SSD decision time Samsung 850 Pro 1 TB or Sandisk Extreme Pro 960 GB

[JJ91284]

I'm looking at upgrading to either a Samsung 850 Pro 1 TB or a Sandisk Extreme 960 GB

I've been leaning towards the Sandisk Extreme, but I read it doesn't support SSD hardware encryption. I've never used this feature in the past, but thinking maybe I should look towards hard drive encryption. I do like how both these drives come with a 10 year warranty which is pretty awesome compared to other warranties.

This will be used in my desktop so reliability is always important and performance is a plus. I've thinking of going the encryption route mainly because I do finances on this rig and do some day trading. Of course the casual gaming and web browsing. If the hard drive is encrypted, does this mean anybody trying to remote in or steal files will get essentially nothing since the data is encrypted and they don't have the keys to decrypt. I know very little in this area so I plan to do a bunch of reading about this in the next few days. I know Sandisk has an X300 that offers encryption also, but it performs worse than Samsung from what I've read.

 

[drescherjm]

does this mean anybody trying to remote in or steal files will get essentially nothing since the data is encrypted and they don't have the keys to decrypt

I do not believe encryption will help with that. If you have booted the PC you had to enter the key.

Encryption does help when someone steals the drive and does not have your key.

 

[sobe88]

The 2 are both the high end in the SSD sata market, I went with SanDisk for their ExtremePro 480GB units (coming from an 840 Evo) over the 850 Pro because I was seeing more real-world benefits of the ExtremePro being faster than the 850 Pro in various apps, but it's a bit odd because the 850 Pro seems to outperform it in most benchmarks. Realistically though, both are excellent and you won't go wrong with either, the 850 Pro tends to "dominate" the upper segment in all the reviews,so just go with whichever you feel most comfortable with.

Also, the ExtremePro I picked up 2 of the 480GB for $200 each vs the $270 each for the 850 Pro 512GB, they aren't worth an extra $70 IMO when the 2 are damn near head-to-head.

This post is purely my opinion on the drives based on my own research and having the same question when I was looking at the 2.

 

[ironforge]

I do not believe encryption will help with that. If you have booted the PC you had to enter the key.

Encryption does help when someone steals the drive and does not have your key.

I have seen the option to "dismount" the volume when the computer goes to sleep/screensaver. Someone could not steal files while the drive is dismounted. When you get back on the computer you need to enter your encryption key again.

The main thing the encryption helps is if someone steals your drive. (much more plausible if you have a laptop stolen)

 

[SomeGuy133]

Sandisk Extreme 2 has better endurance in regards to sustain usage so if that's a major issue go that route

vs

The Samsung Pro has better mixed performance IIRC

So they both are good but those are the 2 major difference unless i am mistaken. Its been a year almost since reading reviews. They both are good so i would say:

It really comes done to which is cheap in my eyes.

FYI do not trust hardware encryptions. They can cause a lot of programs that software doesn't. Additionally, they are closed source and no idea if spooks have tampered with it. Use Veracrypt because they fixed and enhanced truecrypt's security issues. Here is several examples of 10s-100s of NSA and other government agencies purposely weakening security standards (software is also prone to this but open source software at least has a small chance of someone finding the whole hence why people donated to get truecrypt audited and found out key files were almost useless. Now If a peon like me can learn how to run that attack so I can access my container -_-):

RdRand (random number gen in intel CPUs)
NIST random number gen used in almost every business security VPN. This was a huge issue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_EC_DRBG
DES (http://www.infoworld.com/article/26...ryptographers-cry-foul-over-nsa-meddling.html)
billion plus SIM cards (https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2015/02/nsagchq_hacks_s.html)

 

[rive22]

Encryption won't help you while you are actively using the OS. But if you're drive ever gets stolen the data on it is as good as garbage to anyone who doesn't know what they're doing, which is 99%+.

@Someguy, good note on the Veracrypt. Been using Truecrypt for years and didn't want to leave it behind just because they stopped working on it. I love the program and everything you can do with it. I figured as long as it scrambles my data and stops 99%+ people it's good for me. But I will definitely have to look more into this.

 

[SomeGuy133]

Encryption won't help you while you are actively using the OS. But if you're drive ever gets stolen the data on it is as good as garbage to anyone who doesn't know what they're doing, which is 99%+.

@Someguy, good note on the Veracrypt. Been using Truecrypt for years and didn't want to leave it behind just because they stopped working on it. I love the program and everything you can do with it. I figured as long as it scrambles my data and stops 99%+ people it's good for me. But I will definitely have to look more into this.

problem is its that 1% that has true nefarious plans. the other 99 don't care about you or your data. Thats the flaw with that kind of logic :/

 

[Cerulean]

Samsung Pro because...

