With their 1 Terabyte Drive we've already had on new Samsung 840 Evo SSD for review and we were quite surprised. Now it's time we have a closer look at the 120 Gigabyte version of the drive. Usually 120 Gigabyte Drives don't offer the same performance level bigger drives offer, which is why we're really curious to see if Samsung has found a way around this issue.
Specifications / Delivery
Model |
840 Evo 120 Gigabyte |
840 Evo 250 Gigabyte |
840 Evo 500 Gigabyte |
840 Evo 750 Gigabyte |
840 Evo 1000 Gigabyte |
Capacity |
120 GB |
250 GB |
500 GB |
750 GB |
512 GB |
Form
Factor |
2.5'', 7 mm |
2.5'', 7 mm |
2.5'', 7 mm |
2.5'', 7 mm |
2.5'', 9.3 7 mm |
Memory |
- TLC NAND
- 19nm
- ~1'200 P/E-cycles
|
- TLC NAND
- 19nm
- ~1'200 P/E-cycles
|
- TLC NAND
- 19nm
- ~1'200 P/E-cycles
|
- TLC NAND
- 19nm
- ~1'200 P/E-cycles
|
- TLC NAND
- 19nm
- ~1'200 P/E-cycles
|
Model |
Samsung K90KGY8S7M-CCK0 |
Samsung K90KGY8S7M-CCK0 |
Samsung K90KGY8S7M-CCK0 |
Samsung K90KGY8S7M-CCK0 |
Samsung K90KGY8S7M-CCK0 |
Throughput |
- 540 MB/s sequential read
- 410 MB/s sequential write
- 94'000 IOPS 4K random read
- 35'000 IOPS 4K random write
|
- 540 MB/s sequential read
- 520 MB/s sequential write
- 97'000 IOPS 4K random read
- 66 '000 IOPS 4K random write
|
- 540 MB/s sequential read
- 520 MB/s sequential write
- 98'000 IOPS 4K random read
- 90
'000 IOPS 4K random write
|
- 540 MB/s sequential read
- 520 MB/s sequential write
- 98'000 IOPS 4K random read
- 90
'000 IOPS 4K random write
|
- 540 MB/s sequential read
- 520 MB/s sequential write
- 98'000 IOPS 4K random read
- 90
'000 IOPS 4K random write
|
Accesstime (read) |
< 0.1 ms |
< 0.1 ms |
< 0.1 ms |
< 0.1 ms |
< 0.1 ms |
Acoustics |
no noise |
no noise |
no noise |
no noise |
no noise |
Warranty |
3 Years |
3 Years |
3 Years |
3 Years |
3 Years |
Price |
|
|
|
|
|
One of the biggest
issues with the Samsung 840 (non Pro) was its sequential write performance of 130 Megabyte per second. Since
at this point Samsung just wasn't competitive at all, they really had to do something about this to boost this value into a region where it can compete with for example Crucials M500 SSD. Apart from that Samsung also boosted IOPS performance, when you compare the 840 Evo with the older 840 drives.
At this point you should really ask yourself what kind of sorcery is going on behind the scenes that Samsung was able to triple sequential write performance from one generation to
another. The key to success actually has a name: TurboWrite. That's what the new proprietary technology has been called and basically it is an algorithm, which has been implemented into the firmware of the 840 Evo's new MEX controller. TruboWrite can use a small portion of the DRAM chip, which sits next to the controller on the SSD's PCB and emulate SLC NAND flash. As soon as there are data transfers this emulated SLC cache acts as a high performance buffer. In other words, Samsung brought the concept of DRAM caching into the SSD controller, which massively boosts sequential write performance,
that used to be the achilles heel of the 840 Evo's predecessor.
Next to the improvements on the controller Samsung has also been working on their
Magician Software.
Overall it is very well structured and even unexperienced users will have no issues at all configuring the drive the most suitable way.
