INTRODUCTION
It may have taken just a tad longer for SATA solid state drives (SSDs) to finally hit the performance wall specified by the SATA III standard but the fact that we are here means that PCIex solutions will soon cease to be the only ones capable for read/write speeds exceeding 1000MB/s and although for most consumers even 1/3 of that is more than sufficient still it's always good to know that things are on the fast lane. Of course for that to happen the new SATA standard must reach retail in numbers so manufacturers can invest in it but i do expect the first such SSD models to hit store shelves in early 2015 (at least in numbers). Meanwhile however our job is to look for the fastest SATA III SSD in the market currently and from a plethora of available models that doesn't seem to be the easiest thing. Well our good friends over at Samsung clearly think they have first place in their pocket with their latest 850 PRO SSD and so today we'll be taking the 512GB variant for a ride.
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in technology, opening new possibilities for people everywhere. Through relentless innovation and discovery, we are transforming the worlds of televisions, smartphones, personal computers, printers, cameras, home appliances, LTE systems, medical devices, semiconductors and LED solutions. We employ 236,000 people across 79 countries with annual sales of US$187.8 billion. Samsung's Memory Business offers the industry's most advanced and extensive range of memory semiconductor products. As a leader in both the design and manufacture of memory semiconductor since 1993, the business provides key memory products including dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), NAND flash memory, Solid State Drives (SSD) and a range of green memory solutions for use in PC, server and mobile applications. Samsung is also leading the industry in advancements of next generation DRAM and NAND flash technologies while nurturing future memory technologies. To discover more, please visit www.samsung.com.
Just like the 840 Pro was the very first mass produced SSD model to use TLC NAND flash modules the 850 Pro is the very first SSD to use V-NAND (3D NAND) flash modules so it's really good to see that a well-known and respected manufacturer like Samsung is leading the race since their products are known to be highly reliable. Now some of you may wonder as to what 3D/V-NAND flash modules have different compared regular ones and the answer is really very simple which is also why i can't figure out why no one else thought of this before. So what Samsung did is basically to stack cells on top of each other (32 layers) instead of just placing them right next to each other thus increasing available space. More space means that Samsung can use larger die shrink (40nm in this case) which in turn increases reliability and performance while at the same time cuts down costs. As for the rest well since SATA III was pretty much maxed out with their previous products Samsung has once again used the same exact 400MHz MEX S4LN045X01-803 NAND flash controller they did in the past with the 840 EVO and the 845DC EVO but with a twist since this time over they had to optimize the firmware to make use of the new 3D V-NAND flash modules. How do all these translate in performance that's what we're about to find out.
SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES
PACKAGING AND CONTENTS
We received the 850 Pro 512GB inside a black box with a product picture partially visible at the front right next to the drive capacity and the Samsung SSD logo.
Warranty information is present at the rear of the box along with a performance table which includes all 4 available models, company contact information and the 10 year warranty statement.
With the 850 Pro you will also get a software CD (migration software/magician), two Samsung SSD stickers, installation instructions paper and the warranty statement paper.
THE 850 PRO 512GB
Samsung doesn't care much about flashy stickers so the 850 Pro features a plain black casing that has the company name at the top and a red cube.
At the rear we see a large sticker and a single T-5 screw (two more are placed beneath the sticker).
The large sticker contains information such as the drive capacity, part number, serial number, barcodes, electrical requirements and several certification and warning icons.
The usual SATA power and data connectors are at the rear so nothing new here as well.
The 850 Pro has 4 V-NAND flash modules at the top, each of which has 8 cell layers.
On the opposite side however there are 4 V-NAND flash modules each of which has 4 cell layers (48 in total resulting in 516GB). The MEX controller along with a 512MB LPDDR2 DRAM cache memory chip is also placed on this side.
SAMSUNG MAGICIAN
Although the 850 Pro comes with a software CD in the box still we recommend checking out the official Samsung support page to get the latest data migration and magician software suites.
