Solid state drives are marching victoriously around the world. Flash drives have many advantages, and now they have added the availability of large drives up to 1TB. In addition, devices of the middle and higher category are durable, as evidenced by the large warranty indicated by the manufacturers. And it would seem that all that remains is to buy a module, install and transfer the OS. However, not everything is as simple as we would like. Optimum performance and long drive life can only be achieved with the right settings. In the first part of the article, we talk about the parameters of the most popular types of solid state drives.

The type of nonvolatile memory device is determined by the protocol used to transfer the data. At first glance, the difference may be almost imperceptible. Using the conventional AHCI engine, data rates reach 550 MB / s, and the new NVMe specification up to 4000, with shorter response times and improved concurrency. Drives supporting these protocols are available in a variety of form factors. For AHCI, this is a traditional 2.5 '' case with a SATA connector and an M.2 module with a so-called key B. For NVMe, the most popular form factor is M.2 with an M.

In the second part of the article, we will talk about the capabilities of solid state drives. To do this, we created a RAID 0 array from two high-speed storage media. However, before trying to break records, it is worth trying to achieve optimal performance on a regular solid state drive.

We connect correctly
The first M.2 port (highlighted in yellow) shares bandwidth with SATA ports 5-6. If the second M.2 port (highlighted in red) is used for AHCI storage, it uses the bandwidth of the SATA 1-2 ports - along with the NVMe drive in the M.2 slot

Optimal use of M.2 solid state drives

M.2 drives are high-speed and compact (22x80mm) ideal for mobile computers. However, M.2 modules do not fit into all computers, in addition, NVMe and AHCI are two different protocols. If you follow the recommendations consistently, you will quickly find the drive that is best suited for your PC.

In the user manual or in the technical specifications on the website of the desktop motherboard manufacturer, you will find information about the possibility and conditions of installing an M.2 form factor drive.

Customization
NVMe drives work best with manufacturer drivers. In addition, you need to set this checkbox in the drive settings (in the device manager)

The M.2 slot is provided on motherboards for Haswell / Broadwell generations of processors (LGA 1150 socket) and above, but, as a rule, data transfer on older motherboards is carried out in only two PCIe 2.0 lanes, which is why the speed cannot exceed one gigabytes per second. In addition, it is often found that UEFI does not support NVMe devices or there are no drivers for them, so you will most likely need to purchase an M.2 module with AHCI or a regular SATA drive.

Starting with Skylake, the motherboard chipset supports four PCIe 3.0 lanes, which together provide speeds up to 4 GB / s. If at the same time Windows 10 is installed on the computer, nothing prevents you from placing an M.2 module with NVMe support. The installer and Windows 7 and 8 lacks USB drivers for the Skylake platform or NVMe drives, making installation doubly difficult. Before installing the module, pay attention to which interfaces the M.2 slot shares bandwidth resources with: SATA connectors may not be available when an M.2 AHCI drive is connected, and an M.2 NVMe drive may use the bandwidth of one of the PCIe slots. Check the user manual and, if necessary, connect other drives or video cards to the free slots.

Windows 10 reaches optimal boot speed only if the computer boots in UEFI mode and the Fast Boot option is activated

On a laptop, it can be more difficult to determine compatibility with an M.2 drive and its protocol, since the manufacturers do not publish such data. Therefore, you often have to scour the Internet, hammering in the search for the marking of the computer and "M.2". If you find a laptop in the same lineup with an M.2 drive, it's a sign of compatibility. However, the M.2 module is worth buying only after you disassemble the laptop and examine the M.2 slot. It can be used to determine the length of a suitable module (42, 60, 80 or 110 mm - form factors are designated "M.2 2242", "M.2 2260", etc.). When in doubt, grab an AHCI M.2 module for your laptop. This memory can be identified by the fact that it is also available in the 2.5-inch form factor with SATA, for example, the Samsung 850 Evo, Crucial MX300 or SanDisk X400.

Optimizing OS for NVMe

Disable autoloading unnecessary software
Despite using a fast storage device, unnecessary programs that run with the system slow down the boot process. In Task Manager (Windows 10) or from the System Configuration app, disable all unnecessary startup programs

For new drives that run on NVMe, in any case, you need an appropriate driver. Windows 10 has it by default, so you shouldn't have any problems installing and configuring your SSD. For the best boot speed and performance, you need to install Windows 10 in UEFI Pure Mode. From the boot menu, select the installation media in UEFI mode (instead of "USB" or "SATA"). When creating logical partitions for the system storage, make sure that the installer creates a GUID partition table. So in the UEFI Boot settings, the Fast Boot or Ultra Boot options will be available, which will reduce the startup time to the welcome screen to a few seconds.

NVMe drives work with Windows 10 drivers, but really only overclock with drivers from their manufacturer, so it's better to choose such a drive from a major manufacturer with good software support (Samsung, Intel, Toshiba, OCZ) and install their latest drivers. For Windows 7 and 8, install the manufacturer's drivers during reinstallation.

SSD and motherboards with SATA 3Gb / s ports

A SATA SSD can dramatically speed up your PC, even if it's only equipped with legacy SATA 3Gb / s ports. Only the following points need to be considered:

> Speeds over 300 MB / s not a single SATA 3Gb / s drive will reach. The new drives with a SATA 6Gb / s connector are backward compatible with older ports, but the speed will be limited to 3Gb / s minus the overhead.

> In BIOS Setup, you need to activate the AHCI mode. IDE mode, which is often preinstalled on older computers, takes away a lot of performance from the solid state drive. During system startup, open BIOS Setup and look for the desired parameter, for example, in the "Peripherals ... SATA Controller" section.

> Very old solid state drives(e.g. Intel X25-E and earlier, Samsung before 470) do not support the TRIM command, so the disk cannot physically delete unnecessary data, resulting in a significant loss of performance as a result of heavy use. To bring such a drive to life, you can create a backup copy of the data, then use the Live Linux distribution to roll it back to factory settings and transfer the backup back.

Switch to NVMe storage

If the AS SSD Benchmark in the upper left corner for the "1024K" parameter does not display "OK", you need to correct the partition alignment

If you want to transfer your Windows 7 or 8 system to a new computer with NVMe drive, first connect the old hard drive as a SATA system drive to the new computer, boot from it and install the missing drivers (for chipset, network adapters, USB controllers, etc. .). If Windows asks for reactivation, do not perform it yet.

First, insert the NVMe drive and install the drivers for it from the manufacturer's website. Then transfer your operating system to the NVMe drive using manufacturer-provided transfer media or imaging software. Carefully check the alignment of the partitions in relation to the block sizes (see screenshot on the left) to ensure maximum drive performance and life. And only when the computer starts up without problems from the NVMe drive, activate Windows.