Last but not least there is the actual price of these drives. In case of the
large 1 TB drive you get a price per GB of 0.48 EUR, which make big SSD's
finally affordable. A closer look at the 120 Gigabyte drive reveals, that the
price per Gigabyte is at 0.72 EUR, which is still very good but apparently not
as attractive as with the 1 TB drive.
[pagebreak]
Impressions
[pagebreak]
How do we test?
Testenvironment
Models |
|
ADATA S511 60 GB |
|
ADATA S511 SSD 120 GB |
|
ADATA XPG mSATA SSD SX300 128 GB |
|
Corsair Force 3 120 GB |
|
Corsair Force GS 240 GB |
|
Corsair Force
GT 120 GB |
|
Corsair Neutron GTX 240 GB |
|
Crucial M500
480 GB |
|
Extrememory
XLR8 Express 120 GB |
|
Intel SSD 335 Series 240 GB |
|
Intel SSD 520 180 GB |
|
Intel SSD 520 240 GB |
|
Intel X25-M 80 GB |
|
Intel X25-M Gen2 34nm 160
GB |
|
Kingmax SMP35 Client 240 GB |
n/A |
Kingston HyperX SSD 120 GB |
|
Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120 GB |
|
Kingston HyperX SSD 240 GB |
|
Kingston SSDNow V+ 200 90 GB |
|
OCZ Agility 3 240 GB |
|
OCZ Agility 4 256 GB |
|
OCZ IBIS 240 GB |
|
OCZ Octane 512 GB |
|
OCZ Octane 1 TB |
|
OCZ RevoDrive 3 240 GB |
|
OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 480 GB PCIe-SSD |
|
OCZ RevoDrive X2 480 GB PCIe-SSD |
|
OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid 120GB SSD, 1TB HDD |
|
OCZ Synapse 64 GB |
|
OCZ Vector 256 GB |
|
OCZ Vertex 3
240 GB |
|
OCZ Vertex
3.20 120 GB |
|
OCZ Vertex
3.20 240 GB |
|
OCZ Vertex 4
256 GB |
|
OCZ Vertex 4
512 GB |
|
OCZ Vertex
450 256 GB |
|
Plextor M5Pro
256 GB |
|
Samsung PM830 SSD 128 GB |
|
Samsung PM830 SSD 256 GB |
|
Smasung
840 Evo 120 GB |
|
Samsung
840 Evo 1 TB |
|
Samsung 840
Pro 256 GB |
|
SanDisk Extreme SSD 120 GB |
|
SanDisk Extreme SSD 240 GB |
|
Toshiba THNSNF512GCSS 512 GB |
n/A |
|
Testenvironment |
Motherboard |
ASUS Maximus V Formula |
Chipset |
Intel Z77 |
CPU |
Intel Core i7 2500k |
Memory |
G.Skill Ares 2133 MHz |
Graphics
card |
ASUS GeFroce GTX 680 |
Storage
(system) |
Intel SSD 335 Series |
Operating
systems |
Ubuntu - most recent Kernel version
Windows 7 64 Bit with caching
drives |
Filesystem |
XFS |
iozone
iozone3 is a benchmark suit for storage solutions which natively runs under
Windows/Linux.
