Samsung 9100 Pro 2 TB SSD Review

21 months have passed since the first five disks with us. 21 long months, since the key T700, Gigabyte Aorus and similarly specific SSDs have landed on our banks, providing exceptional sequential performance, petite fans and matching prices. Since then, we have seen iteration at iteration, a drop in prices and a continuous stream of devices with better performance exceeding the boundaries of what can be achieved at the standard.

And yet 21 months, unanswered Samsung. For what reason it is really arduous to say. The brand was undoubtedly the Era PCIe 3.0, which was extremely dominant during the splendor, all years ago. Thanks to 960 PRO and Evoline, it provided grave performance, all supported by solid strength and high warranty. Since then, we had PCIe 4.0 solutions, some strange hybridized Twin Channel 5.0 disks, such as 990 Evo and Evo Plus, and all this. There is nothing to write about, at least so far.

Finally the Samsung 9100 Pro line arrived, and oh, boy, is there a lot to talk? It’s okay, so maybe this is not the nicest introduction for impoverished lightning, it is certainly not the only brand in which there is a lack of a suitable solution 5.0 (here they look at you, Western Digital, or should I say Sandisk?). But given his dominance so early, creating one of the best SSDs, I really expected it to provide the generation during the premiere. Not almost two years later. At the moment, it seems that we are at the end of line 5.0, with PCIe 6.0 on the horizon and bandwidth limits 5.0, certainly for the sequences, and actually confined in half last year.

So what was the stop? I will guess the controller and the development of NAND. 9100 PRO, has the same 236-layer V-Nand, which Samsung used in its 990 EVO Plus line. It is an effective NAND package, available in a maximum of 2 TB capacity, allowing the company to arrange two of them on one side to tap at 4 TB per page. It is also massive – very vast. Compare this with something like the 218-layer Kicoxia BICS8 found on the MP700 Corsaira elite, and things just fed him in a general physical space. As for space, this is not an effective project.

Samsung also combined 9100 with its own dedicated LPDDR4X cache memory memory. It has about 1 GB on TB of total disk memory. From what we can find from our own tests, it is supported by a huge memory of Pseudo-SLC 365 GB on disk (or later), at least for the 2 TB variant. Effectively what he does allows SSD controller to quickly read and save data to TLC NAND using this combined cache as a speedy buffer. If he has to immerse himself in flash, he turns to a larger, but a bit pseudo-SLC cache to assist in recording transfers (TLC is notoriously leisurely to handle this type of operation). Theoretically, you can also saturate this PSLC layer, but you would have to move a significant amount of data to really fall these sequential performance numbers.

Despite this, the controller finally gave Samsung a capacity to enter the disk 5.0. It is effectively built of its own 5 Nm Sammy production process, combined with an octa -channel project, very similar to what we saw from 990 Evo Plus and its predecessor, although of course from communication 5.0.

As for abilities, we have all the spread from 1 TB to (to the unpublished) 8 TB solution. This last ride will inevitably have to be a double project, just to accommodate these NAND packages. They are also not exactly budget-friendly, and in the United States for the 4 TB variant, without heat, you are talking about payment of USD 0.14 for storage GB; It is much more steep than such as Crucial’s T700 at 2 TB, from 0.11 USD or Corsair’s MP700 Elite for 0.13 USD for GB. Although yes, it can be said that this drive is classified both SSDs on the sequential front. If you decide on the heat version (which we have here on tests), you pay even more for around 0.16 USD for GB, Ouch.

“Performance ready for a new era”, He says that the slogan pierces the top of the product page 9100. Well, maybe only a year too overdue a year. I will start with positives: both 2 TB and 4 TB variants absolutely tear sequential performance. They are phenomenally speedy. In Crystaldiskmark, numbers for land 2 TB at 14 322 Mb/s on average and 13 318 Mb/SW reading. This is the fastest disk that I have tested so far. What is less impressive and probably a much more essential record for any potential player is a random 4K performance, with 2 TB unit soils at a fairly average 88 Mb/s on reading and amazingly low, 237 Mb/SW record. It’s not great for driving to be so “fast”. However, each other PHISON SSD tested. In fact, every disk that I have ever tested here sits around this sign, even 4.0 disks. This is not perfect.

In the case of a very primitive analogy, sequential performance is useful if your files are set in the order and you have access to them individually, next to each other. Random 4K performance (in 1 thread) is more like a game available to files to load the stage. He pulls out all these random resources, tasks and processes from the whole place and he writes similarly to the drive. Therefore, for us, random 4K performance is a much more valuable indicator. This also translates all the time, because even with these speedy sequences almost two-year T700 Crucial acted around it near the 7-second load time, compared to 7.5 for 9100 PRO.

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Then we reach temperatures and here things become captivating. I was lucky to get two SSDs to test. 2 TB with a heat sink and 4 TB without a taxpayer. Theoretically, you can remove heat if you have a diminutive enough Torx set, but I decided to test it with it, and 4 TB using the built -in radiot of my motherboard. During the 2 TB comparative test process with a heat sink exceeded 82 ° C, which is on average for the PCIe 5.0 drive. However, 4 TB with toasty heat landed on a comfortably frigid 61 C. incredibly low. Compare this with FireCuda 540, and this was managed by 83 ° C in the same Mobo sin.

This tells us about two things: first, the attached heat is a bit NAFF, and secondly, it is one effective drive when it is cooled correctly. However, taking into account that the thermal variant costs more, I highly recommend it to ignore this additional, and instead Zakopie it under a solid, reliable, dense, mobo heat.

So did Samsung buy back? Is this a modern king of performance? Well, in a sense. On paper, this sequential grunt is impressive. This is an amazing marketing number, and if there are your rights to brag, or you can employ this type of speed, yes, I suppose it is a solid option. The problem, however, is that he simply lacks this spark.

We waited as long as the impressive pursuit appears from Samsung, along with the legendary achievement and a few excellent performance records, blowing up the barn door, and yet what we have is fine. It’s just good and it’s a problem, because if you now have a good SSD PCIe 5.0, you are set; You don’t need it; Why buy it? Samsung had to come out with this aspiration, not today, but a year ago. He needs more at the moment.