices for the corresponding purpose, which is absolutely not necessary for their main suppliers (and Samsung is one of them in full). Especially given the presence of another product in the assortment …

Samsung V-NAND SSD 860 Pro 512 GB

The release in 2018 of a new line of SATA drives based on MLC memory is, of course, a very bold decision, but quite justified. In any case, if we abstract only from the requests of spherical PC users in a vacuum of , and look at the market more broadly. After that, we will immediately see, for example… various network storages. NVMe devices are not needed there. Until recently, it was believed that SSDs were not needed at all, since they are too expensive, and performance is not determined by them. When using gigabit network adapters and a small number of concurrent requests, this is indeed the case. And a dozen or two users can immediately work with some kind of corporate storage, and a 10 Gb / s channel can be used to connect it to the switch — and here hard drives will already be a bottleneck, which we repeatedly test top-end NAS watched. Solid state drives won’t. Of course, they will cost more, but if the problem can be solved for money, then this is no longer a problem, but just expenses 🙂 In principle, a device based on TLC memory is also suitable for such work, but MLC will provide more stable speed characteristics, and a resource too.

More interesting in this case is the question of the memory used. The previous MLC line of the company, namely the 850 Pro series drives, used a rejection from 3D TLC NAND — which is also the reason for the slightly atypical crystal size at the start: 86 Gbps. The word “rejection”, of course, should not be frightened: it is obvious that the mode of operation of cells with four levels is much more gentle than with eight, and not only faster. The new drives use crystals of 64-layer MLC 3D NAND, with a capacity of 256 Gbps. With TLC, this does not «beat» in any way, so it can be assumed that Samsung makes such memory on purpose. On the other hand (which is more likely given the fact that it is already 2018), this may also be a by-product of the work on mastering the production of crystals QLC 3D NAND 512Gb. It is clear that the production of high-quality memory of this type is very difficult, but it still needs to be dealt with. And then what was said above works — having its own production (and the largest in terms of volume), Samsung does not depend on the market situation. If the company had to buy memory on the open market, launching an SSD on the MLC would be extremely risky. With own production — no. Especially if these are really those chips that are unable to store four bits per cell — they still need to be put somewhere. And as a result, buyers can purchase a device with a large resource — TBW for models of 1 TB and above is just right to call PBW, since the bill goes to petabytes, which is a little unusual for custom drives. Actually, for 512 GB we are talking about 600 TB for a five-year warranty period — against 300 and 150 TB, respectively, for 860 / 860 Evo. But not cheap, of course. But, at least, there is a corresponding offer in the company’s assortment, which you can use — if necessary or simply if you wish (and financially possible).

Competitors

For comparison, we decided to take the results of two drives: Intel 545s 512 GB and WD Blue 3D SSD 500 GB, since both are relevant at the moment and use similar (to a first approximation) memory. 545s and our heroes also have a five-year warranty in common, and the limitations of its conditions are similar to 860 Evo (however, who was on whom is a difficult question, as mentioned above). Until recently, Blue 3D had a three-year warranty, but now the company has begun the process of increasing it to the same five years. However, even under the «old» conditions, you can compare Blue 3D with other participants — this is also a drive from a large and well-known manufacturer, and the prices are close.

Testing

Testing procedure

The procedure is described in detail in separate article . There you can get acquainted with the hardware and software used.

Application performance

As you might expect, in terms of high-level benchmarks, everyone is about the same. But not really — if you arm yourself with a magnifying glass, you can see that the Samsung SSD trio is slightly faster than the Intel and WD offerings. And the distribution of seats inside it is also predictable: the fastest is the 860 Pro, and the slowest is the 860 Evo. However, to notice this, you no longer need a magnifying glass, but a microscope 🙂

As for the potential storage capacity, the overall picture has not changed — except that the gap from the «pursuers» has increased. As a result, modern versions of Evo are the first SATA drives on TLC memory that have fallen into our hands, capable of exceeding 300 MB / s in this test. However, regardless of its type, only one device capable of this has previously been in our laboratory — Toshiba Q300 Pro 256 GB. Thus, the only thing that somewhat overshadows the significance of the event is potentiality of the given result.