We are testing
the throughput with different block sizes using the following commands:
KByte/s
- iozone -Rb test4k.xls -i0 -i1 -i2 -+n -r 4k -s4g -t32
- iozone -Rb test256k.xls -i0 -i1 -i2 -+n -r 256k -s4g -t32
iops
- iozone -Rb test4ko.xls -i0 -i1 -i2 -+n -r 4k -s4g -t32 -O
[pagebreak]
KByte/s, Sequential
write |
Sequential
write |
Bewertung |
Throughput 256 KByte
Block Size |
OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 480 GB
PCIe-SSD |
|
1'291'486 |
OCZ RevoDrive 3 240 GB |
No Review |
771'043 |
OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid 120GB
SSD, 1TB HDD |
|
750'096 |
OCZ RevoDrive X2 480 GB
PCIe-SSD |
|
694'586 |
OCZ IBIS 240 GB |
|
680'372 |
Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB |
|
536'082 |
OCZ Vector 256 GB |
|
534'058 |
Intel SSD 335 Series 240 GB |
No Review |
533'672 |
OCZ Vertex 450 256 GB |
|
522'897 |
Corsair Force GS 240 GB |
|
522'613 |
OCZ Vertex 3 240 GB |
|
522'212 |
Kingmax SMP35 Client 240 GB |
|
519'430 |
Kingston HyperX SSD 240 GB |
|
519'190 |
Corsair Neutron GTX 240 GB |
|
519'104 |
OCZ Vertex
3.20 240 GB |
No Review |
517'290 |
Intel SSD 520 240 GB |
|
516'603 |
Kingston HyperX SSD 120 GB |
|
515'218 |
OCZ Vertex 4 256 GB |
|
513'309 |
Corsair Force GT 120 GB |
|
512'676 |
Intel SSD 520 180 GB |
No Review |
512'628 |
SanDisk Extreme SSD 240 GB |
No Review |
511'805 |
OCZ Vertex 3.20 120 GB |
|
510'245 |
SanDisk Extreme SSD 120 GB |
|
507'743 |
Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120
GB |
|
505'669 |
Toshiba THNSNF512GCSS 512 GB |
No Review |
504'589 |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 200 90 GB |
|
502'272 |
ADATA XPG mSATA SSD SX300 128 GB |
|
499'239 |
Extrememory XLR8 Express 120
GB |
|
491'205 |
OCZ Synapse 64 GB |
|
469'784 |
Samsung 840 Evo 1 TB |
No Review |
462'097 |
ADATA S511 60 GB |
|
457'001 |
Plextor M5 Pro 256 GB |
No Review |
444'122 |
Crucial M500
480 GB |
No Review |
439'829 |
OCZ Vertex 4 512 GB |
|
434'466 |
OCZ Agility 4 256 GB |
|
405'911 |
ADATA S511 SSD 120 GB |
|
343'488 |
Corsair Force 3 120 GB |
|
328'922 |
Samsung PM830 SSD 256 GB |
|
321'474 |
OCZ Octane 1 TB |
|
314'144 |
OCZ Octane 512 GB |
|
307'781 |
Samsung PM830 SSD 128 GB |
|
271'696 |
OCZ Agility 3 240 GB |
|
266'401 |
Samsung 840 Evo 120 GB |
No Review |
219'159 |
Intel X25-M Gen2 34nm 160 GB |
|
80'719 |
Intel X25-M 80 GB |
|
77'257 |
[pagebreak]
KByte/s, Sequential
Read |
Sequential
Read |
Bewertung |
Throughput 256 KByte
Block Size |
OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 480 GB PCIe-SSD |
|
1'460'560 |
OCZ RevoDrive 3 240 GB |
No Review |
857'972 |
OCZ IBIS 240 GB |
|
806'858 |
OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid 120GB SSD, 1TB HDD |
|
729'929 |
OCZ RevoDrive X2 480 GB PCIe-SSD |
|
716'357 |
Intel SSD 520 240 GB |
|
545'843 |
Intel SSD 520 180 GB |
No Review |
545'656 |
Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB |
|
545'353 |
OCZ Vector 256 GB |
|
553'400 |
ADATA XPG mSATA SSD SX300 128 GB |
|
543'650 |
ADATA S511 SSD 120 GB |
|
542'606 |
Corsair Neutron GTX 240 GB |
|
542'442 |
OCZ Vertex 4 512 |
|
542'075 |
