Samsung 850 EVO and 850 PRO 2TB SSDs Review

Introduction

The day is coming sooner rather than later when all but long-term cold storage will be solid-state. Soon every PC will ship with an SSD onboard. Today, Samsung hits a new milestone by delivering the first ever 2TB consumer SSD's. This high capacity is facilitated by Samsung's groundbreaking 3D V-NAND Technology. Exotic SATA-based SSD's with a capacity of this magnitude have, until now, been extremely poor performers and very cost prohibitive. Today Samsung is changing everything.

Last year at Flash Memory Summit, we heard rumor of a 2TB Samsung SSD in the works. We also heard that a SATA SSD with this high of a capacity requires a re-engineered controller because just slapping a bunch of flash on current controllers would result in performance that Samsung considers sub-par. Samsung's engineering department has been hard at work developing a controller capable of powering a full two terabytes of flash at SATA speeds comparable to or greater than their current flagship SATA-based SSD's.

Samsung's newest controller is designated MHX. The MHX is capable of delivering the same best-in-class sequential read/write performance as the 850 EVO/Pro 1TB SSD, but with 2TB of flash, while at the same time improving on random performance. Our testing shows a huge improvement in random 4K QD1 read/write performance on the 2TB 850 PRO. At capacity points of 1TB and under, the 850 EVO delivers markedly superior 4K QD1 random read/write performance to that of the 850 PRO. Samsung's MHX controller changes that, with the introduction of the 2TB 850 PRO. The 2TB 850 PRO now delivers the same insane QD1 4K random performance as the 850 EVO. We are able to hit 4K QD1 random read/write speeds of 45/195 MB/s with the 2TB 850 PRO running under optimal conditions. This is a massive improvement.

Samsung's 850 Series SSD's are about more than just class-leading performance and unrivaled capacity. Equipped with Samsung's cutting-edge 3D V-NAND, the 850 Series SSD's are all about endurance; even 3-bit per cell Samsung 3D V-NAND has twice the endurance of conventional 2D planar type flash. Backing up this claim is Samsung's industry-leading TBW (Total Bytes Written) warranty for both the 850 EVO and PRO. 3D flash inherently delivers superior endurance because with 3D flash, density increases aren't coming via lithography shrinkage. With 3D flash increased density is facilitated by going vertical using larger lithography flash which inherently is capable of enduring far more P/E (Program/Erase) cycles than smaller nodes. 3D flash is also more power efficient than planar type flash, which is a great benefit for today's mobile computing devices.

Samsung is in a unique position, because they manufacture all of the components utilized on their SSD's. This allows Samsung to offer lower cost and higher quality products than the majority of their competition. In addition, there is no wait time for implementation of new technologies developed in-house which means that Samsung SSD's are perpetually on the cutting-edge of new technology.

There you have our brief run-down of Samsung's latest and greatest, now let's take a close look at the performance of both of these SATA III Behemoth's.

Specifications Samsung 850 EVO and PRO 2TB SSD

Samsung's 850 EVO SATA III 2.5" FF SSD is available in 5 capacities: 120GB, 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB. Sequential read performance for the 850 EVO is listed as up to 540MB/s. Sequential write performance is listed as up to 520 MB/s. Sequential write performance varies by capacity outside of the drives TurboWrite layer.

The 850 EVO delivers up to 98,000 random read IOPS and 90,000 random write IOPS at QD32. QD1 random performance is rated at up to 10,000/40,000 IOPS. LBA addressing is handled by a single LPDDR Samsung DRAM package that varies in density by capacity. The two smaller capacities are warranted for up to 75 terabytes TBW (Total Bytes Written) and the 500GB -2TB drives for 150 terabytes TBW, or five years, whichever comes first.

Power consumption for the 2TB 850 EVO is listed at an average maximum of 3.7W read, 4.7W write. Idle power consumption is listed at 60mW max and Device Sleep power consumption is listed at 5mW. The 850 EVO is FDE (Full Disk Encryption) and Encrypted drive capable.

Samsung's 850 PRO SATA III 2.5" FF SSD is available in 5 capacities: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB. Sequential read performance for the 850 PRO is listed as up to 550MB/s. Sequential write performance is listed as up to 520 MB/s. Sequential write performance of the 128GB model is up to 470 MB/s.

The 850 PRO delivers up to 100,000 random read IOPS and 90,000 random write IOPS at QD32. QD1 random performance is rated at up to 10,000/36,000 IOPS. LBA addressing is handled by a single LPDDR Samsung DRAM package that varies in density by capacity. The two smaller capacities are warranted for up to 150 terabytes TBW (Total Bytes Written) and the 500GB -2TB drives for 300 terabytes TBW, or 10 years, whichever comes first.

Power consumption for the 2TB 850 PRO is listed at an average maximum of 3.3W read, 3.4W write. Idle power consumption is listed at 60mW max and Device Sleep power consumption is listed at 5mW. The 850 PRO is FDE (Full Disk Encryption) and Encrypted drive capable.