Samsung 850 EVO review

Cloud firstly, put a sock in it... Your'e being really offensive to people here...

Secondly, tiller has never bashed the 850 Pro IMO... He bashes the 840 Evo and has every reason to do so...

Thirdly, tiller doesn't go around recommending the Sandisk Extreme Pro.. I do that around here....Because I hate Samsung and every piece of tech I have from them is boderline junk (TV,laptop, smartphone etc).. I'd never recommend a Samsung product ever after my horrible experiences with them..


Ohh BTW, the Sandisk Extreme Pro's price has been less then the 850 Pro's price pretty much for a long time...The 850Pro has always been more expensive then the Extreme Pro.... So go get your facts right...


Also nobody has a problem here with TLC memory's wear resistance.. Its the performance degradement which is the problem... Now please put a sock in it and stop insulting everyone...

 

The performance degradation that was fixed 2 months ago?

 

I'd say that the jury's still out on that one...

Samsung 840 EVO read speed drops on old-written data in the drive - Page 140

 

Agreed, and after Samsung`s shady international warranty that I complained about, which was not honored in Dubai and was only valid in the USA. I know my next SSDs will be SanDisk as per your recommendation.

 

lol another user making this sub forum the place to be. An angry dude saying Samsung is trash. One of the biggest semiconductor out there that are ahead with manufacture process (let us know when the rest get V-NAND)

EVO is a top contender too in real life scenarios for 99% of the users. Go read reviews. Its not the fastest out there, but its not slow or "trash". The degradation was how the controller was coded. It was a bug in the software. Which was patched up by Samsung with a new firmware. There is nothing wrong with the SSD itself.

Please enlighten us why it should be trashed.

Right, you expect me to take you serious now?
tiller downright work for Sandisk. He recommends them all the time and even says its the fastest out there which is very wrong. Did you read the recent review I posted above?
Here, have fun

So you didnt read my post at all

NewEgg:
Sandisk Extreme II 480GB: $474
Samsung 850 Pro 512GB: $380

Amazon:
Sandisk Extreme II 480GB: $424
Samsung 850 Pro 512GB: $340

Thats two of the biggest retailers on the internet.

Please enlighten us why that TLC makes the SSD perform worse. I`d love to see a real world test where the EVO does noticable worse than the rest.
You may want to look up reviews because you can`t have read many except tiller`s SSD hate blog. You can start with the review I posted above that pit many SSDs against each other.

Do you want me to posts links to tiller and many other bashing TLC based on life expectancy?

Here, from a user commenting on the Anandtech article (since we are posting stuff that users post)
Before fix
After fix

And here is HDTach results from 850 EVO (that also have TLC and most likely use the same new algorithm fix)
Samsung 850 EVO SSD review - SSD Performance HD Tach

 

So, now is the time to tell you guys to play nice with each other. Read the forum rules again if you need to. The way this thread is going right now, it's heading directly towards a lock.

Everyone involved in the ongoing flame war has shown to be capable of level headed discussions without resulting to personal attacks, insults, etc. so this should be no problem for anyone to get the discussion back on track and within the boundaries of the forum rules.

Also, at this point, we are past caring who started it, anyone who gets involved in flame wars and the like is equally guilty and that's that.

 

Maybe I should've made my point clearer:

While the firmware fix has done the trick for some users, it apparently hasn't worked for everyone.

These drives - 850 EVO - are brand new by any standard so I wouldn't expect them to show any issues with old data - since there is no old data on them to begin with.

 

How can the same algorithm work for some but not others? Their SSDs isnt unique

 

Well, since I don't own an EVO drive of any kind I can't offer a first-hand answer to your question.

I'm simply going by what people who do own these drives are reporting. That's the best I can do, since I'm not intent on purchasing one...

My guess would be that there might be another underlying issue that the firmware update hasn't touched.

