Samsung 840 Pro SSD Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

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Samsung 840 Pro SSD Review - Samsung releases its new 21nm NAND and MDX controller in one formidable package. Throwing the weight of its NAND foundry and engineering expertise into the push for dominance of the high end results in a compelling product. We take a look at the Samsung 840 Pro 256GB SSD and its performance.
 
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Ahhhh, I want to upgrade my 830 now. I dont even have Sata 6Gb lol.... Damn X58.
 
This seems like an utter waste while the 830 still exists. I got a 128gb for $70 flat off Amazon during a sale. It's absurdly fast.

How would this be compared to Raid 0 Velociraptors?

Most any decent SSD will probably fucking dominate that in situations like OS / game loads. I still have a P45 chipset (for just a little longer!) and when I benched mine I capped out the SATA port speed for sequential.
 
my thoughts exactly, not counting raid, aren't most ssd just faster than a standard hdd?
 
Fixed, thanks for the extra set of eyes. - Kyle
 
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Although I'm currently happy with my M4's, it is still very tempting !!! I still have a spare M4 that I was planning to put on one of my machines but decided not to. Anybody want to buy a 120GB M4 :) ?


I liked how you described the Magician software. I don't remember reading about it in the anandtech review. Now I know it is a neat and practical piece of software to have. Can it be downloaded and used for other types of SSD's ?
 
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Is the chart at the bottom of the specs page for the 840 Pro or for the 840? Part numbers, capacities and speeds seem to match with the regular 840.
 
Raid might come close for sequential read/write but will fall far behing in access times.

It would have been nice if the review compared the 840 Pro to the two most popular SSDs...the 830 and m4
 
Now I know it is a neat and practical piece of software to have. Can it be downloaded and used for other types of SSD's ?

It works on my 830 but not says it won't work on my Intel X25M G2
 
Yes, but I asked about striped (Raid 0) raptors. Might be time for me to upgrade.

You say that as if, relative to a SSD, striped raptors are anything more than just HDDs. Pretty much anything in the last 2 generations of SSDs is 100x more IOPS when they're at their worst than your stripe raptors are when they're at their best, and a single sata3 SSD will be 3-100x faster transfer speeds depending on workload. More to the point any SSD from the last 4 years will shit all over those old 150GB raptors, don't care how many you have in a RAID.
 
I just recently bought the 128 GB 840 Pro. It is my very first SSD drive. I replaced my WD 640 GB cav which is about 3 years old now. So with that said I'm sure my opinion is way skewed. But this drive is AWESOME!!!. It is without a doubt the best upgrade I've done in the last 5 years that had the biggest noticeable difference on my system and games.

Wish I had of jumped on the bandwagon when SSD first came to market.
 
The M4 would get trampled in this field of SSDs unfortunately, and the 830 would not fare nearly as well as the Vector against the 840. From a value perspective they are both excellent performers, don't get me wrong. But with the new architecture and these being flagship products we felt it would serve us best to compare them to 'like' products.
The standard 840 with TLC (the 'value' of the series) is undergoing testing as we speak. Possibly we could throw the M4 in the test field for the upcoming review :)

The Raptors arent going to come close in any type of usage, except perhaps file copy/paste. For OS usage it isnt a contest.
 
Small error on the conclusion page:
We would love to see other companies follow Samsung's led in this area, since the only other company with a comparable utility is Intel at the moment.

Great review and the expected result for the current SSD king. I was glad to see the Vector doing well but Samsung is just so massive they'll be hard to beat if they keep this up.
 
I liked how you described the Magician software. I don't remember reading about it in the anandtech review. Now I know it is a neat and practical piece of software to have. Can it be downloaded and used for other types of SSD's ?

Yes and no, i have a corsair force gt3 ssd and i was able to download the software and run the os optimizations part, the performance test , secure erase, and cloning but everything else it tells me that i do not have a samsung ssd. Hope that helps
 
I didn't add this in my first post, but I really must say that I thourougly enjoy reading SSD reviews a lot more on [H] than anywhere else. A lot of thinking and planning seems to go into them, so Thank You Hugh and Kyle (Not sure how much you do as the editor, but I know you do A LOT in regards to the site).

FWIW and for anyone who isn't in Cali, this drive can be had for $248.98 via Ewiz using promo code Supersanta - http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=MZ-7PD256Z
 
Is the chart at the bottom of the specs page for the 840 Pro or for the 840? Part numbers, capacities and speeds seem to match with the regular 840.

Yes, I actually already pointed out earlier in this thread that that chart is all wrong (it shows the 840 non-Pro), but Kyle deleted my comment.
 
While 4k read/write seems extremely impressive, I doesn't look like it will make much difference to a typical user unless you're running a database server or something along that line. Overall the drive seems very expensive in 256GB+ capacities comparing to competition which was very close, not counting 4k performance. I wouldn't mind having that drive but not at that price point, considering that Samsung owns and makes most of the parts for it, they surely can do better on the price.
 
You say that as if, relative to a SSD, striped raptors are anything more than just HDDs. Pretty much anything in the last 2 generations of SSDs is 100x more IOPS when they're at their worst than your stripe raptors are when they're at their best, and a single sata3 SSD will be 3-100x faster transfer speeds depending on workload. More to the point any SSD from the last 4 years will shit all over those old 150GB raptors, don't care how many you have in a RAID.

