Samsung 860 QVO SSD Review (1TB/2TB) – Every Little Bit Counts

UNDERSTANDING SAMSUNG INTELLIGENT TURBOWRITE

To start, 4-bit mlc is created strictly for consumer use. It is the medium of finding the perfect mix of capacity, performance, price and endurance for the consumer need.  As we have progressed from single to double, triple and now 4-bits per cell, we of course give up such things as performance and durability for price and capacity.  Intelligent TurboWrite is meant to tackle such by creating a SLC adaptable buffer within the memory in order to move things along at a much quicker pace.  This is the first time we have seen an adaptable buffer and this chart explains just a bit:

So… Regardless of size, the SSD already has a 6GB buffer.  Once this buffer is exceeded, Samsung has enabled an additional 36GB buffer for the 1TB version, and 72GB for the 2TB and 4TB versions.  Only after this is filled will we see slower speeds as we did in our testing.  This is exactly what occurs.  Notice the drop….

This graphic depicts Samsung’s explanation of IntelligentTurboWrite.  Notice the drop in performance once TurboWrite is full.

REPORT SUMMARY AND FINAL THOUGHTS

The release of the Samsung 860 QVO SATA 3 SSD is Samsung’s first release of a consumer based 4-bit mlc SSD.  The storage industry had some time ago recognized that consumer demand was such that, they needed to find a ‘sweet spot’ in getting SSDs into the hands of consumers that were fast, had better capacity, an excellent price, and a decent warranty. The Samsung 860 QVO isn’t the first release of this new technology, and all have one thing in common, there is a significant performance consideration that needed to be recognized.  There is a drop in data transfer speeds at some point.  Enter Intelligent TurboWrite.Intelligent TurboWrite provides up to a 78GB SLC buffer by which data throughput is as defined in specifications when very large transfers are being completed.  The key for Samsung was finding a sufficient buffer to meet consumer use.  This simply means that the typical consumer will never notice any performance fluctuations whatsoever with this SSD and it is still miles ahead of any hard drive.  The key here is to understand how much you push your system.  If, like the typical consumer, I am using my PC for school or business correspondence, to surf the internet, play games, or to send and receive emails, this is a great drive. If, on the other hand, I am moving a lot of data all the time, I might look elsewhere.  Our ‘true data testing’ demonstrated just that.

There are some really good things about the Samsung 860 QVO SSD when we look at the entire picture.  First and foremost, it reaches the top end of the SATA 3 spectrum with 550MB/s read and 520MB/s write.  It is one of the first to have capacities of 1,2 and 4TB and the 4TB price of $599.99 is literally unheard of.  Samsung also backs up their SSD with a limited three-year warranty with up to a 1440TBW endurance, depending on capacity.  Add to that the updated Samsung magician and this is a great package.

Watch For The Samsung 860 QVO at Amazon.