 

@Cloud: Not sure why you're comparing the 850 Pro with the Extreme II, which is outdated technology and by my own description, "lethargic". If you look at the Extreme Pro it's cheaper than the 850 Pro at every capacity.

Not saying the 850 Pro isn't good of course, but if you're happy with 840 Evo's level of snappiness, then the Extreme Pro is a good option to consider if you want to save a few bucks.

 

Re 840 Evo Read Speed Degredation, I'm doing weekly tests using "SSD Read Speed Tester" (specifically developed by forum users to measure any read speed degredation of old data), I've only had the drive 3 weeks, but no degredation so far, I plan to update this weekly or monthly at the following thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...-storage/766065-ssd-better-6.html#post9852871

Most users say the fix has worked, I'm expecting to see no speed degredation. I am disappointed that Samsung didn't offer a fix for the same problem on the 840 (non Evo version) - I don't know why they've left that one out. I'd be surprised if the 850 Evo will suffer from the same read speed degredation of old data, can't believe they would release a new drive without fixing it from the get-go!

 

I have had an 840 EVO 250MB for some time, before that 470 Series, 840 EVO is way faster than the 470, The increase in speed to 850 EVO will not be as earth shattering, EVO's are very good, I have had zero problems with it, the grass is always greener on the other side of the hill till you start looking for it. The 840 EVO has sold so many its ridiculous, 1000's in one day sales, probably 10 to 1 vs Pro edition. The Pro edition is faster, however EVO is much more popular as it costs less. Samsung warranty on the 850 Pro is 10 Years or 150TBW, while the 850 EVO 5 yr warranty 2x as much, obviously trying to get peeps to buy it for higher price using 2x warranty. Also Samsung has released the Pro before EVO on these 850 Series..Get it yet between Pro and EVO.

Samsung Pro Edition is the Flagship in speed, EVO edition is the Flagship in Sales dollars..

Now on my Garmin Nuvi, I did get a Samsung 32GB PRO Micro SDHC w/ Adapter Up to 90MB/s Class 10 Memory Card , here speed is required for Traffic and Map details, the faster the better..

As too the whole idea of SSD's in case your out of the loop, The US Census Department has been using memory sticks in place of drives for over 40 years, the memory stick takes two people to carry and put it in the memory slot-its huge, 1/2 the size of a surf board and weighs a lot, Its a IBM computer, so the US Gov has been using memory drives for 40 years before any business made an SSD for Consumer market, good luck to see these Huge memory-drives...US Census is very stingy on info and pics of this,,like need to know basis. IBM as Herman Hollerith(father of modern machine data processing) got the contract to do the US Census--His card punch machine that is and onward and still much faster than SSD's..get this yet.

Cheers
3Fees



___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
HP Pavilion 17" AMD Elite A10-5750M-8750G-APU,Micron-Crucial Ballistix Sport- 16GB DDR3L- 1866Mhz with automatic Over/Under Clocking of DDR3 Ram by the AMD APU-1866 MHz Memory Controller-Built in the APU Architecture, Samsung Evo 250GB SSD,Logitec LS1- Laser Mouse 5000 DPI, Seagate Backup Plus USB 3.0 drive -1TB size, Windows 8.1 Full Retail Box Version, 64 Bit installed. I have Lexar S33 32GB USB 3 Jump Drive ~ 100/50 MB/s.

 

why does every Samsung SSD thread get trolled to ****... (I'm actually semi-serious, just do a search for Samsung SSD threads in this subforum, and well yeah. Sadly I took part in some of these past wars myself)

 

Because Samsung is actually Sam Sung. A world renowned, mind bending cult leader. Thing is, the cult of Sam Sung makes some good products. I like their mil-spec SD and micro SD cards.

 

While you're here, I'd just like to say I resent your trolling in this thread.

But I'd still vote for that to go in the "Best of NBR" if given the choice. Epic trolling is epic.

