Samsung 850 EVO? (TLC V-NAND) Almost here!

[SSBrain]

More here (in japanese):

http://ascii.jp/elem/000/000/957/957599/
http://www.4gamer.net/games/999/G999902/20141207001/


And a rather detailed review here (in dutch):
http://nl.hardware.info/reviews/578...120gb250gb500gb1tb-review-nieuwe-budgettopper

 

[redzo]

Since Samsung are effectively bottlenecked by the SATA interface (until Skylake makes SATA Express mainstream), they cannot truly position the 850 PRO as a high performance alternative to 850 EVO. When the performance of 850 EVO is so similar to the 850 PRO, why would anyone buy the PRO for more money?

I believe there may be other criteria to distinguish between and evo and a pro. I think that the product is already positioned as it should because:
- The pro offers better performance consistency
- The pro comes with higher endurance
- The pro does not use a tricky mechanism in order to boost write speeds. Seems that the new 850 evo achieves paritty write speeds with the 850 pro by using turbo write like its previous ancestor, the 840 evo. This seriously limits write performance when continuously writing files.
*In summary, the pro is better suited for building a mirror array or for those use case scenarios where performance consistency maters.

What I expect from the new 850 evo is what Samsung promised with the previous TLC generation and, in my opinion, never delivered: a equivalent cheap alternative to the low endurance already cheap MLC.

 

[SSBrain]

As for lower endurance compared to the 850 Pro: if the Turbowrite SLC buffer of the 850 EVO is at least as smart as the one of the SanDisk Ultra II, it should also be able to significantly reduce write amplification under normal usage patterns, increasing actual endurance. It seems it is indeed the case, as the calculated WA ([Wear Leveling Count × raw NAND capacity] / [Host Writes]) seems to be around 1.0x or less for almost every 840 EVO I've seen SMART parameters of, which is quite low.

But yes, if one is going to hammer the drive with writes, then the 850 Pro will likely have a higher effective write endurance and most of all better performance consistency, compared to its TLC counterpart.

 

[flopper]

looks good, seems to be out 20dec here

 

[SSBrain]

In case people haven't noticed yet, here's Anandtech review of the 850 EVO
http://anandtech.com/show/8747/samsung-ssd-850-evo-review
I guess this thread has ran its course.

 

[Cerb]

I've been seeing higher WA, but still well under 2x, where most fast pure MLCs are nearly 3x, or a bit more, or more, except for very light users. Basically, Samsung and Sandisk have gotten into Sandforce territory, without compression or dedupe. The performance consistency is pretty impressive, not being MLC, as well (one of several nagging issues with the 840 and then 840 Evo). They both should be cheaper, IMO, however, rather then charging a bit of a premium over good MLC drives.

 

[meloz]

Samsung's 850 EVO solid-state drive reviewed (Techreport)

 

[witeken]

Samsung is doing quite good with their TLC and 3D NAND technologies, but they don't yet seem to be cheaper than planar. It looks like 3D will start giving a nice cost advantage in 2015.

 

[Grooveriding]

Anyone aware of retail release date on these drives ?

 

[voodoo7817]

I'm hoping the MSRP's are high and they retail closer to $225 rather than $270. I was able to pass on the crazy deals for other drives this Black Friday, so passing on the EVO at this price is still pretty easy, for me at least. Either way, I think we're not too far away (1 year?) from $100 ~500GB SSDs, which will be a glorious thing.

 

[SSBrain]

I wonder if the high MSRPs mean that we will eventually see a "value" SSD with a bit less warranty and endurance (3 years and 20GB/day) and "ok" performance from Samsung. Perhaps they can manage to shrink their 2D TLC NAND even more, tune TurboWrite mainly for endurance rather than performance, and call such SSD "Samsung 850 Standard" like they did with their SD card lineup.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7928/samsung-releases-standard-evo-and-pro-sd-cards

By the way, what about m.2 and mSATA models? Are Samsung 850 EVO SSDs only offered in 2.5" form factor?

 

[DesiPower]

Its out for per-order on Newegg, release date is 12/10

120 GB - 89.99
250 GB - 139.99
500 GB - 249.99
1 TB - 469.99

Anyone getting it?

 

[meloz]

120 GB - 89.99
250 GB - 139.99
500 GB - 249.99
1 TB - 469.99

Anyone getting it?

Price is disappointing, to me this is the biggest 'feature' that did not improve. Will wait for 250 GB to become more reasonable before buying. Why cannot Samsung match Crucial MX100 in GB/$. Maybe Samsung are trying to make all the profit while they can before the inevitable bloodbath with IMFT and Hynix in 2016.

 

[Wall Street]

Price is disappointing, to me this is the biggest 'feature' that did not improve. Will wait for 250 GB to become more reasonable before buying. Why cannot Samsung match Crucial MX100 in GB/$. Maybe Samsung are trying to make all the profit while they can before the inevitable bloodbath with IMFT and Hynix in 2016.

I think that Samsung, to a certain extent, has the hubris to think that they don't compete with a lot of the other value players. They want to sell to the premium market and actually have margins. It is somewhat like the position that Apple takes in laptops - selling for hundreds more but with a product which is clearly better. Time will tell if this works.

I think that a second factor in this could be that it is the holiday season and demand for this drive, assuming people like what they see, is likely to outstrip whatever modest supply Samsung probably has.

A third factor is that the MSRP is usually set at what these will sell for on real store shelves. After the first wave, the online price will likely drop, but Samsung needs to keep the MSRP high because brick and mortar shops like Best Buy need to sell for a higher price to pay for their higher overhead costs and those shops don't want to be put in the awkward situation of selling for more than MSRP.

 

[DesiPower]

inevitable bloodbath with IMFT and Hynix in 2016.

You mean only one will survive the price war

 

[StrangerGuy]

I think that Samsung, to a certain extent, has the hubris to think that they don't compete with a lot of the other value players. They want to sell to the premium market and actually have margins. It is somewhat like the position that Apple takes in laptops - selling for hundreds more but with a product which is clearly better. Time will tell if this works.

Samsung doesn't have the power to successfully command a premium over their competitors, either lack of key differentiation like having an iOS ecosystem or competitors are offering cheaper "good enough" or sometimes even better products like MX100 or Chinese Android phones.

 

[RaistlinZ]

Samsung doesn't have the power to successfully command a premium over their competitors, either lack of key differentiation like having an iOS ecosystem or competitors are offering cheaper "good enough" or sometimes even better products like MX100 or Chinese Android phones.

If that were true their drives wouldn't as popular as they are.

 

[redzo]

I have to admit that I am impressed by the consistency and performance numbers of the new 850 evo. It is definitely a better drive than the 840 evo and it exceeded my expectations. But the price is so disappointing that it somehow throws all that is good about this drive out the window.