We last saw the Samsung Magician when we reviewed the 840 EVO earlier this year and it hasn't changed much if at all so once again the intro screen has an overview of the drive.
The very first thing i recommend checking is the firmware tab since from here you will see if you need to upgrade to another version or not.
Although you can perform a fast benchmark to check the speed of your drive and you can also "optimize" the OS for use with an SSD the most important feature of the Samsung Magician is the RAPID Mode.
RAPID (Real Time Acceleration Processing of I/O Data) mode basically uses a X amount of RAM from your system (DRAM is much faster compared to NAND flash) to cache frequently accessed data (in short it works like a RAM disk).
Once RAPID is enabled you will need to restart your system (you can also use the verify button at the overview screen to verify the drive).
TEST BED
TESTING METHODOLOGY
After roughly 6 years of testing sold state drives i have concluded that it's almost impossible for any single benchmark suite to accurately measure their performance and that's why in certain benchmark suites we see amazing read/write performance numbers with some drives while in others things are quite different. The reason behind this is that some benchmarking suites are configured to read and write random chunks of data while others read and write constant (sequential) ones. So that's why i always use a very wide selection of benchmarking suites including AIDA64, HD Tach RW, HD Tune Pro, Crystal Disk Mark, Sisoftware Sandra Pro, AS SSD, IOmeter and ATTO. To get the most accurate results each test gets repeated a total of 6 times with the average performance numbers recorded into our charts.
Many people made inquiries about the charts ever since the last comparison so once again please do keep in mind that the Charts have the average performance numbers of each drive recorded and not the peak (highest) ones. Also although every single one of these programs can help potential buyers choose the right drive for their needs you should also remember that from any kind of benchmark up to real world usage the gap is not small (and usually most differences will go unnoticed by most people). All tests were performed in a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate x64 installation with every update installed up to August 30th 2014.
TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO
TEST RESULTS - HD TUNE PRO / HD TACH RW
TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK
TEST RESULTS - AS SSD / IOMETER
TEST RESULTS - RAPID MODE
CONCLUSION
Samsung took the market by storm when they released the consumer oriented 830 SSD series a few years back since that line could easily match and in many cases even surpass the performance of competing SSD models without extra cost (the fact that it was a product manufactured by Samsung certainly helped as well). Well since then it seems to me that every time Samsung introduces a new consumer oriented model in the market it becomes an instant hit so just like with the 840 Pro and the 840 EVO models the brand new 850 Pro seems to have a bright future ahead of it. Certainly it's quite clear from our charts that it's not really that much better compared to the 840 EVO (and obviously the 840 Pro which unfortunately we haven't had the chance to test) but it is and so is when in RAPID Mode although i was surprised to see that it produced inferior numbers in some tests (compared to the 840 EVO with RAPID enabled). As for Samsung's 3D/V-NAND well it's not really a breakthrough but rather a different approach in the placement of cells which actually works quite well although since SATA III doesn't make full use of that technology i expect we will see it again in the near future with SSD models featuring the new SATA standard.
Unlike most SSD manufacturers out there Samsung manufactures both their own NAND flash modules and their own NAND flash controller so they can afford to make something unique without spending more and that's obviously what happened in the case of the 850 Pro since just like the 840 Pro and the 840 EVO it comes at a very attractive price tag of USD399.99 in the USA (Amazon.com) and 370Euros in the EU (Amazon.co.uk) for the 512GB variant. That being said there are cheaper models in the market currently that may not offer the same exact read/write performance and may not support RAPID mode but should be far more appealing to regular consumers. However for enthusiasts and professionals alike the 850 Pro with its superior performance, the quite useful RAPID mode and the 10 year warranty and support only Samsung can offer is the obvious choice and that's why it grabs our Platinum Award.
PROS
- Build Quality
- Excellent Overall Performance
- Features (TurboWrite/RAPID Mode/eDrive Support)
- Samsung Magician Software
- 10 Year Warranty
- Available In 1TB
CONS
- Price (For Some)