 

I second what someone said about Samsung quality, even though this has nothing to do with SSD

I've owned several phones, TVs, ultrabooks, and will try very hard to never again give them my money.

 

Actually, he was a former Apple retail store employee.

 

Here is typical visualization to why Anandtech test the consistency on QD32. The benchmarks here are server workloads (pretty much all above QD5 are that anyway) but you can see how the drives separate once they go up in Queue Depth.
A way to spice up reviews to have something to separate drives today when the SATA3 drives are so similar. I personally don`t hope any SSD OEM start sacrificing light workloads for the sake of programming the controllers to look good on these tests. I don`t think they will because luckily they got different series with different NAND but use the same controller with other firmware to deal with different workload.


Samsung SSD 850 EVO SSD Review | StorageReview.com - Storage Reviews

 

Samsung 840Evo is not a bad ssd, but when it comes to write heavy tasks it takes a hit. I'm using Sandisk Ex Pro and 850Pro everyday and have to say both drives show no sign of slowdown when I do write heavy tasks. However if someone asked me to recommend ssd for heavy duty work I recommend Sandisk due to low price. Over here in UK you can save around £50-100 (depend on the drive size) by not selecting 850pro.

 

They fund the eastern Illuminati. Apple funds the western. That's why they're always fighting.

It's obvious he was a spy for them.

 

+100... I was saying that to Cloudfire and he went on a trolling spree.. Here in the UK, Sandisk drives are much cheaper then 850 pro...

 

So the Samsung 850 evo thread has very little to do with the 850 evo. ):

For those curious about the actual product, recent quoted price drop and how it stacks up to the competition Tom's Hardware just gave it their sweet spot and performance buy recommendation for December based on current market prices and test results. The Crucial MX100 was picked as best budget SSD.

Best SSDs of 2014 - Solid State Drive Comparison Charts

Edit: The prices have fallen once again. 500GB going for 249.00

 

(probably because more is known about the 840Evo in terms of history & concerns some of the woes might be transmitted to it's brother the 850Evo - I don't think there's any worries though)

 

So someone started the 850 evo thread to talk about the 840 evo? By the way, having read the last 8 pages that doesn't appear to have been the reason. Instead, it was hijacked by a passionate battle between the forces of light and dark - pro-Samsung advocates and their rambunctious antagonists.

Regarding the 840 evo, the prior issues from reading old data had been discussed to death months ago and largely cleared up after the firmware update. In-depth reviews by Anandtech and others suggest this won't be a problem on the new drive. However, this doesn't mean there won't be some new and exciting problems discovered in the near future as with the launch of any new product. Samsung certainly hasn't been the only SSD manufacturer affected by this phenomenon.

 

Samsung products are always affected by this crap! My Samsung TV has stuck volume buttons, my Series 5 ultrabook has absurd battery wear with little use and my S3 was an overheating pile of crap.. Even with 3 new batteries, it barely lasted for 12 hours with 1 charge... Junk products! I can't say the same for any other brands I have bought before!

And don't dismiss us as rambunctious antagonists! This is what has happened to me in real life! Not some stories I've been making up!

 

heres one, mine : My Samsung products are stellar.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.3 Shizuku Edition x64 (C) 2007-2013 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 1546.826 MB/s
Sequential Write : 1277.194 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 2061.229 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 1596.443 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 217.835 MB/s [ 53182.3 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 113.853 MB/s [ 27796.0 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 175.099 MB/s [ 42748.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 107.890 MB/s [ 26340.4 IOPS]

Test : 1000 MB [C: 19.8% (41.4/209.1 GB)] (x3)
Date : 2014/12/19 11:59:11
OS : Windows 8.1 [6.3 Build 9600] (x64)

I.m sure the 850 EVO will read/write in GB/s also. Look at 512KB,,windows size files.

