Review The ever so Infamous Samsung PM983 NVMe and all its Glory.

[aigomorla]

As you guys know i am on a never ending quest for uber fast storage at the best price / cap possible, and it has lead me here.
I present you the not so well known to most PM983.

This is a U.2 Form factor NVme.
That means, this will not fit in the typical M.2 slot without the proper adapter.

The ports on the rear look like SATA ports, but they are NVMe/SAS ports so please do not try to plug these guys in a regular SATA port, they wont even fit.
SAS is on the bottom, SATA is on top for visual comparison.

Now the important stuff.
I got the 3.84TB version.
After formating it comes out to around 3.49TB.
The benchmarks i get with it are these: PM983

Compare with a Sammy 960 PRO

Price?
These are Enterprise Class NVMe.
So If you buy them though normal retail channels they will cost you. HOWEVER, i would not be showing them off if they cost a arm and a leg would I?

You can find them heavily discounted on Ebay tho.
I would make sure the listing says NEW as you do not want a used Enterprise Drive from an unknown source.

My price for the Drive was $425 + $25 dollars for the U.2 cable/Adapter. However YMMV... especially with the DRAM hike in prices.
This makes it to me a very good price / cap ratio, especially on a Gen.3 NVMe, as the next contender is the Intel P4500, however good luck finding those guys for under 500 new now.

But my game drive is finally happy again, especially after the xmas binge i did getting RDR2, OuterWorld, and Metro Exodus.
Games are getting ridiculously large these days, and my quest for more storage will never end.

 

[YorchLi]

I've got myself a couple of M.2 PM983 960gb 22110, they are fast but I don't know if the temperatures are safe, it reaches very easily between 60 and 75. It is located close under an Hyper 212 and above a Gpu. I haven't looked at it for longer periods but I'll buy HDD Sentinel Pro to log temperatures.

Any experience with temperatures on your PM983? The temperature reading comes from the Phoenix controller or a sensor close to the NAND?

For some reason, an enormous batch of these arrived the used market all over my city and everyone is starting to sell them.

 

[aigomorla]

I've got myself a couple of M.2 PM983 960gb 22110, they are fast but I don't know if the temperatures are safe, it reaches very easily between 60 and 75. It is located close under an Hyper 212 and above a Gpu. I haven't looked at it for longer periods but I'll buy HDD Sentinel Pro to log temperatures.

Any experience with temperatures on your PM983? The temperature reading comes from the Phoenix controller or a sensor close to the NAND?

For some reason, an enormous batch of these arrived the used market all over my city and everyone is starting to sell them.

I got mine sitting next to a fan.
I did notice it ran pretty hot, but the fan has helped it a lot.

It does not break 40C on a hot day, and currently sitting at 35C as i am typing this.

 

[Billy Tallis]

The high temperatures should be no surprise, since this is an enterprise SSD with none of the low-power idle modes that consumer SSDs get. I have the 983 DCT which is the retail version of the PM983, and it's about 2.7W at idle (for the 960 GB M.2 version).

Also, you guys should get some better software for monitoring these drives. The 983 DCT exposes three separate temperature sensors in addition to the composite temperature that is probably what you're seeing. With a slow fan pointing at the drive, I get 34°C, 49°C and 62°C respectively at idle, and sensor #1 seems to be what the composite temperature rating is based on.

For the composite temperature readout, the drive indicates a warning threshold of 86°C, so seeing 75°C under load (even if that load is a nearby GPU blowing on it) isn't cause for concern—it's not doing thermal throttling yet. (The SMART data for the drive also contains counters for how much time it's spent above the warning and critical temperature thresholds, so you can see if there were overheating events you didn't notice at the time.)

I unplugged the fan blowing near the M.2 drive while running a sustained sequential write test, and temperatures got up to at least 76, 88, and 108 for the three sensors without the drive indicating any problems or showing any slowdown, so it appears that thermal throttling is indeed only determined by that first temperature sensor. I don't know where on the drive each sensor is located.

 

[YorchLi]

Do you have a software recommendation to be able to read all SMART data including the 3 temperature sensors? Samsung Magician doesn't detect this server part as typical consumer ones.

 

[aigomorla]

Also, you guys should get some better software for monitoring these drives.

Yes, bill any software you recommend for these guys?

 

[Micrornd]

VROC !

 

[Kellerkind]

Hey, just dug up this thread via google because I just got this drive (PM983 U.2) but none of the adapter seem to work for me.
Which adapter do you use?

I tried so far M.2 to SFF-8643 + SFF-8643 to U.2/SFF-8639 cable.
Also U.2 PCIe adapter where you screw on the SSD.
Nothing gets recognized.

 

[aigomorla]

Hey, just dug up this thread via google because I just got this drive (PM983 U.2) but none of the adapter seem to work for me.
Which adapter do you use?