Kingston HyperX SSD 120 GB |
|
541'613 |
Intel SSD 335 Series 240 GB |
No Review |
541'542 |
Corsair Force GS 240 GB |
|
541'086 |
Toshiba THNSNF512GCSS 512 GB |
No Review |
539'056 |
Samsung PM830 SSD 128 GB |
|
539'754 |
Corsair Force GT 120 GB |
|
539'648 |
Kingston HyperX SSD 240 GB |
|
537'745 |
ADATA S511 60 GB |
|
537'560 |
OCZ Vertex 4 256 |
|
536'605 |
Samsung 840 Evo 1 TB |
No Review |
536'542 |
OCZ Vertex 3 240 GB |
|
534'988 |
OCZ Vertex
3.20 240 GB |
No Review |
534'392 |
OCZ Vertex 450 256 GB |
|
534'241 |
Samsung PM830 SSD 256 GB |
|
534'154 |
Plextor M5 Pro 256 GB |
No Review |
530'606 |
OCZ Vertex 3.20 120 GB |
|
530'584 |
Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120 GB |
|
529'995 |
SanDisk Extreme SSD 240 GB |
No Review |
529'520 |
Crucial M500
480 GB |
No Review |
525'278 |
Extrememory XLR8 Express 120 GB |
|
521'930 |
OCZ Agility 3 240 GB |
|
516'479 |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 200 90 GB |
|
510'372 |
SanDisk Extreme SSD 120 GB |
|
507'743 |
Samsung 840 Evo 120 GB |
No Review |
504'587 |
Kingmax SMP35 Client 240 GB |
|
498'223 |
Corsair Force 3 120 GB |
|
490'777 |
OCZ Synapse 64 GB |
|
441'396 |
OCZ Octane 1 TB |
|
440'052 |
OCZ Octane 512 GB |
|
438'465 |
Intel X25-M Gen2 34nm 160 GB |
|
247'759 |
Intel X25-M 80 GB |
|
240'404 |
OCZ Agility 4 256 GB |
|
209'723 |
[pagebreak]
KByte/s, Random
write |
Random
write |
Bewertung |
Throughput 4 KByte
Block Size |
OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 480 GB PCIe-SSD |
|
756'658 |
Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB |
|
412'837 |
OCZ RevoDrive 3 240 GB |
No Review |
382'970 |
OCZ Vertex 4 512 GB |
|
362'053 |
OCZ Vertex 4 256 GB |
|
354'573 |
OCZ Vector 256 GB |
|
354'246 |
Crucial M500
480 GB |
No Review |
346'003 |
Samsung 840 Evo 1 TB |
No Review |
344'730 |
OCZ Agility 4 256 GB |
|
341'478 |
OCZ Octane 1 TB |
|
325'007 |
OCZ Octane 512 GB |
|
324'023 |
Corsair Force GS 240 GB |
|
301'486 |
OCZ Vertex 450 256 GB |
|
292'401 |
SanDisk Extreme SSD 240 GB |
No Review |
287'255 |
OCZ Vertex
3.20 240 GB |
No Review |
286'949 |
Corsair Neutron GTX 240 GB |
|
285'558 |
Intel SSD 520 180 GB |
No Review |
284'858 |
Intel SSD 520 240 GB |
|
283'794 |
OCZ Vertex 3.20 120 GB |
|
282'578 |
Kingston HyperX SSD 240 GB |
|
280'556 |
Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120 GB |
|
279'967 |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 200 90 GB |
|
276'859 |
OCZ Vertex 3 240 GB |
|
275'499 |
ADATA XPG mSATA SSD SX300 128 GB |
|
264'870 |
OCZ IBIS 240 GB |
|
262'687 |
Intel SSD 335 Series 240 GB |
No Review |
262'005 |
Kingston HyperX SSD 120 GB |
|
255'988 |
Plextor M5 Pro 256 GB |
No Review |
254'918 |
Corsair Force GT 120 GB |
|
253'269 |
SanDisk Extreme SSD 120 GB |
|
252'045 |
ADATA S511 SSD 120 GB |
|
244'150 |
ADATA S511 60 GB |
|
226'394 |
OCZ Agility 3 240 GB |
|
242'683 |
Extrememory XLR8 Express 120 GB |
|
237'082 |
Corsair Force 3 120 GB |
|
225'092 |
OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid 120GB SSD, 1TB HDD |
|
213'027 |
OCZ Synapse 64 GB |
|
200'308 |
Samsung PM830 SSD 256 GB |