Cheers
3Fees


_____________________________________________________________________________________
HP Pavilion 17" AMD Elite A10-5750M-8750G-APU,Micron-Crucial Ballistix Sport- 16GB DDR3L- 1866Mhz with automatic Over/Under Clocking of DDR3 Ram by the AMD APU-1866 MHz Memory Controller-Built in the APU Architecture, Samsung EVO 250GB SSD,Logitec LS1- Laser Mouse 5000 DPI, Seagate Backup Plus USB 3.0 drive -1TB size, Windows 8.1 Full Retail Box Version, 64 Bit installed. I have Lexar S33 32GB USB 3 Jump Drive ~ 100/50 MB/s.

 

Yes, I think we all understand your position by now. You buy tons of Samsung products and always hate all of it. Got it. You should definitely stop buying their stuff. Really. No more. Don't do it. Please dear god no more.

Now for the rest of us that have managed to avoid being eternally cursed by Samsung and as a result are a tad bit more open minded lets get back to discussing the topic of this thread - the Samsung 850 evo. Has anyone brought one yet? If so, how did the install go? Overall impressions? Agree or disagree with Tom's Hardware that the SSD is worth the extra premium over other products? Thinking of getting one for a newly purchased Thinkpad Yoga 14...

 

If it were me, for 500GB SSDs I'd still pick the 840 Pro ($280) over the 850 Evo ($250) if you really wanted a Samsung. Otherwise the M550 512GB could be had for $230.

Going to 1TB, SanDisk's Extreme Pro 960GB could be had for $450, still cheaper than 850 Evo's asking price of $470.

 

Whether one likes Samsung's products or not, it's very hard to take report in question seriously...the choice of drives, and the manner in some of them were present in one set of tests but not another is nothing short of hilarious...not to mention that in the 512GB/1TB chart you have 840 Pro performing both better and worse than SanDisk Extreme Pro...

850 EVO will have to get a lot cheaper - regardless of Samsung's excellent marketing - to be a hot seller like its predecessor IMO.

 

Keep in mind the Samsung Evo 850 has performed near the top (usually right behind the 850 pro) in just about every SSD review so far earning their fair share of editor review awards. And yes, in some benchmarks it even outperformed the beloved SanDisk Extreme Pro (especially in battery life where it showed a huge advantage with 3 to 4 times lower power consumption in many tests). So that Samsung marketing team able to infiltrate most everyone to manipulate the test results is definitely earning their Christmas bonus.

I believe some pages back you had already declared you would never buy the 850 evo period - before the reviews, data and market pricing were published. So you would then be in the camp of the closed minds, which evidently is a cozy place to be in this thread.

For the rest of us that want to seriously weigh the pros and cons of this product versus competitors, Anandtech makes a good point. They give it high marks through out most of their tests but then concluded it wasn't worth the premium compared to others based on the manufacturer suggested retail price. As it turns out though, that pricing premium is significantly lower than what was originally published - e.g., today it is about $20 higher than the popular Crucial M550 in the 500GB version at $250 and $30-40 cheaper than the 480GB Sandisk extreme pro. This was the primary reason Tom's Hardware recommended it as a buy weighing the prices with the test results.

Anyone brought one yet and can share their actual experiences?

 

I wouldn't pay more for a TLC drive than for a MLC drive (850EVO vs. M550), not now, doesn't make sense to me.

 

Correct. I also said that I was interested in 850 Pro. And that I was happy with Samsung's older drives, such as 470 and 830.

If you read some of my other posts, you'll also find out - not that it has anything to do with EVOs - that I'm not in the least keen on SF-based SSDs.

That's not being closed-minded. That's called being experienced. As in "I'm one of those people who used to pay $1K for an Intel SLC SSD" experienced.

Now you're getting to the point of my previous post: not too many people will rush to buy an EVO at its current price - especially not after the whole "slowdown" issue - whether one believes that the firmware fix worked or not.