We increase the speed

Bundle of two high-speed solid state drives
The Gigabyte Z270X-Gaming 7 motherboard is equipped with two M.2 slots, on which we created a RAID 0 array consisting of two Samsung 960 Pro drives: higher speeds are currently not possible

After migrating Windows to an SSD, everything should run faster, unless you have been using the system for a long time or have too many programs installed. If the system performance has not increased even on a solid-state drive, it is possible that some programs got into startup and system services and slow down the OS.

To clean them, open the System Configuration app in Windows. On the "Services" tab, activate the "Do not display Microsoft services" option, then uncheck the checkboxes of all services that are not related to your antivirus or devices, without which you cannot work. Do the same on the "Startup" tab. On Windows 10, startup redirects to the Task Manager, where programs are disabled from the right-click context menu.

Diagnostics of the drive using utilities from the manufacturer helps to determine its status

For owners of SATA drives, especially those that are not new, it is recommended to check the status of the device using the manufacturer's tools (for example, Samsung Magician, Crucial Storage Executive, Intel SSD Toolbox) or the Tool SSD Life utility. Programs not only assess the state of the disk, but also predict the time of failure, displaying the value of SMART. Of particular importance is the attribute called Reallocated Sector Count (or similar), which reflects the number of operations to reassign sectors that contain errors.

Results are calculated based on the increase in wear on a scale from the maximum value (100 or 255) to the threshold (for example, 10 or 0) at which the drive stops working. But these are only predictions and theory, because in reality even drives whose SMART values ​​were within the normal range can unexpectedly fail, and vice versa - drives with critical values ​​(more than 20-30% wear against the initial values) can work for a very long time.

However, you should be aware of the potential for disk failure and make regular backups. It is also useful to conduct testing (for example, using AS SSD Benchmark) and compare the results with the data of the same drives, looking for reviews on the Internet: if your drive is significantly slower or the system as a whole is unstable, the drive may need to be replaced.

Chasing speed records

Setting up a RAID array
To be able to boot from a RAID array, you need to configure it at the hardware level in UEFI

Faster than an NVMe SSD, a dual-drive RAID 0 array works where the system writes and reads information from two drives simultaneously. If you tackle the hardware RAID configuration in BIOS / UEFI and walk through the Windows setup, you can get the same transfer rates on the two available SATA drives as on the entry-level NVMe drive. We want to combine in this way two high-speed NVMe drives and break speed records.

Creating a RAID Array

For Windows, Intel RAID Drivers and Intel Rapid Storage Branded Software must be installed

The first hurdle in the pursuit of an NVMe RAID array is hardware. The motherboard should have two NVMe slots, and the ability to combine them using the RAID function of the Intel chipset. In addition, the system after this procedure must also boot. In principle, top-end motherboards with Intel Z170 chipsets and the latest Z270 (for Kaby Lake processors) can cope with this task.

We installed two Samsung 960 Pro SSDs on the Gigabyte Z270X Gaming 7 motherboard. Next, we needed to set up hardware RAID in UEFI. In the early version of the motherboard firmware, along the way, I had to perform a small task: it was necessary to first activate the RAID mode of the SATA controller, and only then in the menu item “Peripheral | EZ Raid ”, we were able to combine both NVMe drives into a RAID 0 array, which received twice the capacity of a single drive.

The RAID array was ready in a few clicks. To install Windows 10, we copied the Intel Rapid Storage program from the disk that came with the motherboard to a USB flash drive. When during installation it was necessary to select the system drive, we loaded the driver by clicking the corresponding button, after which the array associated with the Intel controller was identified as the destination drive.

During the UEFI installation process that we launched, the system automatically boots from a RAID array, which is used even in the current mode of operation as a regular drive. But due to the fact that now the operating system communicates only with the Intel controller for RAID, and not directly with the drives, we were not able to use the Samsung driver for NVMe, thanks to which the 960 Pro's potential could fully manifest itself, and this slightly affected speed.

RAID 0: Benefits and Benchmarks

With the correct UEFI settings, our test system boots in less than ten seconds. The complete installation of LibreOffice, along with 7000 files, took 21 seconds. The benchmarks (see above) give numbers in numbers for the performance of the RAID array, as well as its limit. The limit is because instead of a theoretical increase in speed of 100% compared to a separate disk, we got only a 20% increase in read speed and 32% in writing.

We were able to achieve greater speed using a rather useless method in practice: using an adapter, we connected a second solid-state drive to the PCIe slot for video cards, then booted from the third SATA solid-state drive and combined both NVMe media with Samsung drivers in Windows into one software

M.2 to PCIe adapter
If required, the M.2 SSD can be plugged into a PCIe x4 slot using an adapter

RAID array. Such an array (which, however, is not suitable for use as a disk for booting the system) outstripped a single drive by 43% in reading and as much as 82% in writing.

The results of a simple but rather quick test of ATTO Disk Benchmark showed that the speed of even this combination will not exceed 4 GB / s. This is the maximum bandwidth of the DMI bus between the processor and the chipset. Intel must make urgent decisions to restructure the platform to support the massive transfer rates of NVMe-compatible drives.

Samsung released the first M.2 NVMe SSDs to end users a year ago, the 950 Pro. The next device - 960 Pro - significantly increased its speed compared to the first one. In terms of price per gigabyte, the 960 Evo drive is interesting, and it hardly lags behind the Pro model.

PHOTO: CHIP Studios; manufacturing companies

Tags RAID arrays

Let's talk about how to set up an SSD for Windows 10. It's easy to start: in most cases, you don't need to tweak and optimize your solid-state drives for a new OS. Moreover, according to Microsoft support staff, independent optimization attempts can harm both the operation of the system and the disk itself. Just in case, for those who accidentally come:.

However, some of the nuances should still be taken into account, and at the same time, things related to how SSD drives work in Windows 10, we will talk about them. The last section of the article also contains information of a more general nature (but useful) related to the operation of solid-state drives at the hardware level and applicable to other versions of the OS.

Many have noticed that by default automatic optimization (in previous versions of the OS - defragmentation) is enabled for SSDs in Windows 10, and someone rushed to disable it, someone to study what is happening during the process.

In general terms, Windows 10 does not defragment the SSD, but optimizes it by clearing blocks using TRIM (or rather Retrim), which is not harmful, but even useful for solid state drives. Just in case, .

Some have written lengthy articles on how SSD optimization works in Windows 10. To quote part of such an article (only the most important parts to understand) from Scott Hanselman:

I dug a little deeper and spoke with the development team working on implementing drives on Windows, and this post is written exactly as they answered the question.

