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TEST BENCH AND PROTOCOL
Our analysis today will be conducted with our Asus Z77 Premium Test Bench.
In testing, our main objective is to obtain results as pure and as accurate as possible and we want to ensure that no anomalies slip through. Simply put, we want to provide you with the absolute best results the tested hardware can provide. Repetition in testing is standard and, if necessary, we may conduct specific tests in Windows 7 safe mode to ensure the OS has little to no influence on the end result.
In order to validate and confirm our findings, testing is supported by industry accepted benchmark programs. All results are displayed through capture of the actual benchmark for better understanding of the testing process by the reader.
We would like to thank ASUS (P8Z77-V Premium
), Intel (Core i7-3770K), Crucial (Ballistix), Corsair (H100) and Be Quiet (PSU/Fans) for supporting the build of our Z77 Premium Test Bench.
BENCHMARK SOFTWARE
The software we will be using for today’s analysis is typical of many of our reviews and consists of ATTO Disk Benchmark, Crystal DiskMark, AS SSD, Anvil Storage Utilities and PCMark Vantage. We rely on these as they each have a way of supporting one another yet, at the same time, adding a new performance benchmark to the total picture. Much of the software is free and can be downloaded simply by clicking on the linked title.
Crystal Disk Info provides some excellent information about the SSD itself to include its health, product information, ‘power on’ information as well as the characteristics of the SSD. We can see that the SSD is capable of TRIM as it is not greyed out as with AAM.
As we can see, Samsung allows us only limited SMART information but we can confirm the firmware in use and that this is fully TRIM compliant. Firmware will be another of the factors that differentiate between the 840 and 840 Pro, the Pro containing optimized firmware that enables the incredible IOPS performance up to 100, 000 IOPS.
ATTO Disk Benchmark is perhaps one of the oldest benchmarks going and is definitely the main staple for manufacturer performance specifications. ATTO uses RAW or compressible data and, for our benchmarks, we use a set length of 256mb and test both the read and write performance of various transfer sizes ranging from 0.5 to 8192kb. Manufacturers prefer this method of testing as it deals with raw (compressible) data rather than random (includes incompressible data) which, although more realistic, results in lower performance results.
ATTO highs of 559MB/s read and 524MB/s write surpass listed specifications of 540MB/s read and 520 MB/s write by a margin. Also valuable to note in this test is how quickly these speeds are reached as transfer sizes increase.
the CDM for Pro version looks very VERY promising. especially its 4k read write performance and access time, simply fantastic, great review!. only thing im hoping to see now is Data on drive test and it doesn`t look like SSDreview covers that portion of it as well as HD-Tune. I just wish to see from many aspect of the drive it`ll really help me make decision on purchasing SSDs.
looking forward to this comparing with SLC S301 and OCZ bigfoot, and intel 525.
sorry forgot to mention another thing, chances are I will not purchase 512gb drive at all, im not so sure about other people but cost is over double of 256gb drive, simply no point. imo with Trim in raid 0, double performance and same storage while at a cheaper value is the way to go.
any chance SSDreview will review 256gb of its drive?
You are on the case, the 256 drive should have been reviewed since it is the most common purchased due to the price/gb ratio!
Unfortunately, we review what we receive and, considering the very limited availability of samples to reviewers, we were ecstatic to receive this SSD and all that went with it. Stay tuned for the 250GB 840 review in the next day or so.
Time to upgrade my 830’s!!
Awesome. Just as I expected.
My Samsung 830 have been reliable all this time with no faults or hiccups what so ever.
My laptops battery life increased a dramatic 30 minutes just by installing the 830. Now, I can expect even better results with the 840, of which I’m sure to buy.
How does it compare to an OCZ Vertex 4 with FW 1.5? Easy to say its at the top when you’re not comparing it with the latest and greatest from all of the vendors…
Fair game… This SSD was reviewed on release as was the OCZ. We have worked with the OCZ and it is a great drive, one of my favorites in fact. In a review and at the end of the day, all factors need to be examined and not a specific metric don’t you think? We can work on an updated comparison in the near future if you like.
Yea I think it’d be interesting to see it head 2 head with the Plextor M5s pro and the OCZ Vertex 4. Also, any news on the OCZ Vector yet? (You seemed to be the first to tip us off about the samsung 840) 🙂
imo this drive SHOULD be faster than both plextor m3p and m5p, vertex 4 doesnt even come close btw.. that low QD1 read.. OCZ will have to bring out it’s bigfoot drives in the next little while.
good thing about ocz vertex 4 is that its got 5k P/E write cycles i think. I am not so sure about samsung, probably 3k
Plextor M5P is reported to have a very good effect on battery life and with 19 nm I’d need a comparison before declaring this one the winner
Yeah!!! A MILLION TIMES THIS! Please review those top 3 drives head-to-head, please!
THIS drive has to be on your list of possibles for SSD needs. now, 3TB and lower cost…. goodbye HDD.