 

This slow down stuff is interesting , however, I never experienced this, its preformed like above test shows all the time, I have not had any problems and I own and use a 840 250GB EVO and am still using EXTOBB6Q firmware, I'm running AMD chipset as well with the latest drivers, I'm going call samsung technical support on this, my last call took about 2 minutes to get a tech and he told me that the Samsung Pro 32GB Micro SD Card with 10 year warranty used in my Garmin GPS LMT does not have to be registered to get warranty assistance.

This is what happens when people start quoting other people and are not in the loop-dont own one, gossiping ensues not fact.

I have owned two SSD's by Samsung and they perform well above expectations with the inclusion of rapid mode,I'm happy with the extra speed, I cannot comment on TLC ect as I have not owned one with this or other non Samsung Technology, I will say I'm not falling for the hype.


Cheers
3Fees

HP Pavilion 17" AMD Elite A10-5750M-8750G-APU,Micron-Crucial Ballistix Sport- 16GB DDR3L- 1866Mhz with automatic Over/Under Clocking of DDR3 Ram by the AMD APU-1866 MHz Memory Controller-Built in the APU Architecture, Samsung EVO 250GB SSD,Logitec LS1- Laser Mouse 5000 DPI, Seagate Backup Plus USB 3.0 drive -1TB size, Windows 8.1 Full Retail Box Version, 64 Bit installed. I have Lexar S33 32GB USB 3 Jump Drive ~ 100/50 MB/s.

 

I would, every single time, if the drive with TLC had better and faster controller...

 

I just wish AnandTech had more details on the controllers used in the 850 Evo. I quote the following from their review:

So depending on the exact specs, the MGX might actually be a step backwards compared to the MEX used in the 840 Evo.

 

We know where power efficiency has got us with Maxwell vs Keppler GPU's and let's not forget Haswell vs Ivy Bridge CPU's

 

Thats interesting. Didnt know the EVO drive came with 2 different controllers.
But as Anandtech specify in your quote, the bigger the capacity is, the more blocks it have to deal with, the more processing power they need. So its actually good to see Samsung scale the drives up with appropriate controller power

Doesnt look like the speeds for the 1TB is faster than the 500GB since both have identical specs, so I guess the controller is indeed for keeping track with maintance and accessing blocks faster

 

Was just about to pull the trigger on a 1tb 850 pro to have on standby for when I order my new laptop, so I could have it on standby. This thread's been a good read + the reviews and all. I hear a lot of good about the new Sandisk 1tb's, though I guess my only throwback is that since neither have been out for more than a year, I'm gonna go w/ the 850 Pro as my main OS/Gaming drive, and probably get a SanDisk 1tb for a 2ndary drive for gaming as well. A few times the prices have been within 10-20$ over here vs the 1tb so I'll take advantage. Honestly given that I'm within the 99% ( though most of us are the 1% for the extremists for everything else ) I'm sure either will be fine for me as indeed I won't be using it as a main for 10 straight years, probably 5 at most.

Heck some of my older 1 TB Seagate HDD's are still kicking and its been 7+ years now. Still work great for storage though ( but that's a moot point )

So yeah just wanted to give my thanks and appreciation for the debates and clash of information in this thread, helped bring a bit more to perspective.

 

Good choice Luna :thumbsup:
Samsung 850 Pro is undoubtly the fastest SSD out there today, have one of the best software with easy control and option to enable RAPID if you want to use the RAM for caching.
If you have the money, its the best drive you can buy for money

 

Yeah if money is no object then the 850 Pro is the best SSD money can buy. Much like how the AX1500i is the best consumer grade PSU that money can buy, even though it's way overkill for even 95% of the enthusiasts. There's a price to be paid for absolute top of the line premium quality, but in some cases it's absolutely worth it.

I got the Extreme Pro through my employer's discount program and let's just say the savings were too much to pass on.