|
156'814 |
OCZ RevoDrive X2 480 GB PCIe-SSD |
|
156'644 |
Samsung 840 Evo 120 GB |
No Review |
148'166 |
Samsung PM830 SSD 128 GB |
|
132'997 |
Toshiba THNSNF512GCSS 512 GB |
No Review |
95'808 |
Kingmax SMP35 Client 240 GB |
|
94'447 |
Intel X25-M Gen2 34nm 160 GB |
|
62'388 |
Intel X25-M 80 GB |
|
48'194 |
[pagebreak]
KByte/s, Random
read |
Random
read |
Bewertung |
Throughput 4 KByte
Block Size |
OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 480 GB PCIe-SSD |
|
640'327 |
Plextor M5 Pro 256 GB |
No Review |
392'851 |
Samsung 840 Evo 1 TB |
No Review |
384'527 |
OCZ Vector 256 GB |
|
381'510 |
Toshiba THNSNF512GCSS 512 GB |
No Review |
373'590 |
OCZ Vertex 4 512 GB |
|
368'728 |
OCZ RevoDrive 3 240 GB |
No Review |
364'987 |
Corsair Neutron GTX 240 GB |
|
359'009 |
OCZ IBIS 240 GB |
|
357'112 |
Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB |
|
353'123 |
OCZ Vertex 4 256 GB |
|
348'881 |
Samsung 840 Evo 120 GB |
No Review |
348'724 |
Crucial M500
480 GB |
No Review |
346'164 |
OCZ Vertex 450 256 GB |
|
337'922 |
Samsung PM830 SSD 256 GB |
|
310'109 |
Intel SSD 520 240 GB |
|
283'794 |
OCZ Agility 4 256 GB |
|
255'743 |
Kingmax SMP35 Client 240 GB |
|
231'999 |
Intel SSD 520 180 GB |
No Review |
212'409 |
OCZ Vertex
3.20 240 GB |
No Review |
171'179 |
Intel SSD 335 Series 240 GB |
No Review |
171'684 |
Kingston HyperX SSD 240 GB |
|
168'648 |
OCZ Vertex 3 240 GB |
|
167'922 |
Corsair Force GS 240 GB |
|
163'408 |
Samsung PM830 SSD 128 GB |
|
151'097 |
Extrememory XLR8 Express 120 GB |
|
149'622 |
OCZ Agility 3 240 GB |
|
142'942 |
SanDisk Extreme SSD 240 GB |
No Review |
141'910 |
OCZ Octane 1 TB |
|
126'603 |
OCZ Octane 512 GB |
|
123'553 |
ADATA XPG mSATA SSD SX300 128 GB |
|
102'038 |
Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120 GB |
|
102'031 |
Corsair Force GT 120 GB |
|
98'387 |
Kingston HyperX SSD 120 GB |
|
96'042 |
ADATA S511 SSD 120 GB |
|
95'928 |
SanDisk Extreme SSD 120 GB |
|
93'316 |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 200 90 GB |
|
89'121 |
OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid 120GB SSD, 1TB HDD |
|
87'188 |
Corsair Force 3 120 GB |
|
84'113 |
OCZ Vertex 3.20 120 GB |
|
81'160 |
Intel X25-M Gen2 34nm 160 GB |
|
58'647 |
ADATA S511 60 GB |
|
51'187 |
OCZ Synapse 64 GB |
|
47'918 |
OCZ RevoDrive X2 480 GB PCIe-SSD |
|
43'003 |
Intel X25-M 80 GB |
|
30'287 |
[pagebreak]
IOPS, Random write
|
Random
write |
Bewertung |
IOPS 4 KByte Block Size |
OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 480 GB PCIe-SSD |
|
189'164 |
OCZ RevoDrive 3 240 GB |
No Review |
95'782 |
OCZ Vertex 4 512 GB |
|
90'519 |
Samsung 840 Evo 1 TB |
No Review |
85'792 |
Crucial M500
480 GB |
No Review |
88'642 |
OCZ Vector 256 GB |
|
88'537 |
OCZ Vertex 4 256 GB |
|
88'460 |
OCZ Agility 4 256 GB |
|
85'373 |
Corsair Force GS 240 GB |
|
75'577 |
OCZ Vertex 450 256 GB |
|
74'983 |
Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB |
|
72'000 |
OCZ Vertex
3.20 240 GB |
No Review |
71'470 |
Intel SSD 520 240 GB |
|
71'338 |
OCZ Vertex 3.20 120 GB |
|
71'227 |
Corsair Neutron GTX 240 GB |
|
71'180 |