• RAPID mode [1] [2]
• 10 year warranty
• Highly configurable options in Samsung Magician
• Samsung, need I say more?

Couple this with a RAM disk to work on heavy projects and you can say "blow it out your ass!" to performance.

Definitely came in handy for a 0.5 GB Microsoft Word document that would use between 3 - 8 GB of RAM, and consumes nearly 4 GB of diskspace when saved as a PDF.

Or an Excel workbook that I have which has over 480,000 lines and math stuff going on in other columns. I went from HDD to SSD and was blown away. I enabled RAPID mode and I shit my pants. (jokes about defecating )

 

[Aesma]

I have seen the option to "dismount" the volume when the computer goes to sleep/screensaver. Someone could not steal files while the drive is dismounted. When you get back on the computer you need to enter your encryption key again.

The main thing the encryption helps is if someone steals your drive. (much more plausible if you have a laptop stolen)

You can't unmount a drive if it's the system drive, the only way is to shut down/hibernate.

 

[rive22]

problem is its that 1% that has true nefarious plans. the other 99 don't care about you or your data. Thats the flaw with that kind of logic :/

Yes, but I run under the assumption that those 1% can get through anything via backdoors or special decypher tools, whom of which I'd rarely if ever encounter. And even if I did encounter someone like that, they wouldn't be interested in my data when they cracked it anyway as they have access to much more interesting things. It's the everyday Joe Schmo's who are the threat, IMO.

 

[SomeGuy133]

Yes, but I run under the assumption that those 1% can get through anything via backdoors or special decypher tools, whom of which I'd rarely if ever encounter. And even if I did encounter someone like that, they wouldn't be interested in my data when they cracked it anyway as they have access to much more interesting things. It's the everyday Joe Schmo's who are the threat, IMO.

fools logic and there are plenty of methods out that make it not impossible but removes any incentive to bother. Everyone has a limited amount of resources to an extent so making it more difficult than its worth is all thats needed or at least making it take long enough where they have to wait a solid 10 years to actually try to break it.

 

[rive22]

fools logic and there are plenty of methods out that make it not impossible but removes any incentive to bother. Everyone has a limited amount of resources to an extent so making it more difficult than its worth is all thats needed or at least making it take long enough where they have to wait a solid 10 years to actually try to break it.

That's exactly what I just said.

Even an outdated Truecrypt is plenty to stop 99% of people, which is all that matters in my opinion for my circumstances.

Anyone who understands what they are doing isn't going to use bruteforce unless they have a supercomputer at their disposal. For someone to feel assured that a consumer method of encryption is foolproof against the 1%, that is foolish.

 

[SomeGuy133]

That's exactly what I just said.

Even an outdated Truecrypt is plenty to stop 99% of people, which is all that matters in my opinion for my circumstances.

Anyone who understands what they are doing isn't going to use bruteforce unless they have a supercomputer at their disposal. For someone to feel assured that a consumer method of encryption is foolproof against the 1%, that is foolish.

you missed the point there are options AKA software like veracrypt that make it not impossible but too expensive for people who know what their doing to bother to decrypt your stuff. The 1% will not bother unless there is some massive incentive to crack your stuff so again the point is veracrypt doesn't make it impossible but even those 1% won't even bother....unless its like a nation state that thinks you have top secret info and even then they might not even bother with how veracrypt beefed the living hell out of it. Veracrypt is magnitudes better and truecrypt is easy to break for anyone in the slight know. There were massive security holes in truecrypt and its very weak security but those wholes were plugged in veracrypt and further enhanced. I forget the exact numbers but its stupid how many iterations were added.

 

[rive22]

you missed the point there are options AKA software like veracrypt that make it not impossible but too expensive for people who know what their doing to bother to decrypt your stuff. The 1% will not bother unless there is some massive incentive to crack your stuff so again the point is veracrypt doesn't make it impossible but even those 1% won't even bother....unless its like a nation state that thinks you have top secret info and even then they might not even bother with how veracrypt beefed the living hell out of it.

I consider this common sense. My point was that regardless of what method is used, those 1% who may or may not get access to my files is meaningless as they will be worthless to those kinds of people. The kind of people who know what they're doing have better things to do and more valuable information to look at. For the average person, the people who are a threat are the everyday people in your life, the 99%. In my opinion. People who know you and have active roles in your life are going to be more interested in your information than a stranger.

Veracrypt is magnitudes better and truecrypt is easy to break for anyone in the slight know. There were massive security holes in truecrypt and its very weak security but those wholes were plugged in veracrypt and further enhanced. I forget the exact numbers but its stupid how many iterations were added.

I've been reading about Veracrypt this morning, it appears to be magnitudes improved. Especially with the new PIM feature. I've switched my system encryption to Veracrypt and will redo my other containers today.

 

[JJ91284]

Interesting read guys, thanks for all the info so far.