The previous version of the test package shows us a similar picture. In general, Samsung drives are more favorable than vice versa. That is, it is clear that if the difference in speed is noticeable only in tests, it can be neglected — but, all other things being equal, why not choose a faster drive. With unequal — already need to choose: what is more important.

Sequential operations

With these scenarios, with a limited data area, everything has long been clear — the SATA interface itself is the limiter for SATA drives. Including when writing, since SLC caching has long been the standard behavior of TLC-based drives, and no tricks are needed for MLC memory. Therefore, in the updated test methodology, we will complicate the task 🙂 And today we will simply postpone the final verdict until more serious loads.

Random access

Samsung controllers have been coping with such loads easily and naturally for a long time, 3D NAND of its own production has never been slow either — as a result, the results are high. Unless the loss of the 860 Evo to its predecessor of the same capacity may upset someone, but there is nothing unexpected in it — an increase in the capacity of crystals and a decrease in their number should have worked. In the end, the performance margin was sufficient so that, even after its decrease, it would still outperform drives of the same class from other manufacturers, and “intracompany” competition is still not planned: as the old reserves are exhausted, the 850 Evo will simply disappear from the shelves .

Working with large files

Reading data, as has been repeatedly said, has not been a problem for memory of any type for a long time (controllers can limit performance), so everyone came up against the interface at a comparable level.

The write deliberately «flies» beyond the capacity of the SLC cache, despite the increase in its capacity in 860 Evo, and the performance of the memory array itself has decreased due to reduced parallelism. Accordingly, if the 850 Evo gave out a maximum for SATA600, then its successor cannot. And it even lags behind competitors who use 256 Gbit crystals in models of this capacity, «holding» larger ones for larger capacities.

Another tricky scenario (so far) for TLC drives is writing while reading. However, for obvious reasons, this problem does not affect the 860 Pro — the use of two-bit cells paired with a high-performance controller allows the device to demonstrate the maximum performance available for SATA600. But the drives of the Evo family are noticeably slower — especially with (pseudo) random access. However, it is also easy to see that it is possible to provide noticeably higher performance only due to tricks, such as the “infinite” SLC cache of drives based on the latest Silicon Motion controllers, but not when using conventional static caching. Yes, and «unusual» as in the 860 Evo too — it copes only with smaller amounts of information. However, all this becomes insignificant if we remember that the situation is not better for most solid-state drives 🙂 But, at the same time, their manufacturers do not leave such a choice as Samsung (which updated the MLC line — albeit at the appropriate price).

Ratings

As mentioned above, the performance of the 860 Evo could have been lowered — anyway, «in parrots» it is longer than its main competitors. And if you need even more «feathered ones», it is customary to hunt for them in other places — equipped with other interfaces, in any case. The latter has long been determining a lot — why we immediately wrote that the 860 Pro is not primarily about speed. In any case, not about the one that is interesting to the individual PC user.

But, of course, the representatives of this line will perfectly cope with such loads — they are simply redundant for this. As well as the warranty resource is also from a completely different area, but it may come in handy for especially suspicious buyers. And in terms of performance and Evo is enough. Including the new series — where it has slightly decreased, but still remains noticeably higher than that of most competing developments. In any case, within the class, it is clear that changing the interface allows you to remove some bottlenecks (at least in terms of low-level characteristics), but this is a different story.

Prices

The table shows the average retail prices of SSDs tested today, relevant at the time you read this article: , has a solid background in both solid state drive design in general and the use (and production, most importantly) of 3D NAND TLC. In fact, the company simply overtook its competitors “on the turn”: everyone spoke about the need to switch to 3D NAND, but the transition itself was very difficult for the majority. The resulting head start in a couple of years at Samsung disposed of in the right way, as a result of which now the company’s solutions based on TLC memory are among the best on the market. And it is very important that by now they can even be considered inexpensive: from the “middle” class, the Evo line has gradually descended into the budget one, without losing its advantages along the way.

At the same time, high production volumes allow the company not to completely abandon MLC NAND. Of course, this memory has already turned into a niche solution, but definitely has a niche . And with further price reduction, it will only expand. And of course, the 860 Pro will be relatively popular with mainstream users as well, as some of them are still wary of TLC memory. It is clear that they will have to pay extra for psychological comfort . .. But on the other hand, what else is worth paying for, if not for comfort? 🙂

This is the situation today. What will happen tomorrow is unknown. In the semiconductor market, you definitely need to run just to stay in place, and to get somewhere you need to run twice as fast. In the near future, new “turns” await us in the form of the introduction of QLC NAND, or even “non-NAND” memory. And which of the manufacturers will cope with the transition to the best extent, only time will tell. So far, no one is seriously threatening Samsung’s position in the SSD market, and the new lines of drives fully confirm this.

Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB Solid State Drive Review

Samsung 850 EVO series solid state drives were introduced at the end of 2014. Despite the venerable age, by the standards of components of such a plan, SSDs of this series still remain in the first positions in the popularity rating of drives on hotline.ua. We will try to find out whether the increased interest in the devices of this line is justified by getting to know the 500-gigabyte version of the Samsung 850 EVO.

The use of other chips could theoretically affect the performance and reliability of drives, but the manufacturer managed to keep the declared performance at the same level. Tests carried out after the update showed that the performance of the first wave of Samsung 850 EVO and models with 3D V-NAND TLC of the third generation is almost identical, and the reduction in the chip manufacturing process did not affect the number of available rewrite cycles. For this reason, it makes no sense to look for early modifications available for sale. The second revision of the Samsung 850 EVO is in no way inferior to its predecessors, perhaps a little more economical.

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At the time of announcement, the Samsung 850 EVO lineup included 120 GB, 250 GB, 500 GB, and 1 TB drives. Over time, 2TB and 4TB models were also introduced.

The 120GB-500GB models use the dual-core Samsung MGX controller, while the higher 1-4TB models use the even faster triple-core Samsung MHX chip. The drives are also equipped with cache buffers, the capacity of which also depends on the size of the SSD. The 120GB version has 256MB, the 250GB and 500GB drives have 512MB, while the 1TB version has 1GB cache, the 2TB has 2GB, and the 4TB has a whopping 4GB. In all cases, LPDDR3 memory is used.

Samsung 850 EVO 500 GB (MZ-75E500B)

The drive comes in a medium-sized cardboard box. The SSD is secured inside in an additional plastic shell that protects the device during transport.

Includes warranty card, quick install guide and CD with digital manual and service applications.

The drive has a 7 mm thick metal case. The front panel bears only the manufacturer’s name, device type, and a small arrow marks the side with the interface connector.

A large sticker covers the rear panel of the device, which indicates the model name, volume, serial number and basic power requirements.

Standard SATA connectors are provided for connecting the SSD.

As for the speed characteristics, the linear read/write speeds of 540/520 MB/s are declared for the Samsung 850 EVO. Performance when working with 4K blocks differs minimally depending on the volume. For a 500 GB drive, this is 98,000 IOPS for reads (4K, QD32) and 90,000 IOPS for writes. For situations with a QD1 request queue depth, the drive must provide up to 10,000 IOPS for reads and up to 40,000 IOPS for writes.

Drives of course support S.M.A.R.T., TRIM and the Garbage Collection algorithm. In addition, the Samsung 850 EVO supports Device Sleep mode to reduce consumption of AES 256-bit simple and hardware encryption, as well as TCG/Opal 2.0 and IEEE-1667.

Time Between Failures (MTBF) is 1.5 million hours. At the same time, the guaranteed amount of recorded data (TBW, Total Bytes Written) for a 500 GB drive is 150 TB. The warranty period is 5 years. Given the value of TBW, it is easy to calculate that the daily notional write limit during the guaranteed working period is in the order of 84 GB. Let’s pay attention to the fact that in this case we are not talking about the reliability of the drive, but the warranty conditions of the manufacturer. That’s 5 years or 150 TB of recording, whichever comes first.

TBW only indirectly speaks about the actual capabilities of the drives. As resource tests show, the possible amount of recorded data can exceed the guaranteed amount by an order of magnitude. However, TBW is still worth considering if you’re counting on a manufacturer’s warranty.

After formatting, the available storage capacity is 466 GB. When choosing a drive of a certain capacity, it is important to keep in mind the collateral losses when converting billions of available bytes to gigabytes.

The manufacturer offers the Samsung Data Migration utility to migrate the system partition from the current drive to the new SSD.

The proprietary Samsung Magician app is available for management and service. Here you can evaluate the actual amount of data written, view the S.M.A.R.T. status, perform a full drive wipe, and even evaluate the performance of the SSD.

Performance

We started exploring the speed capabilities of the MZ-75E500B with the manufacturer’s suggested application.

According to Samsung Magician’s internal test, the drive’s linear read speed can be almost 550 MB/s, write speed is 530 MB/s. At the same time, random access performance on read operations turned out to be very close to the declared figures — 97,300 IOPS for reading and 88,200 IOPS for writing.

The ATTO application shows similar peak performance.

Almost 5500 points in Anvil’s Storage Utilities is a very decent overall result, which is made up of good performance in both linear transfers and work with small blocks. Here again we see 95,000 IOPS for reading 4K QD16 and 87,500 IOPS for writing.

Crystal Disk Mark 5.2.1 and AS SSD Benchmark with some features, but generally confirm the results obtained earlier.

The total 4996 points in the test of drives from the PCMark 8 package are generally uninformative, but the throughput of 294 MB / s is much more indicative. This is one of the best results for SATA devices. Recall that this test generates a load identical to that which occurs when using real applications presented in the final list.

The Samsung 850 EVO uses the TurboWrite mechanism to increase the write speed. In fact, we are talking about a classic SLC buffer for which a part of the drive capacity is allocated — 6 GB in the case of a 500 GB drive. For TLC-based SSDs, such an array is often very useful. But, here is a special case. Although the Samsung 850 EVO also uses 3-bit cell memory, the 3D V-NAND 3D layout and high-performance Samsung MGX dual-core processor with eight-channel access to the flash memory array support natively higher write speeds. Collectively, on the AIDA64 sequential write graph, we see a straight line at 500 MB/s. There is no drop in performance, which is typical for TLC-based drives, after the SLC buffer is exhausted.

It took 42 seconds to copy three files with a total volume of 18.8 GB from the system drive to the Samsung 850 EVO, that is, the actual write speed on the SSD was about 458 MB / s. Even after the SLC buffer was exhausted, the recording rate did not decrease.

1000 photos of 5.24 GB flew into the Samsung 850 EVO in 14.2 seconds.

In the conditions of an open stand during rest, the temperature of the storage tank is kept at the level of 26–28 degrees. After 15 minutes of continuous recording during experiments in AIDA64, the temperature of the SSD controller at the peak rose to 51C. In general, this is an acceptable value for such conditions of use. At the same time, the body of the device remained barely warm to the touch, and 39-40.

Price

Samsung 850 EVO MZ-75E500B with a capacity of 500 GB is offered on the market at a price of about 4700 UAH. ($177). This is definitely not the most affordable TLC-based model of this capacity. Moreover, the drive is even slightly more expensive than some SSDs with MLC chips. However, it is too naive and short-sighted to determine the capabilities of a drive based on the type of memory alone. Especially when it comes not to planar chips, but 3D V-NAND. In general, the current cost looks a little higher than what we would like to see, but, given the actual capabilities of the drive, the price seems justified.

5

ITC.UA score

Pros:
Excellent performance; stable speed indicators; convenient service utilities; 5 year manufacturer’s warranty

Cons:
Relatively high price

Conclusion:
Samsung EVO 850 500 GB leaves a very pleasant impression. This is a balanced solid state drive with excellent speed performance. Despite the use of flash memory with three-bit cells, thanks to progressive 48-layer chips, a powerful controller and successful firmware, SSD performance is not inferior to that of the best representatives based on MLC chips.