Samsung 840 250GB SSD Review

Introduction

Just yesterday, we went into a long and winded intro that covered all of the bases. Let's do a short recap for those just joining us today for the Samsung 840 250GB.

840 is the first consumer SSD to use TLC (triple-level cell) NAND flash. The flash has a 1K P/E cycle, but the triple-core controller does a very good job keeping the NAND in-line with one core dedicated to flash management and background tasks.

The 840 is a solid step forward from the 830 Series and uses a faster controller, higher capacity yet lower voltage DRAM and being a value product has a lower cost. In our testing yesterday we learned the 840 500GB (user capacity with 512GB total) removed the write latency issue we found on our 830 128GB sample.

Unlike last year when Samsung only released the 830 Series, the company has taken to a traditional two-product approach with the 840 filling the value sector of the market and the 840 Pro, with MLC flash, covering the enthusiast, prosumer and power user markets. Both new SSDs use Samsungs new 21nm NAND flash.?