Intel SSD 520 180 GB |
No Review |
70'944 |
OCZ Vertex 3 240 GB |
|
70'031 |
Kingston HyperX SSD 240 GB |
|
70'016 |
Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120 GB |
|
69'760 |
Corsair Force GT 120 GB |
|
69'108 |
OCZ IBIS 240 GB |
|
67'339 |
ADATA XPG mSATA SSD SX300 128 GB |
|
66'107 |
SanDisk Extreme SSD 240 GB |
No Review |
65'817 |
Intel SSD 335 Series 240 GB |
No Review |
65'714 |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 200 90 GB |
|
64'446 |
Plextor M5 Pro 256 GB |
No Review |
63'620 |
Kingston HyperX SSD 120 GB |
|
63'553 |
ADATA S511 SSD 120 GB |
|
61'302 |
OCZ Agility 3 240 GB |
|
60'579 |
Extrememory XLR8 Express 120 GB |
|
58'604 |
ADATA S511 60 GB |
|
56'749 |
Corsair Force 3 120 GB |
|
56'017 |
SanDisk Extreme SSD 120 GB |
|
53'719 |
OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid 120GB SSD, 1TB HDD |
|
53'618 |
OCZ Synapse 64 GB |
|
52'126 |
OCZ RevoDrive X2 480 GB PCIe-SSD |
|
39'744 |
Samsung PM830 SSD 256 GB |
|
39'192 |
Samsung 840 Evo 120 GB |
No Review |
38'077 |
Samsung PM830 SSD 128 GB |
|
32'772 |
Toshiba THNSNF512GCSS 512 GB |
No Review |
23'799 |
Kingmax SMP35 Client 240 GB |
|
23'640 |
OCZ Octane 1 TB |
|
22'192 |
OCZ Octane 512 GB |
|
20'492 |
Intel X25-M Gen2 34nm 160 GB |
|
15'434 |
Intel X25-M 80 GB |
|
6'297 |
[pagebreak]
IOPS, Random read
|
Random
read |
Bewertung |
IOPS 4 KByte Block Size |
OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 480 GB PCIe-SSD |
|
160'832 |
Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB |
|
100'198 |
Plextor M5 Pro 256 GB |
No Review |
98'600 |
Samsung 840 Evo 1 TB |
No Review |
96'308 |
OCZ Vector 256 GB |
|
95'614 |
Toshiba THNSNF512GCSS 512 GB |
No Review |
93'251 |
OCZ RevoDrive 3 240 GB |
No Review |
91'642 |
OCZ Vertex 4 512 GB |
|
92'288 |
Samsung 840 Evo 120 GB |
No Review |
91'598 |
OCZ IBIS 240 GB |
|
89'630 |
Corsair Neutron GTX 240 GB |
|
89'585 |
OCZ Vertex 4 256 GB |
|
87'654 |
Crucial M500
480 GB |
No Review |
86'622 |
OCZ Vertex 450 256 GB |
|
84'561 |
Samsung PM830 SSD 256 GB |
|
77'637 |
OCZ Agility 4 256 GB |
|
63'925 |
Kingmax SMP35 Client 240 GB |
|
57'856 |
Intel SSD 520 180 GB |
No Review |
53'477 |
Intel SSD 520 240 GB |
|
51'835 |
Corsair Force GS 240 GB |
|
51'373 |
Intel SSD 335 Series 240 GB |
No Review |
46'647 |
OCZ Vertex 3 240 GB |
|
42'308 |
Kingston HyperX SSD 240 GB |
|
41'917 |
OCZ Vertex
3.20 240 GB |
No Review |
41'813 |
Samsung PM830 SSD 128 GB |
|
37'813 |
Extrememory XLR8 Express 120 GB |
|
37'403 |
SanDisk Extreme SSD 240 GB |
No Review |
36'550 |
OCZ Agility 3 240 GB |
|
35'295 |
OCZ Octane 1 TB |
|
32'403 |
OCZ Octane 512 GB |
|
31'442 |
Kingston HyperX 3K SSD 120 GB |
|
25'822 |
ADATA XPG mSATA SSD SX300 128 GB |
|
25'036 |
Corsair Force GT 120 GB |
|
24'807 |
Kingston HyperX SSD 120 GB |
|
24'473 |
ADATA S511 SSD 120 GB |
|
24'338 |
SanDisk Extreme SSD 120 GB |
|
22'278 |
Kingston SSDNow V+ 200 90 GB |
|
21'443 |
OCZ RevoDrive Hybrid 120GB SSD, 1TB HDD |
|
21'853 |
Corsair Force 3 120 GB |
|
20'718 |
OCZ Vertex 3.20 120 GB |
|
20'438 |
Intel X25-M Gen2 34nm 160 GB |
|
14'606 |
ADATA S511 60 GB |
|