Drive Optimization (on Windows 10) defragments the SSD once a month if Volume Shadow Copy (System Protection) is enabled. This is due to the performance impact of SSD fragmentation. There is a misconception here that fragmentation is not an issue for SSDs - if the SSD is highly fragmented, you can achieve maximum fragmentation where the metadata cannot represent more file fragments, leading to errors when trying to write or increase the file size. In addition, more file fragments means more metadata needs to be processed to read / write a file, which leads to performance losses.

As far as Retrim is concerned, this command runs on a schedule and is necessary because of the way the TRIM command is executed on file systems. The command is executed asynchronously in the file system. When a file is deleted or space is otherwise freed, the file system queues the TRIM request. Due to peak load constraints, this queue can reach the maximum number of TRIM requests, causing subsequent ones to be ignored. Further, Windows Drive Optimization automatically performs Retrim to clean up blocks.

Summarizing:

• Defragmentation is performed only if system protection is enabled (restore points, file history using VSS).
• Disk optimization is used to tag unused blocks on SSDs that were not tagged when TRIM was running.
• Defragmentation for SSD can be needed and automatically applied when needed. At the same time (this is from another source), a different defragmentation algorithm is used for solid-state drives compared to HDD.

However, if you want, you can.

What features to disable for SSD and is it necessary

Anyone who has wondered how to configure an SSD for Windows has come across tips related to disabling SuperFetch and Prefetch, disabling the paging file or moving it to another drive, disabling system protection, hibernating and indexing disk contents, transferring folders, temporary files, and more to other drives. by disabling disk write caching.

Some of these tips come from Windows XP and 7 and do not apply to Windows 10 and Windows 8 or new SSDs (disabling SuperFetch, write caching). Most of these tips can actually reduce the amount of data written to the disk (and the SSD has a limitation on the total amount of data written over its entire lifespan), which in theory leads to an increase in its lifespan. But: through the loss of performance, convenience when working with the system, and in some cases to failures.

Here I note that despite the fact that the service life of an SSD is considered to be less than that of an HDD, it is highly likely that a solid-state drive of an average price bought today for normal use (games, work, the Internet) in a modern OS and in the presence of reserve capacity (for no loss performance and life extension, it is worth keeping 10-15 percent of the space on the SSD free and this is one of the tips that is relevant and correct) will last longer than you need (i.e. it will be eventually replaced with a more modern and capacious one). The screenshot below is my SSD, it is used for a year. Pay attention to the "Total recorded" column, 300 Tb guarantee.

And now for the points about the various ways to optimize the operation of SSDs in Windows 10 and the appropriateness of their use. Once again, these settings can only marginally increase the lifespan, but will not improve performance.

Note: I will not consider such an optimization method as installing programs on the HDD with an SSD, since then it is not clear why a solid-state drive was purchased at all - is it not for the quick launch and operation of these programs?

Disable paging file

The most common advice is to disable the Windows paging file (virtual memory) or move it to another drive. The second option will cause a drop in performance, since a slow HDD will be used instead of a fast SSD and RAM.

The first option (disabling the paging file) is very controversial. Indeed, computers with 8 or more GB of RAM in many tasks can work with the paging file disabled (but some programs may not start or detect malfunctions, for example, from Adobe products), thereby maintaining a reserve of the solid-state drive (fewer write operations occur ).

At the same time, it should be borne in mind that in Windows the paging file is used in such a way as to access it as little as possible, depending on the size of the available RAM. According to Microsoft, the read-to-write ratio for the paging file in normal use is 40: 1, i.e. a significant number of writes do not occur.

It is also worth adding that SSD manufacturers such as Intel, Samsung recommend leaving the paging file enabled. And one more note: some tests (two years ago, really) show that disabling the paging file for unproductive cheap SSDs can lead to an increase in their performance. See if you suddenly decide to try.

Disable hibernation

The next possible setting is disabling hibernation, which is also used for the Windows 10 quick start function. The hiberfil.sys file written to disk when the computer or laptop is turned off (or hibernated) and used for subsequent quick start takes up several gigabytes on the drive (approximately equal to the occupied amount of RAM on the computer).

For laptops, disabling hibernation, especially if it is in use (for example, it automatically turns on after a while after closing the laptop lid) may be impractical and lead to inconvenience (the need to turn off and on the laptop) and reduced battery life (fast startup and hibernation can save battery power) compared to conventional switching).

System protection

Restore points automatically created by Windows 10, as well as File History, when you enable the corresponding function, of course, are written to disk. In the case of SSDs, some recommend disabling system protection.

Some include Samsung, which recommends doing this in both its Samsung Magician utility and the official SSD manual. At the same time, it is indicated that backups can cause a large number of background processes to run and decrease performance, although in fact system protection only works when changes are made to the system and during computer idle time.

Intel does not recommend this for its SSDs. Just like Microsoft does not recommend disabling system protection. And I would not: a significant number of readers of this site could fix computer problems many times faster if they had Windows 10 protection enabled.

Read more about enabling, disabling and checking the status of system protection in the article.

Transferring files and folders to other HDDs

Another suggested option for optimizing SSD performance is to move custom folders and files, temporary files, and other components to a regular hard drive. As in the previous cases, this can reduce the amount of data recorded while reducing performance (when transferring temporary files and cache storage) or usability (for example, when creating thumbnails of photos from custom folders transferred to the HDD).

However, if there is a separate capacious HDD in the system, it may make sense to store really large media files (movies, music, some resources, archives) that do not need frequent access on it, thereby freeing up space on the SSD and extending the period service.

Superfetch and Prefetch, Indexing Disk Content, Write Caching, and Flushing the Write Cache Buffer

There are some ambiguities with these functions, different manufacturers give different recommendations, which, I think, should be familiarized with on the official sites.

According to Microsoft, Superfetch and Prefetch have been successfully used for SSDs as well, the functions themselves have changed and work differently in Windows 10 (and in Windows 8) when using solid state drives. Samsung, on the other hand, believes that this feature is not used by SSDs. Cm. .

About the write cache buffer in general, the recommendations boil down to "leave it on", but the clearing of the cache buffer differs. Even within the same manufacturer: Samsung Magician recommends disabling the write cache buffer, and their official website says about this that it is recommended to keep it enabled.

Well, about indexing the contents of disks and the search service, I don't even know what to write. Search in Windows is a very effective and useful thing to work with, however, even in Windows 10, where the search button is visible, almost no one uses it, out of habit looking for the desired items in the start menu and multilevel folders. In the context of SSD optimization, disabling disk indexing is not particularly effective - it is more read operation than write.

General principles of optimizing SSD performance in Windows

Up to this point, it has mainly been about the relative uselessness of manual SSD settings in Windows 10. However, there are some nuances that are equally applicable to all brands of solid state drives and OS versions:

Perhaps that's all for now. The general result of the article: in general, you do not need to do anything with a solid-state drive in Windows 10 unless it is clearly necessary. If you have just purchased an SSD, then the instruction may be interesting and useful to you. However, more appropriate in this case, in my opinion, would be a clean installation of the system.

To be honest, the interface of the proprietary utility does not shine with clarity, and in the process of studying the settings, I was often not sure what would happen after pressing the magic button. To begin with, in accordance with the vectors of discussion in the comments, I would formulate these configurations in a simpler way:

• Speed
• Save space
• Life extension

This is how the categories in the pivot table are titled, where, along with a clear presentation of Samsung configurations, I added standard Windows settings and my recommendations.

Selected optimization parameters

Let's break down the optimization parameters in the same order as the previous myths.

Superfetch

Meanwhile, if there is an HDD in the Windows system, it does not disable the service, applying logical prefetching to launch applications from all disks. If you do not run programs from the HDD, SuperFetch will do nothing for you, but disabling the service will not speed up anything either.

Swap File (FP)

For maximum performance, Samsung recommends using the standard Windows settings, relying entirely on the system. To save space or extend the life of the drive, it is recommended to set the original FP size to 200MB and the maximum to 1GB.

In the comments of the blog and forum, I have repeatedly seen the opinion that with N gigabytes of RAM, FP is not needed at all. It always seems strange to me, because it throws the tasks performed on the PC out of the equation.

If you have an excess of physical memory (for example, 16GB on VKontakte), you do not need FP. But if, on top of that, you run a couple of virtual machines at the same time with 8GB of RAM, you will be pleasantly surprised by the fast swap of the SSD. I have exactly the second case, and I use swap files on the two SSDs of the size of the system's choice.

Hibernation

Samsung suggests turning hibernation off to save space and reduce disk write volumes, but not for maximum performance. Moreover, the advanced settings say that hibernation should work on mobile PCs. As for stationary computers, sleep is enough for them.

System protection

Here Samsung's recommendations go against the standard Windows settings and my advice is not to disable system protection. In the utility for all three configurations, the reason is “a large number of background processes that can degrade system performance”.

System protection does not reduce the performance of Windows as a whole (and "a large number" in general was invented by the translator :). Of course, the installation of drivers and some programs will take a little longer, since you need to create a point, but on an SSD this is almost invisible. And according to the schedule, restore points are created during system inactivity, so performance is not affected in any way.

In the help of the utility, another reason is given - "unnecessary writing to the SSD media", but I will not comment on this anymore.

Write cache buffer and clearing it

I have not considered these settings as a myth, but here Samsung's recommendations match the standard Windows settings. The "Policy" tab in the properties of the disk device should look like this:

I deliberately cited the picture, since the parameter that controls the clearing of the buffer is very poorly described in the Russian system (double negation). On the other hand, Samsung Magician uses the opposite logic of explanation, although the essence is the same. But I pressed the buttons just in case to make sure :)

Other parameters

Of the other settings, only the power plan is listed. Curiously, high performance is recommended in all configurations, but the Life Extension Kit suddenly remarks that mobile owners can choose other modes as well.

Samsung does not stoop to minor tweaks like disabling 8.3, nor does the utility contain recommendations for transferring everything to the hard drive (at best, they should be included in the kit to save space or extend the service life).

Whom to believe?

From the table above, you can clearly see that in terms of maximum performance, most of the recommendations from Microsoft and Samsung are the same. The only exceptions are related to the unaffected SuperFetch and system protection, which I disagree with disabling.

photo credit: CollegeDegrees360

Microsoft

The creators of Windows customize it for the variety of hardware and many scenarios for using the OS. Therefore, the default system configuration may not be appropriate for your case. But more often than not, it is not aligned with people's perceptions of working effectively on Windows, or it is sacrificed for old habits.

As I noted in the "myths", when setting up a system to run on an SSD, it is important not to reduce its performance and the speed of its work, which often happens with sweeping optimization.

SSD manufacturers

Their advice on saving space and extending the lifespan of a drive often goes hand in hand, and Samsung's only difference is the index setting. They are perfect for desktop PC owners who fundamentally disable system protection and cannot speed up their work using Windows Search.

This blog

It is imperative to listen to the manufacturer of the device, but do not blindly believe in his approach, because it is not always perfect.

about the author

Perhaps I did not understand something, but it seems to me alone that the article is about nothing?
At first I was delighted, I thought I would learn something new!
In my opinion, everything has already been chewed up in a wonderful article by the respected Vadim "12 immortal SSD optimization myths", and here continuous references to that article, and repetitions, are simply written, in other words.
P.S. This is purely my IMHO, but expected more. Apparently I got used to the most detailed, thoughtful articles of the author :)

Andrey

plextor m5p 256gb

there is a proprietary utility, but did not use it - there is nothing sensible in it

Dmitriy

Good reminder for SSD owners. Repetition is the mother of learning.:-). From myself I will say that not all "mushrooms are equally useful", I mean that the use of utilities (with the exception of drivers) from the manufacturer are necessary in cases of some problems with the "hardware".

Alexey

Well, thank you! I just installed a Samsung SSD on a new system and was amazed at Samsung's recommendations - but postponed the study "for later" and generally forgot. And here everything has already been sorted out :)
The survey lacks the item "For common sense": D although for me it coincides with the "standard settings".

Yuri

I bought an SSD for a note. Kingston, I think V-300. And speed memory is kingston harper too. I don’t remember exactly, because I’m afraid to use it, and there’s no particular need yet. I just know that all the garbage is collected in my Temp folder. Configured and installed a familiar computer builder. My music was weak, but cheap and small, at that time there was no money with it. the disk is split into two. I put AVZ, Glary portable and CCleaner on C, thought about it and deleted the last one. True, it seemed to me that the music began to work more slowly. Glary used it once. I don’t remember if I used avz and CCleaner, it seems not. I have a seven, auto-update is on. Why it became slower - from updates or from them - I did not understand. I have a seven. I don't like the 8th. Now I would not buy ssd. Working big. The creators make programs, including Windows, for themselves. It's like someone else's cat ran into the house, zero attention to me, does what he wants, pissing on the walls, and so on. I am a literary man, without a computer in any way and with him some crap.

Valery

Silicon Power Slim S70 SP240GB. I have never seen a proprietary utility, even if it exists. After the purchase, I just stuck it in and installed Win8 there, without configuring anything specifically for the SSD. There is an old hard drive nearby for storing rarely used and large files.
The SSD is used for everything in addition to the system. All programs, games are put there, torrents are downloaded.
The flight has been excellent for a year now.
I use a hard drive only when absolutely necessary - after SSD, HDDs work very unpleasantly, slowly and noisily.

Denis

OCZ Vertex 4 120Gb + 2 HDDs for 1Tb each.
In my opinion, there were no utilities other than the firmware update utility. From the very beginning I put off studying the settings and tweaks "for later", and after reading the "Myths" I realized that leaving the default settings was the right decision.

Valery

Valery

Yes. CDI miscalculates NAND WRITES, halving the value. And in the latest versions of Plextool, the HOST WRITES indicator has been removed from the smart so that users do not ask "stupid" questions. Only HOST READS remains.

Anton

SSD from intel on freshly installed win 7 disabled only the swap file (for 32gb of RAM) and hibernation (because I don't use it), the program from Intel asks for more Prefetch and SuperFetch to be disabled, but I don't see the point in that.

Vitaly K. ©

I did not find an item for myself. You probably know my settings disk better than me)))
I read something on the Internet, and I came to something myself. As a result, I screwed on the trim, turned off the pumping and put the pace on the ramdisk. Long work is ensured to the disk - still 100% health.

Basil

SSD Intel 520 Series 180GB
The system has two drives, the HDD, in turn, is divided into 250 (I keep Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 on it, and some programs, for example Photoshop) and 450 (for torrents and other garbage) GB.
There is a utility, with the help of it I did the optimization, which Intel recommends to do once a week, everything else is by default. I think it's worth it all the same or not to disable the paging file, with 16 gigabytes of RAM ....

Valery

Vadim Sterkin Valery, wait a minute, how does CDI generally tell the difference between Host Writes and Nand Writes? This can be a SMART indicator, and then WA = NW / HW can be output.

Yes. There are corresponding S.M.A.R.T parameters. For Plextor drives it is 0xB1 (Wear Leveling Count).

NW = (B1 Decimal Value) * (Drive Capacity / 2) - value in megabytes (relevant for M2, M3 and M5S of the old revision)

NW = (B1 Decimal Value) * (Drive Capacity) - value in megabytes (relevant for M5P and M5S new revision)

CDI counts using the old formula.

Vadim Sterkin: The same SF have no NW, on the cr. at least in my drive and the Kingston SMART specs.

There is. It's just that in HyperX, the smart is poorer and the values ​​are considered a little differently. The KC300 has 100 / 0x64 (Gigabytes Erased) and 177 / 0xB1 (Wear Range Delta) - http://www.overclockers.ru/images/lab/2013/11/02/1/512_big.jpg.

Sergey

Moved the system from HDD a year ago, Crucial SSD 120 Gb. There is no proprietary utility. Accordingly, the system and most of the programs on the SSD. After transferring the system, I checked the settings, they coincided with your Vadim recommendations, with which I completely agree. The performance index (Win 7x64) for the disk is 7.9. What else to rush about ... ..
The swap file left 1GB (not system selectable) on the SSD.
Memory installed 16 GB, so I applied tweaks:
http://forums.overclockers.ru/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=457299

These tweaks did not speed up the system much, but the memory usage increased sometimes even up to 25%. Before tweaks, the registry never had more than 15%.

I would like to see the article above about optimizing the use of a large amount of memory in 64 bit systems.

Dima

Hello Vadim.
There is a crucial m4 60 GB (it used to have an OS) plexor m5r 128 two (one system, 2 hard drives. The first has neither utilities nor recommendations (but quality (private opinion)) from Plextor I have not seen any recommendations, the utility is how to call it softer .... , and the system does not allow it to work in secure boot.Hibernation is disabled - the rest is by default.
You need to think about disabling defragmentation.

Maxim

Thanks for the article, Vadim!
I have an SSD on mSATA Kingston SMS200S3120G
Before that, I did not even look to see if there are proprietary utilities, since my experience with the Kingston SSD on a stationary PC (Win 7) suggests that the standard Windows setting is sufficient.
After reading the article, I looked at the manufacturer's website and downloaded the SSD Toolbox. A useful utility for viewing detailed information about the disk and for updating the firmware (there are no updates at the moment). There are no settings in it, so there are no contradictions either.

Anatoly

“A lack of knowledge of some of the principles of Windows operation prevented the company from implementing a more competent solution.” - Are you serious?

Basil

Vadim Sterkin

Of course, here's the screen. It does not show anything else, only a notification about a successful optimization.

Pooh

SSD Mini Tweaker v2.4 and all issues are resolved. I uncheck only recovery.

rass

TOSHIBA THNSNH128GBST.
The laptop allows you to install two 2.5 ″ disks, so I installed an SSD for the system and programs, but for my data I use a 1 TB HDD.
RAM 8 GB

According to the numbering of the myths
1. SuperFetch seems to have turned off.
2. I did not touch defragmentation, I think Windows turned it off itself.
3. File podkadchki left at the discretion of Windows.
4. In order not to waste 8 GB SSD - disabled hibernation.
5. The Windows recovery function did not turn off
6. Disabled indexing of files on the SSD disk (I did not split it into logical ones, I have one C drive :). And I don't like how the search is implemented in Vin7. Besides, all my data is stored on the HDD. There's almost nothing to look for on an SSD.
7. for the "garbage" folder Downloads and for downloading torrents I use the HDD.
8. I install the programs by default in ProgramFiles on the SSD, it was important to me that not only Windows would work quickly, but the programs would also start. (I understand that programs work with data stored on the HDD).
9. Folders AppData and ProgramData did not transfer anywhere
10. Browser cache (I use Opera) - did not disable it. (disabled only for those who use this browser "Remember the contents of visited pages")
11. I did not transfer temporary files anywhere, also on an SSD disk (I think this way: since my main working files are stored on the HDD, of course, opening them will be slow, unlike if they were stored on an SSD, but all changes are saved while the program is running at the pace on the SSD, and this is already fast.Well, the control saves of the working file are already on the HDD again - it will be slow, but not essential)
12. Nothing was tricky with the registry.

I've been working with SSD for a month - I can't get enough of the speed.
Toshiba did not use any programs, and it seems that there are none.

Pooh

Vadim Sterkin,

That's it!!! For these are all myths!

Valery

Leonid

Not long ago I myself set up my SSD - Plextor M5 Pro in RAID 0 mode to increase the write / read speed. Although on many forums I read information that a RAID is needed only for the HDD. As for the cache, I have 32GB of RAM and it is more than enough for the system, but just in case I allocated a little space for the system SSD 2-4GB, I think this will not greatly reduce the service life :)

Paul

My first SSD PCI-Ex4 (slot) OCZ Revo Drive X2 died after a year and a half, at the moment when I was browsing the Internet, many bookmarks were opened. I put a tweak, turned off everything. Windows 7. When I bought a new SSD OCZ Vertex-4 SATA 6gB, I decided to install Windows and all programs, games on it as well, but transferred all user folders to the HDD, browser cookies, downloads too; disabled search index, paging file since I have 8 GB RAM. The SSD Life Test Program showed a drive life at this setting of 41 years 10 months 18 days. I did not do any more tweaks and settings. Now my SSD is 1 year 4 months old (lifespan). Just in case, I keep the money for a new SSD in stock. :)

Go to Task Manager -> Performance -> Resource Monitor -> Disk, your hair will stand on end from how Windows handles your SSD. Who has a second computer or laptop with a conventional HDD, you can compare (there are more write / read calls to it than to SSD)

Alexander

@Vasily, can you see a screenshot of the SSD Toolbox with optimization that is recommended once a week? Interested in what exactly is being optimized there @

I will be responsible for Vasily (since I also have Intel) under optimization there is meant forced Trim manually, which I occasionally use and do instead of the system :-) With Intel, I read another problem somewhere - too lazy to look for something to enable / disable caching or enable / disable clearing the cache (too lazy to search) greatly affects performance. I don’t know, it’s hard to check it with me, like in your picture.

Paul

In order to check if your SSD is configured correctly, see what rating Windows gives it, if 7.9 is correct, if less means somewhere you missed the settings. If anyone does not know, if you have one or more hard drives, Windows gives an estimate only to the drive on which it is installed, and not the smallest one as I thought before.

Helena

Vadim Sterkin: Vasily, can you see a screenshot of the SSD Toolbox with optimization, which is recommended once a week? Interested in what exactly is being optimized there :)

The Intel 520 series itself. There once a week TRIM. Nothing more.

Vadim

Intel SSD 335 240Gb
I didn’t set up anything, because I completely trust Win8, since it’s the license and no one has been poking around in it. I use it as the only one in the laptop and for everything in a row - system, office, games. Until a certain time, once a week (or two) in the Intel SSD Toolbox I pressed "optimize", although I knew that it was just TRIM. After six months of absolutely normal work, the laptop first froze out of the blue, then it hung after 2 more days and that's it ... the SSD ran out. The system does not boot and does not give any errors, system recovery is also not loaded in any way.

Samsung 850 Evo and 850 Pro 2 TB | Introduction

In early July, our American colleagues (English), in which it was about what SSD manufacturers will show us in the second half of 2015. There was a lot of information in the article, but it covered only 50% of the market, most of which is taken by Samsung.

Samsung has a 50% market share of the solid state drive market. For consumer models, the percentage is higher and in some countries it can reach 80%. Samsung is also responsible for about 50% of the world's NAND memory shipments. Of course, not all flash memory goes to SSDs, as cell phones, tablets, kids' toys, SD cards, and even cars need to be bundled.

Samsung leads not only in production volumes, but also in technological innovation. The company recently introduced the first client SSD with three bits per cell storage technology, as well as the first 3D MLC and TLC SSD cell structure. And most recently, Samsung introduced the first 2.5 "2TB mass client SSD.

Enthusiasts have been waiting for the next level of capacity since the first 1TB SSD. Demanding a bigger, faster, or better product is easy, but the leap will only happen when there is a financial incentive. You can ask Ferrari to build an SUV that can easily carry eight passengers, but that doesn't mean Ferrari will allocate any money to develop it, and not many will have enough money to buy it. But apparently, Samsung felt that now was a good time to bring a 2TB SSD.

Specifications

Model	Samsung 850 Pro 2 TB	Samsung 850 EVO 2 TB
Manufacturer's recommended price	$1000	$800
Capacity	2 TB (2048 GB)	2 TB (2000 GB)
Interface	SATA 6Gb / s	SATA 6Gb / s
Form factor	2.5 ", 7mm	2.5 ", 7mm
Controller	MHX	MHX
DRAM	2 GB LPDDR3	2 GB LPDDR3
NAND memory	Samsung 3D V-NAND MLC	Samsung 3D V-NAND MLC
Sequential read speed, MB / s	550	540
Sequential write speed, MB / s	520	520 based on TurboWrite speed
Random read speed in 4 KB blocks	up to 100000 (QD1) 10000	up to 98000 (QD1) 10000
Block random write speed, 4 KB	up to 90,000 (QD1) 36,000	up to 90,000 (QD1) 40,000
Power consumption in active mode, W	Average reading: 3.3W Average write: 3.4W	Average reading: 3.7W average write: 4.7W
Power consumption in DevSlp mode, mW	5	5
Resource	300 TBW	150 TBW
Guarantee	10 years	5 years

While the SSD 850 Pro and 2TB Evo are nothing revolutionary, they complement both ranges perfectly. For the most part, to get the 2TB capacity, Samsung simply added double the amount of NAND storage. The engineers also doubled the cache size and upgraded the RAM to low power DDR3 (LPDDR3). DDR3 memory runs at a higher clock speed and uses less power than older DDR2 memory. These improvements are needed to compensate for the loss of speed for caching large tables and the increased power consumption due to the increased number of NAND chips.

A new controller is needed to support twice the CE lanes for 32-level V-NAND flash. Because of this, the alternation has increased. You will see its impact in the performance test results, although officially the speed characteristics Samsung 850 Pro 2TB and Samsung 850 Evo 2TB and the 1TB models are the same.

Benefits from 2TB capacity Samsung 850 Evo 2TB than Pro. You will immediately notice a huge $ 200 price gap, but that's not all. Samsung 850 Evo 2TB Uses TurboWrite technology, a layer of emulated SLC memory that acts as a buffer for writing data. By adding more flash memory to the drive, Samsung has been able to increase the amount of memory allocated for TurboWrite. To find out when the cache ends and TLC recording starts, we had to load the drive very hard. Unless you work with massive video files in a workstation environment, you will probably never see TLC write speeds.

Like existing models, both new products support Self-Encrypting Drive (SED) encryption technology. We hope many power users will take advantage of the Windows-based IEEE-1667 encryption technology called eDrive, although TCG Opal is also supported.

Samsung's documentation indicates that under various conditions, the 2TB models use slightly more power than their 1TB versions. It can be assumed that this will affect the battery life in laptops, but this is not the case. Actually more interleaving as well as more capacity for TurboWrite (only in Samsung 850 Evo 2TB) allow less time to be active. We'll talk about this in more detail later.

Prices, warranty and accessories

Drive Recommended Retail Price Samsung 850 Pro 2TB(MZ-7KE2T0BW) is $ 1000 and Samsung 850 Evo 2TB(MZ-75E20B / AM) - $ 800. Both SSDs come with only the drive itself. Data Migration utility for data cloning and Magician for diagnostics and management of RAPID-array (DRAM cache) can be downloaded on the Samsung support website... Samsung's storage software suite is one of the best in the industry and shouldn't be ignored.

On Samsung 850 Pro 2TB and Samsung 850 Evo 2TB comes with a 10-year standard warranty. Compared to competitors in this class, this is the longest period. But keep in mind that the warranty is limited to the storage life, although here Samsung either leads or is among the leaders.

Samsung 850 Evo and 850 Pro 2 TB | Details

In this section photos Samsung 850 Pro 2TB are on the left and Samsung 850 Evo 2TB- on right. On single photos - Samsung 850 Pro 2TB, although Samsung 850 Evo 2TB supplied in the same configuration.

In addition to the drive, the box contains a paper installation manual and a warranty document. There is also a small piece of paper with stickers for those who like to show off their hardware everywhere. The drive is enclosed in a plastic case.

Both SSDs are built in a 2.5 "7mm form factor, and will easily fit into thin laptops.

The PSID is clearly printed on the back of each SSD, allowing SED functions to be controlled either on the host or remotely.

Opening the case reveals a new PCB design that allows Samsung to install eight flash memory chips. To get 2TB of capacity, the company is simply doubling the number of dies in the chips compared to the 1TB models, but Samsung still does not use all the space available inside the case.

Samsung 850 Pro 2TB and Samsung 850 Evo 2TB inside they look the same.

Both models use the new Samsung MHX controller and Samsung LPDDR3 RAM. Most likely, Samsung needed updated logic to manage a large number of NAND chips. This also supports our hypothesis that Samsung uses a modular controller design that can be tailored to meet different requirements.

Samsung continues to lead the industry in flash memory technology. Above we see MLC 3D V-NAND memory, below TLC 3D V-NAND. Memory with 3D structure of cells IMFT or Flash Forward in retail products is expected no earlier than 2016.

Comparison of data types and sequential speed of TLC memory

Samsung's architecture makes no distinction between compressible and non-compressible data. Both types of data are written and read at full speed. We usually only talk about this when these differences are present. But this time we want to touch on this topic, because in the near future we expect another SSD with a capacity of 2 TB, the speed of which will depend on the type of data being processed.

In our review of TLC products at Computex, we talked about the need to hide low TLC write speeds. All 3-level flash products we tested use simulated SLC write cache, which gives a short-term performance boost, but it quickly reverts back to the original TLC write speed as soon as the buffer fills up. This means that in some cases, the sequential write speed drops to 125 MB / s.

You will rarely see speeds this slow because the cache is large enough. However, this can happen when transferring large files such as high quality movies.

Samsung is great at disguising TLC performance in storage Samsung 850 Evo 2TB... We had to work hard to do a write test that could reveal the TLC sequential write speed. But Samsung 850 Evo 2TB so much simulated SLC TurboWrite cache that even transferring a 42GB Blu-ray movie goes smoothly.

Samsung 850 Evo and 850 Pro 2 TB | Four-way performance testing

Sequential reading

For more information on testing drives, see the article "How we test HDD and SSD" .

Speed ​​of sequential reading in blocks of 128 KB, MB / s (more - better)

Speed ​​of sequential reading in blocks of 128 KB, queue depth = 2, MB / s (more - better)

The two drives under test provide nearly identical sequential write speeds. They even have graphs overlapping each other and are near the border of the SATA 6 Gb / s interface bandwidth.

Sequential write

The speed of sequential writing in blocks of 128 KB, MB / s (more - better)

The speed of sequential writing in blocks of 128 KB, queue depth = 2, MB / s (more - better)

By sequential write speed Samsung 850 Pro 2TB and Samsung 850 Evo 2TB second only to their counterparts by 1 TB. The graphs of all four SSDs overlap as they deliver the same speed as the queue depth increases. Other high-capacity models also boast impressive results. But the new 2TB models are in a class of their own.

Random read

Random read, IOPS (more is better)

Random read, low queue depth, IOPS (more is better)

Random read, high queue depth, IOPS (more is better)

Samsung's 2TB SSDs benefit from advanced concurrency and are at the top of the low queue random read speed graph. These are the first SATA drives to cross the 11,000 IOPS threshold without the help of RAM cache. With a higher order of magnitude, the 2 TB models are slightly inferior to their 1 TB counterparts.

Arbitrary recording

Random write, IOPS (more is better)

Random write, low queue depth, IOPS (more is better)

Random write, high queue depth, IOPS (more is better)

In a random write test, the new 2TB SSDs are in the middle of the list. At high depths of the queue Samsung 850 Evo 2TB Provides faster speed than the same model, but with a capacity of 1 TB.

Drives do not reach steady state in this test as enterprise-class models, but they do undergo heavy preconditioning that does not affect the Samsung 850 Evo 2TB as for the 1 TB version.

Samsung 850 Evo and 850 Pro 2 TB | Mixed Problem and Steady State Testing

Mixed workloads - 80% sequential read

The testing procedure in mixed problems and in steady state is described in detail in the article "How we test HDD and SSD" .

Mixed sequential operations (80% read, 20% write) in blocks of 128 KB, MB / s (more is better)

The performance of the two 2TB models does not differ in benchmarks. The exception is the test with mixed loads. This is where MLC flash shows superiority over TLC. Samsung 850 Evo 2TB generally better than its competitors, although several SSDs perform similarly at some queue depths.

Mixed workloads - 80% random read

Mixed random operations (80% read, 20% write) in 4 KB blocks, IOPS (more is better)

In our previous tests with arbitrary data, the 850 Pro 1TB outperformed the 2TB model slightly. In the test, where random reads are 80%, the 850 Pro 1TB is again slightly faster. The 2TB Evo outperforms the 1TB version, but only by a small margin.

Steady state sequential speed

Mixed tasks: sequential steady state operations, MB / s (more is better)

Mixed tasks: sequential steady state, 80% read, MB / s (more is better)

Mixed tasks: sequential steady state, 70% read, MB / s (more is better)

Service time

WoW service time (less is better)

Battlefield 3 Service Time (Less is Better)

Adobe Photoshop, light load, maintenance time (less is better)

Adobe Photoshop, heavy load, maintenance time (less is better)

Adobe InDesign Service Time (less is better)

Adobe After Effects Service Time (less is better)

Adobe Illustrator service time (less is better)

Microsoft Word service time (less is better)

Microsoft Excel Service Time (less is better)

Microsoft PowerPoint Service Time (less is better)

In many tests, all four Samsung 850 models come out on top in terms of performance. But it is noteworthy that Samsung 850 Evo 2TB ended up at the bottom of the list in a test with heavy Photoshop loads, and we could not find the reason. The problem manifested itself in all three test runs, and we repeated the test itself three times.

Bandwidth

Total bandwidth, MB / s (more is better)

In the resulting diagram, we can look at performance in terms of throughput rather than runtime. Differences pop up in easy real-world problems. SLC cache speeds up Samsung 850 Evo 2TB and lets it get around Samsung 850 Evo 2TB... We find it hard to believe, but it looks like Samsung has managed to make the TLC SSD better than the MLC model. Of course, the advantage is not manifested in all tasks. Nevertheless, Samsung 850 Evo 2TB it masks the lower performance of the TLC so well that we would prefer this drive to the more expensive one.