I asked for clarification. Stay classy though. Thanks.
 
The Samsung 840 Pro SSDs come in capacities of 64GB, 128GB, 512GB.
Missing one model, or the word "also" in page 2.

The 840 Pro was my reason for switching to SSDs: 21 nm, faster than most SSDs, relatively cheap for the top of the line, 256 GB capacity good enough for Windows and all apps I plan to use and small enough to be backed up as a system image, a raving review a few weeks ago at anandtech (coincidentally, can the site name be any more relevant to SSDs? Anand must be thanking his parents every day), apart from the buggy beta firmware.
 
Very impressive, I'd really like one, but it's a little too rich for my blood, so I think I'll just settle for the m4 currently on sale.
 
Another fun review. I like the product but not the price. I'll take the plunge when the 256 GB variants hit the $120 mark. :cool:
 
The M4 would get trampled in this field of SSDs unfortunately, and the 830 would not fare nearly as well as the Vector against the 840. From a value perspective they are both excellent performers, don't get me wrong. But with the new architecture and these being flagship products we felt it would serve us best to compare them to 'like' products.
The standard 840 with TLC (the 'value' of the series) is undergoing testing as we speak. Possibly we could throw the M4 in the test field for the upcoming review :)

That would be cool. I know the 840 Pro is faster than the 830 and m4 but it would be nice to see the comparison numbers. Going from one generation to the next.
 
I would have like to have seen the Intel 520 series in this review, why leave it out? A lot of people run Intel SSD's

Anway, someone wanna buy a 6 month old 120gig Intel 520?
 
Ahhhh, I want to upgrade my 830 now. I dont even have Sata 6Gb lol.... Damn X58.
Why???

Do you really need 100K/90K read/write IOPS, around +20K IOPS is enough for heavy personal use, the 830 has 80K/30K.

The 840 Pro is perfect for a server but for home use the 830 is still fast enough, and you would never notice the differtce between the two.

Imho is this SSD not the gold award worth, you have way more bang for buck with a m4 or 830!

full.png

Samsung 840 Pro SSD

If you wane have more speed, buy 6 stiks of 8GB DDR3, and let Windows Prefetcher speed up your system, RAM cache is 5x to 20x faster then a SSD.

I use 64GB and really notice the difference if i swap it out for 8GB, and as you can see below, Prefetcher uses literally all my memory!

full.png
 
Because everybody uses, er rather, doesn't use, their storage like you, huh?

Interesting. We're all clones. Sheep, if you will. Good to know.
 
Re: player-x, 64 GB of RAM, good God! :eek:

I can't wait for the 840 Pro to come down in price, so I got the 256 GB Crucial M4 for $160 yesterday on NE.
 
Re: player-x, 64 GB of RAM, good God! :eek:
Mem is dirt cheap now, i payed 300 euros for it, my first 120GB ''Vertex 1'' was over 500 euro's, so its not that amazing anymore.

I can't wait for the 840 Pro to come down in price, so I got the 256 GB Crucial M4 for $160 yesterday on NE.
I bed you that you will not notice any difference between your m4 and this 840 in real world use, unless you do some +500 user database access on it or so.

My self i hardly notice a difference between my Vertex 3 and the 830 i also now have, ware the 830 double the IOPS has.
 
I have 24GBs of ram currently, if I upgrade ram it will have to be when I switch the the next X-series intel chipset. I want to upgrade my 830 so I can place it into an older system that doesnt have an SSD and its always nice to have the fastest thing since this is [H]ard|Forums for enthusiats right?
 
The Windows prefetcher is no substitute for an SSD. The prefetcher still loads all data from your storage device, and dumps it frequently. You are just thrashing your HDD constantly in the background, slowing down even further the programs that aren't cached. Keeping the HDD busy though :)
 
The Windows prefetcher is no substitute for an SSD. The prefetcher still loads all data from your storage device, and dumps it frequently. You are just thrashing your HDD constantly in the background, slowing down even further the programs that aren't cached. Keeping the HDD busy though :)

umm :confused:

His system specs show he is running off SSD's.

Where do you see an HD in that setup?
 
umm :confused:

His system specs show he is running off SSD's.

Where do you see an HD in that setup?
Correct no spinning rust in my system, that sits all in my server now.

And if i look in ''Resource Monitor'' at disk activity, it's lower as far as i can see, with 64GB then whit 8GB, just tested it quick by looking at the disk graph, so not a real solid test.
The Windows prefetcher is no substitute for an SSD.
Never said that, said there is not a lot of need for 840 Pro over a 830.

The prefetcher still loads all data from your storage device, and dumps it frequently.
I don't care what it dose as long as its faster!

You are just thrashing your HDD constantly in the background
Again, i don't care what it dose as long as its faster!

slowing down even further the programs that aren't cached.
There are not a hell of a lot of files left that aren't cached, so slowing noting down.

Keeping the HDD busy though
Those are only reads, and as prefetch data dose not change, and with 64GB it is a lot less, and again, i don't care what it dose as long as its faster!
 
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