12'963 |
OCZ Synapse 64 GB |
|
11'980 |
OCZ RevoDrive X2 480 GB PCIe-SSD |
|
10'833 |
Intel X25-M 80 GB |
|
5'349 |
[pagebreak]
Conclusion
Announcement:
Despite the circumstance that the rating of a product is based on as many
objective facts as possible there are factors which can have an influence on a
rating after publication. Every autor may perceive data differently over time
whereas one possible reason for example is a deeper background knowledge or
understanding of certain processes. Certain unforseen market conditions as well
as changes have the potential to render a descision made at a certain point in
time obsolete.
With the 840 Evo Samsung comes with a bombshell. The combination of
aggressive pricing and convincing performance sounds quite dangerous for
Samsung's competitors these days, since prices of SSD's have already been
dropping significantly in the past year. Apparently Samsung seems to have geared
up to launch the first real attack on the SSD market and bottom line: The 840
Evo is a well performing drive, that features a highly competitive price tag.
But actually, the 840 Evo is more than just another drive with an improved
firmware. Samsung has also been working on their Magician software. Meanwhile
Magician is very well structured and unexperienced users as well as enthusiasts
will like it. Form the perspective of a novice the most important information is
being display on the first splash screen and enthusiasts can dig deeper. It's
even possible to control TRIM and overprovisioning yourself. But these
first lines were about the 840 Evo in general, what about the 840 Evo 120 GB
specifically?
At the beginning of the this review we were talking about the fact that the
predecessor of the 840 Evo suffered low sequential write performance. This was
basically the achilles heel of the Samsung 840. Our test drive was able to perform with
219 MB/s
sequential write and 504 MB/s sequential read throughput. When it comes to 4K
IOPS we measured 91'600 IOPS regarding random read and 38'000 regarding random
write. Unfortunately sequential write performance is still disappointing but on
the other hand, there is the read performance as well as the IOPS which are all
highly competitive. Other than that you should keep in mind, that drive is using TLC (3 Bit MLC) NAND Flash, which
featres a significantly lower program erase cycle count than 2 Bit MLC. In case
of read intense environments, such as desktop computing and home users, this will cause no issues at
all and Samsung is expecting very low RMA rates on this drive. But still you
shouldn't think about using this drive in a server where several hundred
Terabytes are going to be written per day. In this case 3 Bit MLC is simply the
wrong choice.
Taking a closer look at the price we see, that this 120
Gigabyte drive costs 85 Euro these days. This makes the 840 Evo not the cheapest
120 Gigabyte drive, but still it ranges in the middle.
Recommendation
Should you be looking
for a solid 120 Gigabyte SSD, then the Samsung 840 Evo is a good choice.
Authors: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch