SAMSUNG 840 EVO 2.5" 500GB SATA III TLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7TE500BW

Pros: I very much like this drive. Why do we still call it a drive?

I went with the 840 EVO 500GB SSD because I felt the price was competitive, the 840 series as a whole has been getting stellar professional reviews, and, although relatively new, the the EVO itself has gotten stellar professional reviews. Samsung has made a name for itself as a quality SSD maker using its own technology.

Based on a professional review that performed a long-term and intense stress test using an 840 (not the EVO, but same technology), my concerns about the lifespan of an SSD has been put to rest. The test was to determine if the Samsung’s TLC chips had a shorter lifespan compared to the industry standard of the MLC. That’s the reason for the test, but the results are what’s interesting. Using the calculations from the tests, an average consumer can expect 75 years before the chips begin to fail. Under continuous extreme circumstances it will last about 23 years. I’m certain there will be new technology by then, so I don’t plan on having this SSD that long and I’m not going to tip-toe around this drive. I’m going to use and abuse this like I did my old 10,000 rpm hard drive.

I do very much like the Samsung Magician software that manages the drive. It’s polished and user-friendly. I used the one-click OS Optimization feature to apply all of the settings to get the best performance. There are four options for OS optimizations: performance, capacity, reliability, and the advance tab allows you to tweak as you see fit. You can also over-provision using this tool, but since I’ve only used less than 30% of my drive, I’m not going to worry about securing dedicated space for the controller just yet. Another reason why I went with the 500GB drive. I felt it was worth the money to not be constantly concerned with how much space I have left.

The sequential read and write speeds are working as advertised, but I’m having an issue with the random read and writes which I mention in the cons, but I’m confident I can get that worked out.

I read the professional reviews on performance, lifespan, and the new Rapid mode. I encourage you to do the same… or you can take my word for it and hit the add to cart button. Go ahead. I can see you’re so close to clicking the button. Do it! Do it now!

Cons: I had with the random read/write IOPS (see other thoughts) and I attempted to contact Samsung support about an issue by email from their site, but the product selection form doesn’t display any options after the “Memory & Storage” selection. The same goes for chat. I emailed the webmaster reporting the issue, but it turns out you have to call for SSD support. That’s so 90’s and I hate the press 1, 4, 6, 8, 1 again, and enter the 40 alphanumeric serial number. I’m kidding. I haven’t tried the phone system yet. Phone support can be so time consuming.

Overall Review: I had an issue in which I could not enable Rapid mode. The Samsung Magician software showed that I didn’t meet the minimum CPU requirements of 1.0GHz. It was showing that my CPU was 0.8GHz. It turns out my motherboard BIOS was reporting both the max and min of my Haswell CPU speed as 800MHz instead 3500MHZ for max. Once I updated the BIOS, the maximum speed was corrected and the minimum requirements for Rapid mode was met.

I had an issue with achieving the advertised random read and write IOPS. The sequential read and writes performance test exceeded the advertise speed, but the random IOPS were about 30-40% lower than expected. After some forum searching I underestimated the importance of using the right driver. It turns out using the manufacturer’s SATA controller driver instead of Microsoft’s default ACHI driver makes a huge difference. My motherboard’s controller needed the Intel Rapid Storage Technology driver to use its full potential. Once I installed that driver, the sequential read/writes went up a little bit, but the IOPS exceeded the advertised speeds by a huge margin. No matter which SSD you go with, I recommend using the motherboard’s recommended SATA controller driver.

I used a popular independent performance testing software to do benchmarking. Using Microsoft’s default ACHI driver, the drive scored on par with comparable SSDs. Using the appropriate Intel RST driver, the SSD exceeding the scores other comparable SSDs. When I enabled Rapid mode, the graph for my EVO dwarfed all of the comparables by a mile. The performance tester isn’t real world and I didn’t really notice the change after Rapid mode. It is already an extremely fast drive with the correct SATA drivers, but the benchmarks sure looked pretty.

I’ve read a few professional reviews that stated the Rapid mode does not make everything run faster. There are a few test scenarios that showed it reduce speed, but these are predefined tests and not real world uses either. The caching requires up to 1GB of RAM which is acceptable and a very slight increase in CPU utilization was noted by the reviews. Keep in mind that this is based on what I’ve read and not what I’ve experienced.

A 3.5” bracket and screws do not come with this package. It contains the SSD and software disc.

I am very happy with this purchase and intend on buying another later. When the time comes to upgrade my wife’s PC, I intend on getting the 1TB version for her. She has so much stuff. I think she catalogs her shoes or something.

Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz LGA 1150 Quad-Core CPU
Corsair Hydro Series H100i CPU Water Cooler
Asus Maximus VI Hero Motherboard
G.SKILL Trident X Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 2400 Memory
MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 770 TF 2GD5/OC Video Card
Samsung 840 EVO 500GB SSD
Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold Series 1000W Power Supply
Corsair Obsidian Series 550D Black Case

Pros: None.

Cons: 500GB Drive failed after a few months. No big deal, tech breaks. Good thing I have a 3 year warranty. I filled out the Samsung online RMA request and sent the drive into a South Carolina address specified in the RMA ticket. Shipping tracking confirmed delivery at the address. More than 2 weeks after the drive was delivered, I receive an automated email from Samsung stating that they never received my drive. I call Samsung support. They say "oh, sorry, the online RMA program generates the wrong address in South Carolina. The address your drive was sent to is an empty building. You should have sent the drive to New Jersey. This happens all the time. You need to call USPS and have them see if they can pick up the drive from the empty building and deliver it to us in New Jersey." Seriously! I say "I sent the drive to the location listed on the RMA ticket" and they respond "yeah, sorry. The Samsung website is wrong and this happens all them time." I say "this is Samsung's problem to fix, not my problem. I sent the drive where Samsung told me to send it. Send me a replacement drive" to which they say "we are a third-party service provider and we are not Samsung. We cannot do that. Sorry." I say, "please give me the contact number for someone actually at Samsung to talk to" to which they say "we are not allowed to give out Samsung's contact information. Sorry."

So now I have no drive, it is apparently sitting in an empty building where everyone else sends their RMA drives. There must be a pile of them there because that's where the Samsung RMA system tells everyone to send their drives and Samsung's only point of contact, a third-party repair vendor, won't give me the contact information for anyone actually as Samsung. Incredible! Why doesn't Samsung (1) fix their RMA website so that drives go to the correct location, and (2) send a Samsung representative to the South Carolina location to collect all the RMA drives sitting on the floor of this empty building.

This is so ridiculous. I can't believe it.

Overall Review: So frustrated.