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

Samsung's PM1743 has been around for a while and is one of the most prolific PCIe Gen5 datacenter SSDs currently in circulation. Let's see what it can do.

Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer
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Senior Hardware Editor
Published
Manufactured by Samsung
5 minutes & 30 seconds read time
TweakTown's Rating: 90%
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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?

AvoidConsiderShortlistBuy

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

Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 01
ItemDetails
ModelSamsung PM1743 7.68TB
MSRPN/A
Model NumberMZ-3LO7T60
InterfacePCIe Gen5 x4
Form FactorE3.S
Sequential BWUp to 14,000 MB/s
Random IOPSUp to 2500K IOPS
Warranty5-Years Limited

Samsung PM1743 7.68TB E3.S PCIe Gen5 SSD

Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 02
Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 03
Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 04

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

ItemDetails
MotherboardASUS Pro WS W790E-SAGE SE (Buy at Amazon)
CPUIntel Xeon w7-2495X (Buy at Amazon)
GPUGIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1650 (Buy at Amazon)
CoolerAlphacool Eissturm Hurricane Copper 45 (Buy at Amazon)
RAMMicron DDR5-4800 RDIMM (Buy at Amazon)
Power Supplybe quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W (Buy at Amazon)
CasePrimoChill's Praxis Wetbench (Buy at Amazon)
OSUbuntu 24.04.1 LTS

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
Best Deals: PM893 2.5" SATA 7.68TB
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- $1135 USD
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$1622.21 CAD -
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* Prices last scanned on 1/18/2025 at 12:25 am CST - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission from any sales.

Benchmarks - Sequential

128K Sequential Write/Read

Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 05

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.

Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 06
Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 07

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.

Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 08
Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 09

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

Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 10

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.

Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 11
Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 12

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.

Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 13
Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 14

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

Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 15
Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 16

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

Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 17
Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 18

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

Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 19

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.

Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 20
Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 21

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.

Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 22
Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 23

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

Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 24
Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 25

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

Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 26
Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 27

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.

Samsung PM1743 E3.S 7.68TB Enterprise SSD Review - OG Gen5 Standard Bearer 28

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

Performance

80%

Quality

95%

Features

95%

Value

N/A

Overall

90%

The Bottom Line

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

TweakTown award
Best Deals: PM893 2.5" SATA 7.68TB
Country flag Today 7 days ago 30 days ago
- $1135 USD
Buy
$1622.21 CAD -
Buy
* Prices last scanned on 1/18/2025 at 12:25 am CST - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission from any sales.

Senior Hardware Editor

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Jon joined the TweakTown team in 2013 and has since reviewed 100s of new storage products. Jon became a computer enthusiast when Windows XP launched. He was into water cooling and benching ATI video cards with modded drivers. Jon has been building computers for others for more than 10 years. Jon became a storage enthusiast the day he first booted an Intel X25-M G1 80GB SSD. Look for Jon to bring consumer SSD reviews into the spotlight.

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