Samsung 850 Evo and 850 Pro 2 TB | PCMark 8 - Advanced Benchmarks

Bandwidth

Total throughput depending on the state of the disk, MB / s (more is better)

Throughput in heavy tasks, MB / s (more is better)

Throughput in simple tasks, MB / s (more is better)

Surprisingly, in this series of tests Samsung 850 Evo 2TB bypasses Samsung 850 Evo 2TB... In contrast to previous benchmark results in PCMark 8, these figures were obtained under more severe conditions, with less downtime between each test. These drives are not geared towards enterprise tasks, but are approaching this load level.

Typically, these tests are dominated by the SanDisk Extreme Pro 1TB drive, with the 850 Pro 1TB dropping by a small margin. We expected that under light loads Samsung 850 Evo 2TB will overtake the 1 TB version. However, he did not have time to recover quickly enough to pick up speed.

The TRIM function could be suspected of this, but Samsung 850 Evo 2TB recovered safely and was in the lead in the test with light loads. Samsung 850 Evo 2TB takes almost twice as long as the 850 Pro 1TB. When drives are given time to recover Samsung 850 Evo 2TB unable to clear NAND or direct write data to blank cells. This is a point Samsung needs to investigate and fix in a future firmware update.

Disadvantages: Price tag is almost $ 800. Though Samsung 850 Evo 2TB Far from being a cheap SSD, it will surely delight any buyer.

Conclusion: Where to start? Samsung 850 Evo 2TB Is the best client SSD of 2015. We even anticipate the emergence of NVMe-based products that will not be able to manage such volumes of data as quickly. People will have to choose between speed and capacity, but it's nice to have an option that does both, albeit not cheap.

Solid-state drives are becoming more capacious and cheaper, and the advantages in the face of quietness, resistance to mechanical damage and, of course, high speed make more and more people think about the transition - at least partially - to SSD. the site tested an advanced device, the Samsung SSD 850 Evo with 1TB 3D V-NAND.

Although the Evo line is not marketed as a flagship product (this role was left to the 850 Pro), it looks the most interesting for the mainstream consumer due to its capabilities and friendlier cost.

Appearance and design

The Samsung SSD 850 Evo is packaged in a plastic sleeve that doubles as a bundle organizer. The latter does not offer anything unusual: a warranty card, a user manual, a disk with a digital version of instructions for use and service applications.

The drive body is made of aluminum, the company logo is located on the top, and a sticker with service information and model information is placed on the bottom. At the end there is a standard SATA connector (there are modifications for M.2 and mSATA).

The mass of the Samsung SSD 850 Evo was 55 g, the thickness was 7 mm, that is, it can be installed in almost any device where the replacement of drives is provided (consoles, laptops, system blocks). There are no brackets included for installing an SSD into a larger slot, which is typical for a manufacturer.

Peculiarities

The SSD series adopts 3-bit 3D TLC V-NAND memory. The volumetric structure with the vertical shape of the cells made it possible to eliminate their influence on each other. In addition, they are located in 48 layers (or 32 layers in earlier revisions), which provided an increase in capacity despite a large technical process (40 nm versus 16 nm typical for planar memory). The latter feature has become a strong point in this case, since such cells are thicker and, therefore, will last longer: the time between failures (MTBF) is 1.5 million hours, and the guaranteed recording volume is 150 TB.

Samsung 850 Evo 500 GB (old revision) and 1 TB (new revision)

The Samsung SSD 850 Evo supports S.M.A.R.T., TRIM, and Garbage Collection. There is also a Device Sleep mode to reduce power consumption in simple and AES 256 hardware encryption, compatible with TCG / Opal 2.0 and IEEE-1667 standards.

For Samsung SSD 850 Evo, linear read and write speeds of up to 540 and 520 MB / s are declared, respectively. Peak speeds are indicated taking into account the proprietary TurboWrite technology, which actually uses a fast pseudo-SLC cache, its volume is 12 GB in the 1 TB model.

Tests

Measurements in AS SSD Benchmark showed close to the declared speed in sequential read and write mode, as well as good results in random reading and writing of 4 KB blocks. CrystalDiskMark shows comparable results.

Measurements in Anvil's Storage Utilities and the Samsung Magician brand also pleased:

An SSD with active RAPID mode, which uses the computer's free RAM, is impressive:

Phenomenal acceleration, however, is noticeable only in benchmarks; in practice, the gain is 5-10%, for example, during OS boot. But it's still nice, because faster is not slower.

All the above measurements showed an almost empty drive, but even after filling it, the tests gave similar numbers:

Samsung SSD 850 Evo demonstrates one of the best performance among SSDs in the mass consumer segment, not only in synthetics, but also live, delivering excellent speed both in launching games and applications, and loading the OS, copying and archiving files.

The lineup

Solid-state drives are practically silent, fast in comparison with HDDs, less susceptible to mechanical damage, but the cost of each gigabyte is much higher. Therefore, the choice of SSD should be taken seriously. The Samsung SSD 850 Evo line is represented by several models, the cost of devices varies in different stores, sometimes the difference is significant (prices for SATA, mSATA and M.2 are about the same):

• 250 GB - 2600-3500 UAH
• 500 GB - 4500-5300 UAH
• 1 TB - 8000-12000 UAH
• 2 TB - 15,000-21,500 UAH
• 4 TB - 35 000-44 000 UAH

The first two options are suitable for most users who do not want to give up cheap HDD memory for storing files, the 1 TB modification is the best choice as the only drive, and the 2 and 4 TB models (only SATA versions are available) will be needed for those who wants to use an SSD for all tasks, including storing an extensive home collection of videos and photos.

The lineup also includes a 120 GB version, but in 2017 such a modification looks outdated and the site cannot recommend it for purchase. Moreover, it is extremely difficult to find this option, and the cost practically does not differ from 250 GB.

conclusions

Samsung is increasingly gaining a foothold in the storage market, which is facilitated by its own production, engineering innovations and, as a result, a flexible pricing policy. While the flagship 850 Pro line is expensive and is an uncompromising product focused more on professional tasks, the junior line looks interesting for home computers, laptops, consoles and other devices where you want to get a minimum of noise and increase speed.

The Samsung SSD 850 Evo with a capacity of 1 TB showed decent performance in testing, the supported features cover all user needs, and the TurboWrite technology only increases the attractiveness of the device. You can also brag to your friends that the SSD uses "3D memory."

The theoretical durability and overall SSD benefits make the Samsung SSD 850 Evo one of the most compelling solid state drives on the market, and its large capacities cater to the needs of even the discerning user. We must take.