This may be my next drive and I may get the 512GB this time. I will wait a little bit and let the dust settle. Then pounce 🙂
So when is the Samsung 840 releasing and where can i get one?
Which SATA ports (colour) did you have the samsung connected to. I am planning to get the Asus P8-Z77 Premium board for my current build.
If you are not connecting the SSD to the Gray(Intel SATAIII) port you are losing performance because the Asmedia SATAIII(Deep Blue) isn’t as good as Intel. Coming from a P8Z77-V user.
If the Color scheme on the Premium is different just consult your user manual.
thanks for the reply, the premium board only has Intel and Marvell Controllers for SATA duties. I am a bit concerned about the performance of the marvel controllers. I don’t have the board yet, and this site is the only one I know off using it on a daily basis. while waiting to purchase the board i have downloaded the manual and have read it
The Marvel controller performance isno different than that of any other motherboard that Marvel has been utilized. Writing from the Seoul Airport but I can probably pull off some tests later if you have a need for such. Intel Z77 port performance is preferred and best for this drive however.
I dont ever use the Marvel ports myself….
Thanks for the reply Les, It is a real pain that Intel only supply 2 SATA 3 ports from the chipset on the Z77 and X79, when most newer cases support 6 or more drives.I prefer to use the intel ports as well.
No…that’s not correct. I am unaware of any motherboards that have additional chips allowing more than two Intel ports, be it z77 or x79. All are equipped with additional SATA 3 capabilities but at a performance bump because chips such as the Marvell are used…
If I am wrong please let me know because I would grab one in a sec.
you are right, i should have said, that Intel only provide 2 SATA 3 ports from their own chipset and board manufacturers use 3rd party controllers to add more ports
If you get the time, could you do a test on the Marvell controller and compare it to the Intel port results please
They will release late October and will be available everywhere fine SSDs can be found…
What’s holding Samsung back from going after the enterprise market? Just add a supercap to the 840 and you’re ready to go.
Approximate performance implications if one were to use the onboard 256 encryption functionality?
The Plextor M5 PRO is out how does it compare to that one. The problem with this review is that it doesn’t compare it with current drives.
On page 3, you said “Of interest to note is how high we could increase performance by optimizing our systems power settings…” in regards to Crystal Disk Mark results. What are you talking about? In what way did you “optimize” your system’s power settings to achieve these higher results?
Optimizing CPU states is fairly common although we have elected to stay away from listing as a SSD optimization just yet. Google is your friend.
So you are talking about C-States? Are you also including EIST and Turbo?
What’s the endurance of these drives? Samsung haven’t posted that anywhere in their available specs.
And Samsung hasn’t made those numbers public but to say that the TLC 840 will surpass the endurance of most regular consumer SSDs available today.
I’m not sure you are really measuring the very typical multitasking or multithreaded application of many accesses at once, where Sandforces excel, even a Pyro SE can beat this drive.
How we cant buy the 512gb Pro flavor of this drive? No one including Amazon has it for sale.
I don’t know why but my 2 x Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB SSD each on different computer reaches only half the speeds in every benchmarks. Any ideas?
Tx
i’ve read many articles on the internet and after some changes in my pc configuration, i only get about 660 score for my Samsung SSD 840 Pro 256GB using AS SSD Benchmark. So, what did you do to get more than 1100 score with the same SSD??? it’s unbelievable!!!
i have a GigaByte GA-X58A-UD5, i7 960, Corsair CMT6GX3M3A2000C8 3x2GB RAM, and another HDD WD Caviar Black 2002FAES 2TB, and i read this article to configute my PC:
https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-performance-tweak,2911.html
i hope you can help me. thanks guys 🙂
Great Review as usual 🙂
SAMSUNG SSDs product are the best!
as a samsung 256 g ssd owner i can say i am already impressed with samsung ssd’s and this would be a fitting main drive for the current build i am doing (which is currently short everything except case and mobo LOL). after reading this i would consider this ssd although they are still a little up there in price range for me to afford one so it unfortunatley would have to wait but i do like what i am reading about the 840 series ssd’s
Impressive numbers. I’m not planning to spend over 500$ for a 512GB version, but i’ll definitely buy a 256GB one. My HyperX 3K is down. Sorry my friend but’s time to be replaced. Now lets just hope that the price will drop.
Some IOPs that actually get near the OCZ Revo Drive II. Impressive!
Hi, how does the AES encryption feature works exactly ? I can’t find any informations about…
Do I need a special tool to access drive ? or will it ask password during bios POST ?
Can I reset the password ? or change without wiping data ?
What if I lose password ?
Can I use a file instead of passphrase (like truecrypt or luks allow) ?
Is it compatible with linux, mac OS ?
When using encryption, is there any performance affect ?
thanks…
This is an answer best tackled by our Forums if you want to head there.
Hi, great reviews. But why you did not make some comparative test into Windows 7, Office, Photoshop etc. ?