What makes the Samsung EVOs so cheap?

So what makes the Sandisk Extreme II so special then?

 

Reliability first. The performance numbers lose a lot if Sandisk had an OCZ image (Hopefully, that will change under Toshiba)

Physically, SEII has "nCache technology developed by SanDisk. This method creates a layer of SLC flash inside each NAND die, creating a fast non-volatile write cache. This enhances speed in bursty random write environments, and enhances the endurance of the underlying MLC NAND." EVO, anyone? "19nm eX2 ABL MLC Toggle NAND. SanDisk and Toshiba have jointly engineered the new ABL (All Bit Line) architecture for the 19nm NAND. ABL can deliver up to twice the parallelism in comparison to typical HBL (Half Bit Line) NAND. This new technique is designed to deliver enhanced performance and endurance for this new generation of NAND." "Marvell 9187 'Monet' controller." And the all important firmware. I don't suspect it's the Marvel controller as others have it. Toshiba Q Series does quite well in TweakTown's results.

The numbers that I want to see are it's used or "steady state" I like looking at the empty drive benchmarks but I give them no weight. Yes, Fresh Out of the Box (FOB) it does X Read and Y Write as advertised. OK, now what will it do for you and me when it reaches steady state where everyone's drive will be sooner or later. I look at a combination of 3 sites to try to judge this.

[H]ardOCP does (did?) a steady state 70/30 Read/Write Mix that was to simulate a typical consumer workload. They only show from a Queue Depth (QD) of 1-6 as most consumers won't go higher very often and not for long. SSDs are too fast to let requests stack up. SEII does very well here. So does your and my M500 with slightly better numbers. Unfortunately, the (did?) from earlier, [H]ardOCP hasn't done a review in about nine months. I believe they are still looking for a reviewer. Well, that means no EVO review. I can only suspect that it will perform better than 840 Pro as Samsung did emphasize low QD performance with it. And results from other reviews. This is where I first saw Pro as a sheep in wolf's clothing. And I could see in graphs what tilleroftheearth said was a "sluggish feel". I don't have a Pro.
SEII 240GB
HARDOCP - Iometer & Steady State Testing - SanDisk 240 GB Extreme II SSD Review
M500 480GB
HARDOCP - Iometer & Steady State Testing - Crucial M500 480GB SSD Review

AnandTech Performance Consistency. At it's release the SEII became Anand's favorite drive. I suspect for it's "Performance Consistency" and "Destroyer" results . Pro does poorly in "Destroyer" too. The performance consistency numbers are excellent for SEII. And OPed it shows even better sustained performance. I don't like the QD 32 they use or empty drives.
SEII 480GB
AnandTech | SanDisk Extreme II Review (480GB, 240GB, 120GB)

TweakTown, Drives With Data testing. I used this to get an idea of how an SSD performed with data on it using Vantage. The results are different from empty drives. Pro and EVO did better here than SEII. this is where I pointed Cloudfire to for "real world tests" not on an empty drive. TweakTown has now added their own Consistency Test. There is a worst case, where most consumers will never go. But I suspect this is close to where the user is with the multitasking that I linked to earlier. EVO does great given time to recover, the other two parts of their consistency test, It does better than Pro. SEII shines in worst case and great in the other two recovery parts. TweakTown recommended either Samsung Pro or OCZ Vector as the performance drive to get. I can't see that anymore with their new test.
SSD Consistency Testing - 18 Drives Tested for Real-World Performance

Sandisk Extreme II does great in all the test metrics that I use to try to judge real world performance. Others do well in one or two but not all. This could change, of course, if a new, better test comes along to judge real world performance and the next gen. of drives.

Ultimate Performance (right now) SEII 480GB. Does everyone need it or their system can take advantage of it, no. Would I buy it, yes, in the right circumstance (price/performance value).

 

(My heart sank when I saw that huge chunk of text! Simplicity is beautiful.)

 

Based on those reviews I don't see anything as alarming compared with 840 Pro, it's performance might taper a little bit from the Extreme II, but it's not like it's dropping off the chart.

 

I don't know what to make of Tiller's assertion about OS sluggish feeling when testing the 840 Pro... it doesn't seem that way to me, but I may get there, hopefully not.

Many new drives have come to market since the 840 Pro so it's not unusual for some of them to have advanced in technology. A primary reason I went with the second Samsung 840 Pro later on was to keep my drives paired equally. Plus, I don't want to be a tester for these companies... at the time of the first purchase the 840 Pro was beloved.

Meanwhile, I do read some of the review links that are posted. But when I get toward the end of a review and the tester states that they didn't expect that the drive would be wear-leveling (moving things around: their words) during the test, it is not skeptical that I become, but more of a trust issue with the testers. So many drives, tests, data, comparing - is ripe for tester error. A couple of other sites running the same tests would be helpful here; there are so many variables between manufacturers along with their gimmicks.

The rotational platter was such a simpler comparison. The new age of storage marketing has arrived.

 

Let's just hope they never go the Intel route with their branding.

 

I was thinking the "TL;DR" summary at the end might be the way to go.

 

No, not alarming, just not the best performer in the examples I use to judge. This was about the best performance (right now).

 

Yeah, don't worry, it was a bit of an off the cuff remark by me, I'd been reading too much on NBR and I was a little short - apologies. I'm sure there was some good or interesting info in there for those that were interested - my post didn't really add anything to the discussion in hindsight!