I tried so far M.2 to SFF-8643 + SFF-8643 to U.2/SFF-8639 cable.
Also U.2 PCIe adapter where you screw on the SSD.
Nothing gets recognized.

https://www.amazon.com/U-2-M-2-Adapter-Interface-Drive/dp/B073WGN61Y/ref=pd_sbs_147_3/139-2468428-3130260?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B073WGN61Y&pd_rd_r=fc963a95-d095-4c10-96e1-ce218536433f&pd_rd_w=b2FXm&pd_rd_wg=MzJzh&pf_rd_p=ed1e2146-ecfe-435e-b3b5-d79fa072fd58&pf_rd_r=EXGRNN2ERC5Y8C14JP2P&psc=1&refRID=EXGRNN2ERC5Y8C14JP2P

+

Amazon.com: DiLinKer 50CM HD Mini-SAS(SFF-8643) to U.2 (SFF-8639) NVMe SSD Cable: Industrial & Scientific

Buy DiLinKer 50CM HD Mini-SAS(SFF-8643) to U.2 (SFF-8639) NVMe SSD Cable: Mini-SAS Cables - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

I had problems using a pic-e card adapter type.
But the combo i listed above worked as long as its not a boot drive.
I also have a weird issue where i can not go into bios with it connected, so i remove it when i need to get in bios, and then replug it back on after.

 

[Kellerkind]

Thanks for your reply!

I've seen the Datasheets mention an UEFI extension on the controller, maybe that's what's keeping you from entering the BIOS.

I just ordered an Broadcom 9440-8i to test it.
Will report back then.

 

[aigomorla]

Thanks for your reply!

I've seen the Datasheets mention an UEFI extension on the controller, maybe that's what's keeping you from entering the BIOS.

I just ordered an Broadcom 9440-8i to test it.
Will report back then.

That should work as that controller is meant to handle 24 x nVME's with a backplane.
Let me know how it works out...

 

[serpretetsky]

Let me know if hotplug works for you within windows for this drive and if there was anything you had to enable or install to get it to work.

 

[FrostyDostie]

https://www.amazon.com/U-2-M-2-Adapter-Interface-Drive/dp/B073WGN61Y/ref=pd_sbs_147_3/139-2468428-3130260?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B073WGN61Y&pd_rd_r=fc963a95-d095-4c10-96e1-ce218536433f&pd_rd_w=b2FXm&pd_rd_wg=MzJzh&pf_rd_p=ed1e2146-ecfe-435e-b3b5-d79fa072fd58&pf_rd_r=EXGRNN2ERC5Y8C14JP2P&psc=1&refRID=EXGRNN2ERC5Y8C14JP2P

+

Amazon.com: DiLinKer 50CM HD Mini-SAS(SFF-8643) to U.2 (SFF-8639) NVMe SSD Cable: Industrial & Scientific

Buy DiLinKer 50CM HD Mini-SAS(SFF-8643) to U.2 (SFF-8639) NVMe SSD Cable: Mini-SAS Cables - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

I had problems using a pic-e card adapter type.
But the combo i listed above worked as long as its not a boot drive.
I also have a weird issue where i can not go into bios with it connected, so i remove it when i need to get in bios, and then replug it back on after.

Hi I am wondering if I could get your help with a problem of mine. I have a PM983a drive, research says Samsung made this drive for Amazon. I have the M.2 adapter and cable, however; the drive isn't showing up in Bios or Disk Management.

Do you think PM983a is different enough that it wont work?

Thanks for any help given.

 

[Kellerkind]

I never got it to work via M.2 Adapter on my Z170 mainboard, but got it to work on a more recent mainboard.
On my Z170 I am using this PCIe adapter now and it works: https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B08GXYRZP2/

 

[Shmee]

Oh that is neat. Why does it have a SATA cable though? I thought u.2 was over PCIe.

 

[Kellerkind]

The U.2 standard implements all three, SATA, SAS and NVMe.
So if you want to use a SAS or SATA drive in that adapter, it is broken out too.

 

[Micrornd]

As you guys know i am on a never ending quest for uber fast storage at the best price / cap possible, and it has lead me here.
I present you the not so well known to most PM983.

Is there any chance you have the ability to test these in VROC?
I'm considering going that route, but I can't find ANY real world figures to see if it is worth the investment compared to NVMe on PCIe.

 

[aigomorla]

Is there any chance you have the ability to test these in VROC?
I'm considering going that route, but I can't find ANY real world figures to see if it is worth the investment compared to NVMe on PCIe.

unfortunately no...

i don't have a VROC key, nor do i intend on getting one, because i just don't have enough PCI-E lanes as i am running dual video cards to push out 4 monitors.

 

[Micrornd]

i don't have a VROC key, nor do i intend on getting one, because i just don't have enough PCI-E lanes as i am running dual video cards to push out 4 monitors.

PCIe lanes aren't a problem here, 96 with only 20 in use. The VROC key is why I asked, don't want to invest in it unless there is a decent improvement to be had.
Dual video cards and 4 monitors, I'm guessing that is for gaming?
If not, Windows 10 solved watching my workloads problem on my workstation, with a 50" 4k monitor, subdivided into 4 - 1920x1080 screens, the equivalent of 4 independent 24" monitors.