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TSSDR TEST BENCH AND PROTOCOL
SSD testing at TSSDR differs slightly, depending on whether we are looking at consumer or enterprise SSDs. For consumer SSDs, our goal is to test in a system that has been optimized with our SSD Optimization Guide. To see the best performance possible the CPU C states have been disabled, C1E support has been disabled, Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology (EIST) has been disabled. Benchmarks for consumer testing are also benchmarks with a fresh drive so, not only can we verify that manufacturer specifications are in line but also, so the consumer can replicate our tests to confirm that they have an SSD that is top-notch. We even provide links to most of the benchmarks used in the report.
This is an updated test bench and, as such, we would love to thank those who jumped in specifically to help the cause. Key contributors to this build are our friends at ASRock for the motherboard and CPU and be quiet! for the PSU and cooling fans. Also, a big thank you to Thermaltake for the case and Kingston for the RAM. We have detailed all components in the table below and they are all linked should you wish to make a duplicate of our system as so many seem to do, or check out the price of any single component. As always, we appreciate your support in any purchase through our links!
SYSTEM COMPONENTS
This Test Bench build was the result of some great relationships and purchase; our appreciation goes to the below mentioned manufacturers for their support in our project. All of the components we use for testing and evaluation can be easily purchased at a relatively affordable price. The links provided below can assist in pricing, as well as availability for those of you who may find interest in our equipment.
| PC CHASSIS: | Thermaltake Urban T81 |
| MOTHERBOARD: | ASRock Z97 Extreme6 |
| CPU: | Intel Core i5-4670K |
| CPU COOLER: | Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate |
| POWER SUPPLY: | be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W |
| SYSTEM COOLING: | be quiet! Silent Wings 2 |
| GRAPHICS CARD: | MSI GTX 660 Ti PE OC |
| MEMORY: | Kingston HyperX Beast 2400Mhz |
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 Disk Info, Crystal Disk Mark, AS SSD, Anvil’s Storage Utilities, PCMark 8, and PCMark Vantage. We prefer to test with easily accessible software that the consumer can obtain, and in many cases, we even provide links. Our selection of software allows each to build on the last and to provide validation to results already obtained.
Crystal Disk Info is a great tool for displaying the characteristics and health of storage devices. It displays everything from temperatures, to the number of hours the device has been powered, and even to the extent of informing you of the firmware of the device.
Samsung has included only key S.M.A.R.T. attributes in which to monitor the drive over time. The Total Host Writes is nice to see as well as the temperature monitoring value. From the features list we can see the Samsun 850 EVO supports NCQ, TRIM, and DEVSLP.
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 provides our first look into performance. Based upon the results, the Samsung 850 EVO rivals even the 850 Pro. Sequential speeds reach 558MB/s read and 535MB/s write. When compared to the lower capacities, we can see the 1TB model provides slightly better small file size transfer speeds.
Something not often picked up in ATTO that provides a great indicator of visible performance is the speeds at the low 4K file size. The 850 EVO demonstrates some of the best we have seen with both read and write being above 300MB/s, a plateau the most SSDs have yet to reach.
Any idea why this drive isn’t offered in a 1.5 or 2 TB version? There is room in the housing and there must be a market for larger drives.
There needs to be the demand.
Cost was a huge factor. Some one at Samsung asked me if I would be willing to spend $1,000 or more for a SSD I said no. they are having a hard time selling 1TB ssd’s.
Make them cheaper and they sure will sell 🙂
As we use affiliate sales, I cannot get into numbers but to say that Samsung has yet to market a SSD that doesn’t sell. Their choice of release timings for all of their products to date has been dead on with customer need.
I just bought 2X 1TB 850 evos. I can guarantee a 2TB drive will shortly become available just to spite me. That’s how it always works. The Want is there, but the product isn’t. Yeah fine the controller needs to be blah blah, and yada yada. they were already quick to strip 1 core off the MEX without any performance loss. How hard could it be. one thing I could say is though, the minute I see a 2GB SSD i’m picking it up, Samsung or not.
No demand really. Also more than 1TB requires more complex controller (ie more blocks to adress) or bigger block size.
Given the EVO is a consumer drive, 1TB is just as much as it makes sense to sell right now. But that doesn’t mean there will be no 2TB+ drives in the near future.
NO DEMAND??? o_O Where have you been??? Many people are interested in 2TB SSDs.
Simply because you would like a 2TB SSD does not create demand. The interest is there but, even with present day sales, the validation that there is a need for large capacity consumer SSDs just isn’t there. This can be easily seen with lower capacity sales compared to even 512GB drives today, much less the 1TB capacity. Samsung will not market any drive unless they can be assured that there will be big sales.
Not that many though. Atleast not for consumer drives.
There certainly is a market for larger SSDs.
Awesome review, thanks. 🙂
Great drive, but pricing kills it right now. Its more expensive than competing options; infact 1TB is almost 120€ more expensive than ULTRA II for example.
That is a good observation ,…. by this time next year however the price will be attractive especially online 🙂
Hi! Thanks for your awesome site.
I am loathe to join the forums when I have little to discuss, always forgetting and mislaying my login details between visits. Hopefully it is not too cheeky to ask for some advice here:
If somebody wanted to buy a sata 3 SSD, contining a half-height PCB, for the purpose of a hack, can you recommend a manufacturer that do not use warranty-destroying security tape, or other measures to prevent this potential fun.
I have just installed 850 EVO 1TB in my mid 2012 Macbbok Pro (i5, 8GB RAM) having Mac OX Yosemite 10.10.3 . It has made computer blazingly fast and has made it better than any other computer I used till date. My question is whether I can install a third party TRIM as it is not provided by Mac OSX Yosemite.
Trim Enabler. The pro version costs 10 bucks, but the driver itself it free. Just installed the 850 on a 2012 MacBook Pro and it runs like a dream.
I have bought this drive and installed it on a macbook pro mid 2009 and so far so good. With the release of MAC OS X 10.10.4 with the TRIM enable option, should i enable it or not? Does this drive need this or not because of the native features? Thanks, Miguel.
If the ability to enable TRIM is there as a confirmation, we would always recommend such, although most drives are built well with Garbage Collection in their firmware as they have always had.
850 is probably the most overhyped SSD I’ve ever seen. It’s not that great.
It is an EVO and intended to provide value and capacity. You are comparing it to…….