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Samsung 840 or 840 Pro

T

t0m3k51

Member
I plan buying the 840 for my Hackintosh, but I'm not sure which to go with.

I see the both have much higher IOPS, but there are few differences when you compare them. Is it worth spending the additional $$$ for the Pro Series?

Memory Components
840 - TLC 840 Pro - MLC

Power Consumption

IOPS
 
Why not get an SSD 830? It's very affordable at the moment and its performance is more than good enough.
 
The 840 will perform very well in your Computer. If you want to get some of the best SSD on the market right now, go for Pro! I don't know what you do with your machine, if you just do normal work, the 840 will do it's job. Pro is for pros =)
Although Samsung is the first manufacturer to put TLC Nand in a mainstream SSD but they know what they are doing!
 
Yup, 830 is the way to go. Only in fancy benchmark charts will you notice the difference between 830 and 840 vanilla/pro. I know it's tough not to get swept up in the controlled reviews, glossy #'s and synthetic excitement but save some scheckels, control your machismo and live in the real world.
 
aviator78 said:
The 840 will perform very well in your Computer. If you want to get some of the best SSD on the market right now, go for Pro! I don't know what you do with your machine, if you just do normal work, the 840 will do it's job. Pro is for pros =)
Although Samsung is the first manufacturer to put TLC Nand in a mainstream SSD but they know what they are doing!
Click to expand...

Yes, I would recommend the 840pro.
 
I'd avoid the TLC 840 until the early-adopters have banged on it for a few months.

If you don't have a particular reason to get the 840 Pro, I'd get the cheaper 830 (at least it was cheaper than the 840, seems to change day-by-day).

I can only think of two reasons to get the 840 Pro:

1) You need low power consumption from your SSD (usually only a consideration for laptops)

2) You are the type of person (like me) who always wants to have the absolute fastest / best equipment you can get, no matter the price
 
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ShintaiDK said:
Avoid the non pro 840 at all cost. I cant understand why they basicly sold out on that concept.

Get a 830 or an M4.
Click to expand...
Sold out??

I can think of millions of users where TLC NAND is perfect. My Mum who browses the internet, uses ebay and writes the occasional letter would be perfect.

Enterprise uses where everything is stored on the server and the most taxing write is the monthly Windows updates would also be ideal.

There is nothing wrong with the concept of TLC NAND, it just has to be applied to the right usage model. Chances are this won't be power uses who browse this forum.
 
Coup27 said:
Sold out??

I can think of millions of users where TLC NAND is perfect. My Mum who browses the internet, uses ebay and writes the occasional letter would be perfect.

Enterprise uses where everything is stored on the server and the most taxing write is the monthly Windows updates would also be ideal.

There is nothing wrong with the concept of TLC NAND, it just has to be applied to the right usage model. Chances are this won't be power uses who browse this forum.
Click to expand...

TLC NAND got endurance thats a fraction of MLC. And its pretty obvious they try to fool people when they call the MLC for Pro. Instead of calling the TLC for Value or something.

Also the savings in terms of 830 vs 840 is basicly minimal for a massively reduced product. Only 10% price difference for something with 1/4th the lifespan, twice the latency and slower. TLC NAND is also only 67% the cost of MLC, I guess Samsung increased its margins.
 
Coup27 said:
There is nothing wrong with the concept of TLC NAND, it just has to be applied to the right usage model. Chances are this won't be power uses who browse this forum.
Click to expand...

I agree that there is nothing wrong with TLC flash in theory. In practice, though, as long as the 830 is available at about the same price as the 840, the TLC does not look good in comparison. The 830 has been around for a while and is proven, the 840 is new, the TLC flash is new, so why take a chance on it now?

But in 6 months or so, assuming the 250GB 840 can be found for less than about $160, and assuming no serious problems have showed up during those 6 months, then the 840 may be a good choice for many typical consumers.
 
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kleinkinstein said:
Yup, 830 is the way to go. Only in fancy benchmark charts will you notice the difference between 830 and 840 vanilla/pro. I know it's tough not to get swept up in the controlled reviews, glossy #'s and synthetic excitement but save some scheckels, control your machismo and live in the real world.
Click to expand...

But I drive a Hummer, which card would you recommend?
 
ShintaiDK said:
Also the savings in terms of 830 vs 840 is basicly minimal for a massively reduced product. Only 10% price difference for something with 1/4th the lifespan, twice the latency and slower. TLC NAND is also only 67% the cost of MLC, I guess Samsung increased its margins.
Click to expand...
This is only valid for the short changeover period. According to Kristian Vatto, Samsung will be phasing out the 830 by the end of November and commercially it would make no sense to continue to sell it to consumers because as you have pointed out it completely devalues the 840.

But once the 830 is no longer available the 840 does still make economical sense in the right scenario.
 
Right now pricing is better on the 830. With the way prices move on these things I would not be surprised if you could find a 840 pro for cheaper than a regular 840.
 
imusorka said:
What effect does this have on its retail availability? Could waiting for BF deals be too late?
Click to expand...
Logic would suggest that production has already ceased on the 830 and existing stocks will last until about the end of November. I know Samsung are holding good stocks of the 830 for business to business customers but with retail once the stocks are gone they'll be gone. As it's already a discontinued model and priced competitively, I'd be suprised if BF discounts it further.
 
According to AT Bench, 830 owns the Heavy Workload tests; 840 owns the Light Workload. Synthetics aren't worth much imho so whatever on them.

The Heavy tests are write-heavy and the 840 is weak especially on sequential writes... so if you're transcoding, decompressing, writing crap tons of video, or just installing giant programs for fun, the 830 is the way to go.

The Light tests are read-heavy and that's where the 840 wins. So if you're working in Office, concerned with loading apps, games, game levels/data, etc then the 840 might be a better option.

Looks like the 840 has some minor power advantages too. Might be worth considering if you have a lappie... if it's a desktop the difference will be like 4 cents a year. 😛

I'm debating between the two myself. I have a lappie and I do a lot of productivity work and some light gaming on the side, so the 840 actually is a better match for my workload - the 830's better write speed will save me a few minutes when I wipe my drive and reinstall stuff, but that's about it. And a bit more battery life never hurt anyone.

The tradeoff is that the 830 128GB right now is 90 bucks and the 840 is 110... and if I go with the 840 I'm losing 8GB of space. Not a huge deal, but it does push the price per gig equation a bit farther in the 830's favor. It's a much smaller deal at the 250-256GB size since you're losing a much smaller percentage of your space (and only 6GB instead of 8).

I'm not horribly scared of the 840 having reliability issues - the controller is an incremental improvement on a proven design, and Samsung's TLC NAND is similarly proven. The 830 was solid from Day 1 and I'd expect the same here. Still, having the extra proving time couldn't hurt.

I'll pry order the 830 later today. My guess is that the light workload advantage won't even be noticeable to me since it's, well, a light workload. I'm just sick of waiting for the bog slow 5400rpm drive that came with my laptop... pretty sure the Pony Express would be an upgrade from this thing. 😛
 
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