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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.
SYSTEM COMPONENTS
This Test Bench build was the result of some great relationships and purchase; our appreciation goes to 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!
| PC CHASSIS: | Thermaltake Core V51 |
| MOTHERBOARD: | ASRock Z97 Extreme6 |
| CPU: | Intel Core i5-4670K |
| CPU COOLER: | Corsair H75 |
| POWER SUPPLY: | be quiet! Dark Power Pro 10 850W |
| SYSTEM COOLING: | be quiet! Silent Wings 2 |
| MEMORY: | Kingston HyperX Beast 2400Mhz |
| STORAGE: | Samsung 850 Pro |
BENCHMARK SOFTWARE
The software in use 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, Iometer, TRIMcheck, PCMark Vantage, and PCMark 8. 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.
Crystal Disk Info shows us some Vender Specific attributes as well as some of the now typical useful ones such as Total Host Reads and Writes counters. It also shows a working temperature sensor and has TRIM support over the PCIe interface. The firmware version we are testing with today is BXW2500Q.
We’ve covered TRIMcheck in the past. It is a great tool that easily lets us see if TRIM is actually functioning on a SSD volume in your system.
As it should have, TRIMcheck came back with positive results and this SSD supports TRIM in our system.
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 shows off some great initial results. We see very strong small file size speeds with the 4KB file size reaching over 400MB/s. Write speeds reach around their max of 1.6GB/s with the 32KB file size and reads hit 2.26GB/s with the 512KB file size and on.
How does Samsung consistently end up on top of all other ssds? You have all these major players, Intel , Crucial , Toshiba , SanDisk. Every now and then someone gives them a challenge, but they seem to always end up back on top. Is it there controller, nand, firmware, controller/nand, what?
And if you raid 0 two sata SanDisk extreme pros can you get
the same consistency bandwidth as one of these m2 drives?
Samsung is a marketing Goliath. Because they are the largest tech company in the world (selling 4 cell phones and 2 TVs every second of the day), they have the resources to sink into their products. People buy Samsung SSDs just for the name because they recognize that name and trust it. Don’t get me wrong; the other companies are giants in their own right and, given the right marketing tactics, could compete with Samsung. They just aren’t there yet…or maybe they just haven’t made that right step.
Want an example? Intel is the worlds top CPU. Could they not have made a CPU/SSD combo years ago when SSDs were on the rise…or even a CPU with great SSD discount coupon? I could go on forever with respect to selling flash…it is such an easy sell with just the right approach. Last but not least…look at Samsung’s release history and notice how well times everything always seems to be.
Thanks that was a very good explanation. But what about the second question? If you raid 0 two sata SanDisk extreme pros can you get
the same consistency bandwidth as one of these m2 drives? The SanDisk had half bandwidth 200-250, so times 2 400-450 could it compete. I only ask because I have a old motherboard with no more pcie slots.
No the SanDisk RAID would not come close. Even with 100% incompressible data, this drive transfers data at speeds of 1.9GB/s read, 1.5GB/s write and 175K IOPS. This SSD is a blessing for those working in 4K media where a minimum of 1.4GB/s is necessary. I always speak of the importance of understanding ones need however and, with that, matching the right SSD with the task at hand. Does the typical PC user need this or will they ever understand its abilities? Absolutely not…but it is still sweet though isn’t it?
today samsung evo 850 is technically the best deal for price and quality. and probably going for this SM951 card next year. my choice to buy the model I had wasn’t actually based on the brand name
not a single review site has tested boot times with this disk. not one!!!
Boot times differ for the most part by seconds and cannot be measured accurately as each system is different. The importance of boot times is seen between the hard drive and the SSD. To compare SSD boot times is a defeating task as the boot time, for the most part, is based on disk access times for which most SSDs are a fraction of a ms different.
thank you for the feedback! but there are cases where boot time tested on a specific motherboard can reveal quite a difference, for instance the intel 750 ssd has the slowest boot time of any high end ssd, while the sm951 supposedly has the absolute fastest of all consumer ssds. like several seconds difference actually.
https://techreport.com/review/28050/intel-750-series-solid-state-drive-reviewed/5
I understand your point and appreciate the work that my friends at TechReport do. I have had every one of those SSDs in use in one system or another in one point in time or another and I have never experienced a 30 second boot. In fact, my system optimization is always the same and my start times are typically 15-20 seconds when fully optimized with our SSD Optimization Guide. There are VAST differences in boards and, as such, a significant start time difference will be experienced between newer NVME compatible boards and those of just yesterday that relied on Win 8.1 NVMe drivers alone. Similarly, to put a notebook SAta SSD, beside a PCIe 4 lane and then NVME, a few seconds difference can be expected. I understand your initial concern but, the way I have always looked at presenting SSDs to the consumer (and enterprise), I prefer to stay away from comparisons where the results of drives are really not that tangible in my opinion. The best part of it all is that there are several websites for comparison, or different benchmark characteristics to draw upon.
It would be interesting to understand a bit more about this variability in boot time. Dust off the ol’ SAS program and collect a large amount of data and get real nerdy with it!
I did, I booted off this SSD in about 7-8 seconds as stated under the bootability section in the review on the first page. The Intel 750 booted similarly as other SSDs as well when I had it.
i had the 750, it booted real slow, like stupid slow compared to my old 120gb corsair. i have the 850 pro now and its insane compared to the 750.
