840 Evo Performance Restoration Firmware still a bit 'meh'

[Quad5Ny]

So I did the whole annoying FW update on a pair of new 500GB 840 EVO's a few months ago. But this hasn't really fixed the problem because as the data gets older (and cell voltage changes), the performance gets worse.

What do you think the odds are that Samsung would swap my 2 drives out for 840 Pro's?

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• Timeframe for data on the EVO's is 11/6/2014-1/7/2015
• The 830 has had Static data sitting on it since 12/3/2013

 

[VirtualLarry]

So I did the whole annoying FW update on a pair of new 500GB 840 EVO's a few months ago. But this hasn't really fixed the problem because as the data gets older (and cell voltage changes), the performance gets worse.

A lot of people, myself included, never quite believed that TLC was "fine" to use in an SSD, as opposed to a flash drive. What's really almost criminal, is how Samsung gets away with charging prices for their TLC-based drives, that are HIGHER than comparible MLC drives. They must be raking in profits. Especially considering their poor support (outsourced, not even in-house).

 

[Quad5Ny]

They must be raking in profits. Especially considering their poor support (outsourced, not even in-house).

Samsung actually has some form of support other than just replacing DOA products? Who knew.<- Sarcasm

Back on track a little bit, I understood TLC sucks when I bought them (which is why they're only used for games) but dam I really expected more from the controller firmware, especially after the update!

I really can't believe no review site has come back and done a postmortem on the drive now that the 850 EVO has launched. This seems like a perfect idea for a article.
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Edit: Anyone else have a updated 840 EVO they can run through a read pass of HD Tune Pro? - It's free and uninstalls cleanly.

 

[Berryracer]

A lot of people, myself included, never quite believed that TLC was "fine" to use in an SSD, as opposed to a flash drive. What's really almost criminal, is how Samsung gets away with charging prices for their TLC-based drives, that are HIGHER than comparible MLC drives. They must be raking in profits. Especially considering their poor support (outsourced, not even in-house).

Ditto! For the crappy support they offer, they are too expensive. I will never buy Samsung SSDs in the future after my sour experience with their warranty:

They state on their site they offer international warranty! but when contacting Samsung Dubai, they said I had to send the drive to the USA if I ever had a problem.

So I contacted Samsung USA to see what they said about this, they said yes, we have international warranty, but you have to send the drive to the USA for any warranty claims/repair! :whiste:

Unable to get warranty on Samsung SSDs in Dubai



Additionally, that so called EVO 840 fix is just a temporary solution, give it a few weeks, and performance deteriorates again needing you to redo the whole thing which:


a) is time consuming if you have a large SSD with lots of DATA like 1TB
b) create a lot of re-writes on the SSD degrading it's already crappy lifespan since it's TLC

 

[Cerb]

Even in the U.S., I recall sending HDDs to some 3rd party--Far East Service Corporation. No RMA updates or anything, past the initial acceptance. Just hope you get a replacement in the mail. It's not like they can't afford a 1st-party U.S. customer service presence...

So, yeah. Sandisk has seemed to be on the ball, in terms of total value, lately, and they fit your warranty needs. Just get MLC models, and you'll be golden. Samsung is tight with the big OEMs, and uses them as crutches, which breaks with end user sales. Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus, AT&T, Verizon, etc., handle the end user, typically, and Samsung doesn't have to. It's nothing new for them. Toshiba and Fujitsu are usually a bit better, due to having computer sales and support to businesses in Western countries.

 

[Excessi0n]

Edit: Anyone else have a updated 840 EVO they can run through a read pass of HD Tune Pro? - It's free and uninstalls cleanly.

I grabbed a shiny new 1TB 840 EVO on black friday, which came with the updated firmware out of the box. I didn't think to take a screenshot, but I'm getting a 30-40 MB/s reduction in sequential read speeds on the oldest files (which were transferred to it a few days after purchasing it).

Still twice as fast as my old SSD boot drive and four times as fast as the hard drive I had most of my games and programs on. :awe: