Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSD Review: Fast and Furious

Specifications

• Series: 970 Evo Plus
• Sequential Read/Write speed:3500/2300MB/S
• Item Height: 2 Millimeters
• Item Width: 22 Millimeters
• Item Weight: 9.07 g
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 2.2 x 0.2 cm
• Item model number: MZ-V7S250BW
• Hard Drive Interface: PCIe Gen 3
• Hardware Platform: Desktop, Laptops, Workstations

 

Design

The Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSD is a compact (slightly longer than a typical pen drive) storage module, which can be used on most of the modern laptops, desktops, and workstations. With 9.07 grams of weight, the SSD is light, which makes it easy to carry and move around.

Unlike a typical HDD, there are no moving parts involved in the 970 EVO Plus, which eliminates the chances of mechanical failure. However, do note that this SSD is very light, and even a small amount of pressure can break the SSD, which makes it unusable.

One particular disadvantage that the Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSD or any other M.2 SSD has is the risk of data recovery. If there is physical damage to the stick, it is almost impossible to recover the data from the storage module, unlike HDD, where one can recover the data even from a burnt drive.

Installation

Plug in the SSD into the laptop or desktop, and mount the drive using Disk Management option from the computer management settings. The complete process will take less than five minutes.

Samsung also bundles Samsung Magician software (available from Samsung's website), which can be used for advanced drive management. Using Samsung Magician, one can update the driver, check the health status of the drive, and also offers a built-in benchmark tool.

Performance

The Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSD is probably the fastest SSDs that I have used in the recent time. On CrystalDiskMark 6, the drive offers a sequential read speed of 3573 MB/s or 3.5 GB/s and a write speed of 2367 MB/s or 2.3 GB/s. These numbers are higher than Samsung's claimed numbers. Do note that, the read and write speeds also depend on the motherboard and the processor used in the computer or laptop.

If we compare these numbers to a typical HDD with 5400 RPM, the Samsung 970 EVO Plus offers more than 10x faster read and write speeds. Ex: A 1 TB 3.5-inch 5400 RPM HDD provides 267 MB/s read, and 260 MB/s write speeds.

Real world test

These benchmark results are useful for textbook comparison. In the real world, there will be a lot of parameters, which will have a massive effect on the read and write speeds. I copied a big (60 GB) file from an HDD to the SSD with an average write speed of 140 MB/s, whereas, when I copied the same data within the SSD, I got an average write speed of 400 MB/s.

Do note that the file that I copied is a single ISO package, and copying a file or folder with different content will further reduce the data writing speeds. If you have two SSDs, then you can get faster data replication on both the disks.

Summary

As claimed by Samsung, the Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSD offers faster read and write speeds, consumes less power and space compared to a typical HDD, and is easy to install as well.

The Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSD is meant to be used as a primary storage device for your laptop or computer by installing the OS and the most used apps. In terms of gaming, the SSD might not showcase a significant improvement (which entirely depends on CPU and GPU). However, the Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSD will offer faster boot-time compared to an HDD or even a 2.5-inch SATA SSD.

The Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSD will be useful for those, who edits a lot of 4K or 2K videos, which requires drives with faster read and write speeds. If your computer or laptop or slowing down, then the Samsung 970 EVO Plus M.2 SSD can resurrect it, given your device has an M.2 SSD slot.