 

In the UK. the difference in price between the Extreme Pro and Samsung 850 pro is absurd.. The 960GB Extreme pro is £329 while Samsung 850 pro is £484.. I can't justify such a price difference myself... Also Sandisk's 10 year warranty is something which Samsung doesn't even have I believe...

 

Both are equally reliable drives with almost equal performance. Therefore my deciding factor is price. I'm not willing to pay extra £150 for brand name or because I'm a blind brain dead fanboy.
However in the end it's your money so .......

 

Yeah like I said it comes down to price and user preference. A price difference of £155 ($241 USD) is indeed a bit hard to swallow. In the US if you wait for Amazon sales the price difference can go down to as little as $50. 850 Pro also comes with a 10 year warranty btw.

 

850 Evo will be pretty cheap once the initial 'hype' dies down, so I think it will be a good value/performance drive soon, like how the 840 Evo was. (850 Pro is expensive!) (talking regular consumer drives, not heavy usage, although 850 Evo does fair better on this side in comparison to 840 Evo)

 

Judging by NewEgg - I'm not in the market for a drive this week so I haven't done any *real* comparison shopping - the prices are all over the map...

Maybe. Maybe not.

There are 3 reviews for 512GB version of 850 EVO vs. 13 of 850 Pro in the same size, and 0 vs. 15 in the 1TB segment...all of this on NewEgg, and *right now* which means that the figures can change any which way within an hour...

My take would be that the folks looking for "latest and greatest" are getting the 850 Pro regardless of price, while the others are waiting for the price on EVO to drop and/or buying other consumer-grade drives...

My $0.02 only...

 

SSDs are very similar and have been that for years now. Its SATA3 and AHCI thats holding us back. We need native support of PCIe SSDs and NVME but that wont roll out and be adapted until Intel support PCIe bootable drives through their chipsets. But with HM97 we finally get that so expect 2015 SSDs to finally leapfrog current SATA3 SSDs.

Anyhow, here are the only real world comparisons between Sandisk Extreme and Samsung 850 I could find. From 1s to 5s faster on typical scenarios. Thats the difference we are looking at imo.










I dont think its possible to squeeze out more performance than this until the removed the SATA3 driver overhead and go directly to PCIe instead. But Im certain next year the revolution starts.

 

Gee thanks for the graph...you've made my (already existing) itch to try out Vertex 150 even stronger than before...

I have an upcoming build that requires a 1TB SSD, so I'll have an excuse to buy both the Extreme Pro and 850 Pro and keep the one that I like better for myself. I'm certain that my customer will be above thrilled with either of these drives.

Vertex 150 maxes out at 480GB so I'll just have to come up with an excuse to grab one of these as well...

 

How dare! Of course people want 2TB and those who really need it are willing to dig deep in their pockets.

 

@Cloud: Yeah I'm personally waiting for Skylake and the real PCIe deal to arrive (NVMe). H97's m.2 feels hobbled together, and while sequential performance is 2x that of SATA3, random performance is still disappointing and not worth the upgrade or premium over existing SATA SSDs.

 

I remember waiting forever to get te AX1500i then found out it would be another 6 months till release, so I ended up getting 2x AX1200i's instead lol.. 1500 was the FIRST to get a perfect 10.0 from Johnny Guru though which wow'd me.

True but don't forget about those that have only used certain brands and had bad experiences with others. Main reason I'm going for the 850 pro is because its the same price as the SanDisk over here. I'm getting the 1TB btw.

I think they both have it but honestly anything past 5 years to me is pointless imo (for harddrives), however if you're willing to deal with the shipping and paperwork @ that time in 10 years to revive/renew a decade old piece of technology then more power to you I'll probably be on my 1 Petabyte SSD by then.

Sucks about the UK prices, I just came back from over there too and not sure if what the case is with some prices, I think some retailers like to blow up the cost making people think the product is that many times better. Similar to how Corsair does this w/ their RAM vs other's like G.Skill when some of them use the same IMC's ( binned and all )