Samsung has embraced the new M.2 form factor with a will, incorporating the company’s 32-layer TLC 3D V-NAND technology as well as other features such as TurboWrite Technology and RAPID Mode.
The technology used is certainly quite interesting, but to begin with this example from Samsung comes in three available capacities – 120GB, 250GB and 500GB – all of which use the Samsung MGX controller.
The 850 EVO M.2 SSD measures 22 x 80 x 3.8mm and weighs around 6g. The obvious advantage of M.2 is the diminished size and weight, making them an excellent upgrade option for smaller systems and laptops. The interface is SATA 6Gbps, compatible with SATA 3Gbps and 1.5Gbps connections, with an average power consumption of around 2.3W and a reliability of 1.5 million hours.
Further to the technology we mentioned earlier, the 3D V-NAND architecture is something entirely new. The process involves stacking 32 cell layers vertically, which will result in a higher density and, in theory, better performance within a smaller footprint.
The TurboWrite Technology claims to increase the read and write performance of the 850 EVO by up to twice its current specification, resulting in an on-paper read speed of 540MB/s and an equally impressive write speed of 520MB/s.
And finally, RAPID Mode uses Samsung’s Magician Software to utilise unused system RAM as a high speed cache, supporting up to 4GB cache on a PC with 16GB or more RAM.
In real-world terms all this amounts to an SSD that sounds very intriguing. Our ATTO benchmark certainly came back with some decent numbers. The 8192KB transfer test recorded 550MB/s read, while the same size transfer recorded a write speed of 517MB/s. The smaller sized 4KB transfer managed 351MB/s read and 302MB/s write – both of which are pretty good by SSD standards.
Interestingly, with the RAPID mode used, in a system with 16GB of memory installed, the numbers didn’t alter at all, even when run several times. In fact, on one occasion they dropped ever so slightly. Benchmarks are odd things to pitch against a real-world scenario though. Our copy of Windows 10 was booted to the desktop in less than five seconds (after clearing the BIOS), and everything we used within the OS felt snappy and extremely quick.
As an upgraded system drive the Samsung 120GB 850 EVO M.2 SSD is a fantastic choice. 120GB may be a little limiting as the only drive in the system, though, so you’ll probably need to include a second drive somewhere along the line. Thankfully, the 120GB 850 EVO version only costs £55, which is pretty cheap, so factoring in a second storage medium won’t break the bank.
Overall, a good performer and an ideal upgrade for any system.