Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer

TweakTown's Rating: 90%

The Bottom Line

With its consistency and advanced security features, Samsung's PM1743 offers an excellent value proposition.

Pros

• Up to 2.5 million RR IOPS
• Up to 300K RW IOPS
• Power efficient

Cons

• Write performance

Should you buy it?

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Introduction and Drive Details

Samsung is, and has been for almost a decade, the number one purveyor of solid-state storage. Whether it is the consumer solid-state storage market or the enterprise equivalent, Samsung is the global market leader. Samsung's PM1743 was first introduced at CES 2022 and as the company's first enterprise SSD to incorporate the PCIe Gen5 interface.

The drive has been in circulation for more than 2 years now and is still the standard by which all others are measured against. It is extremely difficult to get ahold of any Samsung Enterprise SSD let alone its PCIe Gen5 standard bearer. But here we are years late for the party and just recently having been fortunate to stumble across some, we can now at long last add the PCIe Gen5 standard bearer to our enterprise SSD performance charts.

Samsung touts its first PCIe Gen5 SSD for enterprise applications as "Designed to Open Compute Project specifications and is backwards compatible, so it offers speed advantages even across previous-generation PCIe interfaces. The flexibility to deploy a new generation of SSDs wherever they can meet evolving customer needs could help support the growing demand for high-performance computing servers that offer artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) capabilities, as well as hyperscale and Edge-to-Cloud solutions".

Samsung states that its PM1743 offers a 40% gain in efficiency over its previous generations of devices, enabling its first PCIe Gen5 SSD to deliver more performance and reliability without a major impact on operating overhead. Additionally, the PM1743 offers dual-port support, delivering to enterprise applications a higher level of speed and reliability.

Dual port access expands availability in the event of a failure. Utilizing dual ports, enterprises can be notified about issues to manage before they impact customers. The drive also features enhanced telemetry. This capability collects and automatically transmits drive data in an encrypted format. Data telemetry includes lifetime writes, capacitor health, and workload performance over time.

On the security front, the PM1743 features an embedded security processor providing an enhanced level of protection against malicious code and data forgery. The drive is also Secure Boot capable, again providing another layer of data security.

As we stated earlier, Samsung's PM1743 is among the most prolific PCIe Gen5 enterprise SSDs currently deployed across the enterprise data spectrum, now let's see what this SSD can do for you by the numbers.

Specs/Comparison Products

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Samsung PM1743 7.68TB E3.S PCIe Gen5 SSD

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Samsung's PM1743 series is available in 2.5-inch U.2, E3.S and E1.S form factors. Capacities range from 1.92TB to 15.36TB. These SSDs are compatible with major operating systems such as RHEL, SLES, CentOS, Ubuntu, Windows Server, and VMware ESXi.

Test System Specs & Enterprise Testing Methodology

Enterprise SSD Test System

Prior to the AI revolution, datacenter SSDs' normal operating range would typically never exceed QD32. With AI data pipeline storage being directed by GPU, high queue depth performance has become paramount. Queue depths in the thousands are now commonplace, which is why we've changed our test platform, methodology, and operating system. Our charted upper queue depth range has been revised from QD256 to QD4096 for random data and up to QD1024 for sequential testing.

Testing Methodology

TweakTown strictly adheres to industry-accepted Enterprise Solid State Storage testing procedures. Each test we perform repeats the same sequence of the following steps:

1. Secure Erase SSD
2. Write the entire capacity of SSD 2x (2 loops) with 128KB sequential write data, seamlessly transition to the next step (sequential testing skips step 3)
3. Precondition SSD by filling the drive twice with 4K or 8K random writes
4. Run test-specific workload with a 30-second ramp up for 5 minutes at each measured Queue Depth, and record average result

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Benchmarks - Sequential

128K Sequential Write/Read

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We precondition the drive using 100 percent sequential 128K writes at QD256 using 1-thread for 2-drive fills, receiving performance data every second. We plot this data to observe the test subject's descent into steady-state and to verify steady-state is in effect as we seamlessly transition into testing at queue depth. A steady-state is achieved after 1-drive fill. Average steady-state 128K sequential write performance at QD256 is approximately 6,000 MB/s. Exactly as specified.

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The PM1743 7.68TB certainly doesn't set any new records here, but it still does impress by delivering the third best performance we've encountered at QD1. The drive remains rock steady - delivering the flattest performance curve we've ever seen. A steady 6,100 MB/s across all measured queue depths.

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The PM1743 7.68TB is delivering a performance curve here that's basically identical to the CM7-V 3.2TB. Impressive, especially at queue depths of eight or more.

Benchmarks - Random

4K Random Write/Read

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We precondition the drive using 100 percent random 4K writes at QD256 for 2-drive fills, receiving performance data every second. We plot this data to observe the test subject's descent into steady-state and to verify steady-state is in effect as we seamlessly transition into testing at queue depth. A steady-state is achieved after 1-drive fill. Average steady-state 4K random write performance at QD256 is approximately 315K IOPS.

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The drive is rated at up to 300K for 4K random write IOPS, and we are getting 320K, so again, our test subject is delivering a bit more than advertised.

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At the top end, we can achieve over 2.6 million 4K random read IOPS. This is again higher than factory spec so that's great. However, a close look at its performance curve reveals the least desirable performance curve of the Gen5 SSDs that populate our chart.

4K 7030

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4K 7030 mixed workload performance is not looking very impressive, with our 7.68TB test subject being outperformed by several of the PCIe Gen4 SSDs that populate our chart.

4K 5050

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Again, we find no advantage for our test subject over PCIe Gen4 SSDs such as Micron's 9400 Pro or DapuStor's R5100.

8K Random Write/Read

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We precondition the drive using 100 percent random 8K writes at QD256 for 2-drive fills, receiving performance data every second. We plot this data to observe the test subject's descent into steady-state and to verify steady-state is in effect as we seamlessly transition into testing at queue depth. A steady-state is achieved after 1-drive fill. Average steady-state 8K random write performance at QD256 is approximately 158K IOPS.

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We expect 8K random to track pretty much the same as 4K random here, just at a lower IOPS rate because it's moving twice the amount of data.

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At QD128 or higher, the PM1743 manages to distance itself from the Top performing PCIe Gen4 SSDs, but again when compared with the other PCIe Gen5 SSDs that populate our chart, the drive comes up short. This is not unexpected considering the drive is over 2 years old at this point.

8K 7030

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8K 7030 is representative of a common database workload. Here again, we find our test subject unable to keep up with more modern competitors.

8K 5050

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Maybe a bit better than we saw at 8K 7030 but still bottom of the barrel mixed workload performance.

Final Thoughts

In terms of performance that stands out, Samsung's PM1743 isn't delivering much. With that said, we will note that the drive does perform remarkably consistently, and in that respect, it is still very relevant. If you are seeking predictable, rock steady performance above all else, then the PM1743 deserves much consideration.

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Based on its consistency, available form factors, and advanced security features, we award Samsung's PM1743 7.68TB our Best Value Award.