Also i could not install hackintosh on my 750 which sucks , but hackintosh does have sm951 support 🙂
I also have the asrock extreme6 so i can buy the sm951 and use it if i needed, but tbh the 850 pro in daily usage is just as fast. and the sm951 has throttling issues. try placing a fan over it and see if performance increase?
booted in 10 sec (i5+DDR 1600 Mhz+sm951 AHCI)
btw: https://www.flexxmemory.co.uk/solid-state-drives-ssd/samsung-sm951-512gb-m-2-ngff-pcie-solid-state-drive-ssd-2280-mzhpv512hdgl-00000/
395$ 🙂
I posted my 2nd boot on Youtube the day I received the drive… sorry the video quality on my phone sucks, but you can see how long it takes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRFyBqKCXkc
If you want to see even faster Samsung drives in a 4-way mirror (2 column, 2 copy in Storage Spaces), look at my last post here… fastest SSD config I’ve ever seen:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/ad5fe5bc-715d-418d-92a4-3bdb94eb7948/pcie-ssd-storage-spaces-huge-read-performance-drop
Hi Les,
Thanks for the review.
If you’re interested, there’s a newer version of AS-SSD (v1.8.5608.42992).
Thanks! WE are looking at that right now and deciding when we want to move it in to our reports.
What is the issue with this thing that potentially bricks it with a secure erase?
I would like to upgrade my Vaio pro 13 pcie SSD samsung xp941 to the new sm951 would this be compatible?
The AHCI version would be yes.
Is this tested? Especially, does the SONY VAIO Pro 13 boot from SM951 (512GB)? Could you please point to anywhere wherein someone has it actually tested and the result available?
I know, technically it should work, but don’t want to take a chance while I buy.
Many Thanks!
Of course it will work but I would go for the newest 950 pro now.
Sorry, I too know that technically it should work, but I was more looking for actual experience, especially regarding whether it Boots.
Also, regarding the 950 Pro, I know it is based on NVMe, whereas the SONY VAIO Pro supports only AHCI as far as I know. So when you recommend 950 Pro for SONY VAIO Pro, how is it going to work?:
1. By itself? (I wonder how) _OR_
2. Any BIOS Update available for SONY VAIO Pro for NVMe support? _OR_
3. Is 950 Pro by any chance backward compatible with AHCI (again, Bootable?)
Thanks!
Woops my apologies; 950 pro will not work and the SM951 (AHCI version) will.
SM951 will not work in Pro13 people don’t waste your time and money like me. XP941 is best you can get for Pro 13 tried both in my Pro 13 other people having same problem with SM951 won’t work as bootable partition!
SM951 AHCI I mean
Why the SM951 AHCI not works in the vaio pro13 ? thanks.
Question, what kind of a speed decrease can you expect to see on this drive if you use it on a PCIe Gen2 x4 slot instead of Gen3? My laptop only has a Gen2 x4, so am curious what kind of decrease I should expect from this ssd.
Hello, I’m currently testing the 512GB AHCI and NVMe versions of the 951 on the PCIe 3.0 bus on an ASUS Z97i-plus. The NVMe is able to achieve the read speeds that you posted but I’m seeing a maximum of around 1100MB/s read speed on the AHCI variant. See comments here for more information: https://www.thessdreview.com/our-reviews/samsung-sm951-m-2-pcie-ssd-review-256gb-nvme-performance/
Could this be a limitation of the board or a misconfiguration of the PCI bus?
Thanks
Chris
Thanks for the review! However, I’m not really seeing the value add here, particularly for the money they want, over a standard SATA SSD.
It is application specific my friend; what are your needs? The average user won’t see any difference whatsoever between the two drives, however, this becomes gold to a media professional. Faster transfer speeds means higher efficiency which means more work done and coin in the pocket/time for the family.
By all means, that makes a lot of sense. I’m just surprised from an enthusiast or consumer perspective since many motherboard manufacturers are now including M.2 slots into their socket 1151 motherboards. Guess I’ll hold off for another year or two.
Just bought SM951 512gb AHCI to upgrade my Vaio Pro 13 but for some reason I can’t create partition when installing windows7 it gets stuck at partition screen the partition is there but windows won’t load on it. Just strange because before that I had SATA SSD AHCI. What I am missing? Tried Different Bios settings but no luck..
Happy owner of a Lenovo Y700 17ISK (ideapad) that has this little beast inside set up as disk 1.
Installation of windows 7 64 bit possible only when installing on 1Terra Western Digital disk 0 and then cloning with another program from inside windows to disk 1.
But if partitioned as GUID (GPT) SATA AHCI boot and NTFS this little baby can really bring some difference to Windows experience even on an old OS…
Counted from Lenovo screen on bootup till CTRL-ALT-DELTE screen only 6 seconds (most of which came from the Windows visual effects on Windows start up screen). Without effects it would need 2 or 3 seconds to get there… (Windows 2003 Server Domain login…)
As for its use, Word in half a second, Mozilla in 1,5 seconds, outlook less than one second. I repeat Domain environment)… Forgot to mention ESET 64 bit with file protection activated… Blindingly fast disk if supported by system…