Samsung SSD 840 series now available, Assassin's Creed III bundled with Pro variant

Jos

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Following its introduction over a month ago, Samsung's SSD 840 series is finally available from retailers like Amazon and Newegg, including the standard and 'Pro' variants. We reviewed the later back in September and found it to be a solid contender with impressive overall performance. If Samsung's reputation for reliability holds up as we expect this could very well become the market's top enthusiast drive.

The SSD 840 Pro is avaiable in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB capacities for around $100, $155, $270, and $600 respectively. That's admittedly on the pricey side considering that equivalent models from OCZ's high-end Vertex 4 family cost between $40 and $200 less. But Samsung is hoping to sweeten the deal by including a downloadable full retail copy of Assassin’s Creed III -- a $60 value -- with the purchase of a 128GB, 256GB or 512GB SSD 840 Pro. These models promise up to 100,000 input-output operations per second (IOPS), 540MB/s sequential read speeds, 520MB/s writes and AES 256-bit encryption.

Alternatively, non-Pro variants equipped with 3-bit-per-cell MLC (aka TLC) NAND are available at $110 for 120GB, $200 for 250GB, and $400 for 500GB. You'll get just slightly less performance (up to 97,000 IOPS, 540MB/s and 330MB/s read and write speeds depending on the model) and no Assassin's Creed III bundle.

The drives are manufactured entirely in-house by Samsung, including the MCX controller that proved a solid option in terms of speed and reliability for the 830 series, as well as the memory and cache.

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I wouldn't go into comparing pricing versus Vertex 4. Samsung SSD-s are much more reliable. It is the same series as Apple ships in their Macbook Pro series, a little newer and faster.

In fact, I think the 840 SSD-s at the moment offer the best price/size/reliability combination for the money.

The only contender to is OCZ Technology RevoDrive 3 X2 series PCI-E 960GB, which is just too awsome for the money it costs (under 1k): http://www.amazon.com/OCZ-Technolog...8&qid=1352310858&sr=8-4&keywords=revodrive+X4
 
Yep the previous poster is right. My OCZ driva failed after installing OS X lion in the mountain. It failed within hours. Took it back and stayed with the force 3 corsair. 240 gigs for 179 plus tax. The drive seems to test at 270 w and 480 read but not sure if those speeds are acurate for it seems a lot faster. Also as far as some of those pci-x cards. They have insane listed speed. 2800 mb/s megabits per second. that seems 5 times the fastest sata interface speed. Wonder if that is sustained speed. I can't afford those. They cost like 3000. Too rich for my blood.
 
The Vertex 4 is the better option because it has a 5 year warranty and uses 25nm MLC compared to the 840 which is 20nm TLC. Even the 840 'Pro' uses 20nm MLC which won't be as reliable as 25nm MLC.

Those who comment about OCZ reliability are clearly referring to their old '3' series which had trouble because of the Sandforce controller. I was just looking for a new SSD myself and was pretty surprised to see all the good reviews about the Vertex 4 on Newegg/Amazon given all complaining.

Anyway, just wanted to point out that the 840 isn't really a deal given the type of NAND it uses. The 'Pro' is much better but is pretty expensive given the fact there are just as fast drives which are 25% cheaper and use better NAND.
 
Just a quick note...I followed the link for the Amazon site, purchased the drive, and now was told they don't have the same rebate for the game, or won't honor one listed on this site. So, fair warning...
 
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