The SSD Review The Worlds Dedicated SSD Education and Review Resource | 
SSD COMPONENTS
Our sample Samsung 840 SSD was 250GB and Samsung raves that it is perhaps the only completely proprietary SSD on the market where all of the units components are manufactured by Samsung. It contains the new Samsung 3-core eight channel MDX controller (300MHz).
Just above the controller is Samsung’s 512MB DRAM cache memory with eight modules of Samsung’s new 21nm TLC DDR-2 toggle mode NAND (400Mbps), each with a capacity of 32GB. Final formatted capacity for the 250GB version of the 840 is 233GB of available user space. The other side of the PCB does not contain any components.
To add to it’s list of features, the 840 has full TRIM support, garbage collection, S.M.A.R.T., AES 256-Bit Full Disk Encryption, an operating temperature of -55 to 90DegC and can risk shock up to 1500G’
SAMSUNG SSD MAGICIAN
Although we had a fairly decent look at Ver. 4 beta version of the Samsung Magician at the Samsung 2012 SSD Summit, a current version (3.2) was found on the DVD and is still the most encompassing SSD tool package found anywhere.
To start, System Information provides a good look at your system hardware and software and the Performance Benchmark gives us our first look at what the 840 is capable of.
From there, Performance Optimization fine tunes your SSD and, once complete, will run right into a new benchmark test. OS Optimization provides some useful SSD optimization tips and can be set to occur automatically or manually. Such things as shutting down Superfetch, Defragmentation Schedule, ReadyBoost and Indexing are great support for our SSD Optimization Guide that has long been the most popular SSD optimization resource on the internet for years now.
F/W Update will automatically check and install any needed updates and, for those who need the added security performance boost over time, Secure Erase can be utilized to return your SSD to it’s factory fresh state. I will concede that I am not a lover of Secure Erase as there have simply been to many SSD deaths in past history for too little performance gain. We did do a Secure Erase of this new drive and all went well.
Something Samsung alone has enabled for consumers is the ability to manually configure their own over provisioning for their needs. This is all topped off with Disk Cloning and complimentary software downloadable right from the Samsung SSD Magician such as Norrton Ghost.
I especially like the image of the SSD standing on end among office buildings.
On page 8 , slight mistake in the title and the chart, we are testing the Samsung 840, not the 830. Awesome review though.
Thanks and that is actually an editorial trick! Now, we are certain that we have at least one reader and the article was a success. Fixed!
Really liked the review I also have a 128gb 840 pro and a 128gb 830 Samsung drives bought the 840 250gb set as my OS(windows 8) drive to see how it runs so far really impressed in real world use very similar to my 128gb 840pro better than the to crucial M4 128gb and 64gb I decided on smaller drives and I rotate them every few months. They all get a turn at running the OS spreads the writes around all the drives.
Samsung has good track record with SSDs so figured it was worth a try
WOW that is one nice SSD. SSDs are really starting to improve at an amazing rate.
Any thoughts of setting up an 8-drive RAID test on a nice LSI adapter???? I’d love to see how the Pro numbers scale up.
eheheheh I cant answer that one just yet!
need the 840 Pro version for 256gb.. not really that interested in TLC drives. just how many P/E cycles are these drives? the TLC and Pro version?
Thats a Samsung secret at this time.
one of my bud works for a company that does the nand, he told me TLC are only around 1k write cycle. so basically 1/3 of the lower MLC and 1/5 of old MLC drives?
Except….the latest trend now is extending the life of such NAND and we are seeing through many different companies.
TLC? Not for me! I wish companies had stuck with SLC because by now it would be cheap! I am considering an 840 PRO 512GB.
I was hoping the Pro version would be pure SLC.
i think you still dont get the whole notebook reason to test with one.
also if your going to use a high end desktop atleast do a raid test.
also a FDE test would be a huge help.
it really sad how poorly most site do on testing and reviews.
i do like this site but it allmost like most tech people cant wait to toss any review into there intercooled overclocked jet fueled desktop.
not exactly real world is it.
most people who buy a ssd are putting it in a laptop/notebook where this is the only upgrade they get.
most worry about power use/heat and how secure it will be.
so testing on a notebook is important and data protection.
great work buy the way and you were 100% right on with samsung way back.
you should also review that apple 2012 ssd that listed on the top of passmarks site.
I have tested the 2012 Apple SSD earlier and your pointys are well taken. Pros and Cons with respect to doing the actualy testing in a laptop and the definite cons are the fact that there are so many laptops that vary in hardware and setup. By testing on our main bench, we can achieve ideal performance at ideal conditions which we thnk is a valid trade off.
As for the notebook, you are absolutely right when speaking of performance which could never be measured, in the way of battery life, on a desktop system. We are looking into being able to verify specified power ratings which might be a happy medium. As far as RAID testing…. we are hoping to get several drives in the near future…
as for all the life talk it silly if you ask me.
ssd change so fast we are on what gen now.
i retired two of my asax leopard hunt drives from desktop duty to ps3 duty.
my point here is we end up buying new tech every 2-3 years or less for some of us and just sell off what we can.
talking of 10 year life spans is really silly unless it enterprize market and there i am certin size and price along with speed and power use are a huge factor for them when thinking of use.
i have tested and used many ssd and never seen one fail and that leopard hunt got the bag beat out it with many os changes,betas,hardware,benchs and it not failed.
i think enviroment would be the one thing i would worry about.
silicon chips do not like mosture like humid places.
i dont see any one talking how there old server pc in the basement would not boot up after they were away for a month.
it be nice if they sealed them and put a mini usb port on them and not charge a extra 50 to 100 bucks.
Innovation bring progress, Samsung is maybe one of the 1st that try their own controller, now their first TLC SSD, i think they are looking into the future not just for customers money!
hi there yeah my bacbook air has more flash storage it has a 256 gb ssd so i get 6 gb more copacity and bigger then a 250 gb drive
Quick question.. can by just dropping this SSD on a wood floor render it inoperable? I have someone from whom I Am to purchase one of these and now wants to renig by saying it was dropped and no longer works. Is this a dupe because I think he realizes that the price was wrong.. TIA bo1953
I am assuming that on page 3 “System Information provides a good luck at your system hardware”, luck should really read look..
But luck would be welcome too ..
i could not disagree more. the 840 price is WAY to high. right now
the 840 sells at the same price as the 830 which is a better drive. how
can making a TLC drive that performs worse then your last generation MLC
drive for the same price be a positive? now if they want to sell the
840 250GB for under $150 then im interested. as of now im either buying
the 840 pro or the 830. why would anyone buy a 840 until the 830 stock
is gone?
You may have forgot that an SSD is more than the RAM alone, such as thge new controller.
why would anyone buy a 840 until the 830 stock
is gone? Because on the 500gb version, the 840 costs about $200 less than the 830, or am I missing something here?
I can’t decide. This or the 240Gb SanDisk Extreme for the same price?
i have “external exception E06D7363” error when trying to clone window 8! how do you fix that? other data migration software?
I have that exact code error window “external exception E06D7363” in my Samsung 840 pro 128GB. Some help?
did you get an answer to that problem ?