The Battle of the Ultra Fast SSDs: Samsung SM951 PCIe Review

[Steve]

Last year's Intel Haswell refresh wasn't particularly exciting because of the CPU improvements but because of the new Z97 chipset which brought SATA Express and the M.2 interface to mainstream computing. That's a big deal in the storage world.

It wasn't long until Samsung moved to capitalize on the new chipset's M.2 support by announcing the XP941, a PCIe 2.0 x4 SSD with top speeds of 1170MB/s reads and 930MB/s writes. To date, no other M.2 device has challenged the XP941, however as attractive as the Samsung XP941 may be, it was meant as an OEM-only product.

Nonetheless, the drive has been popular among enthusiasts -- popular enough for Samsung to announce a successor last January -- though again as an OEM product. The new SM951 PCIe SSD is currently available through Australian company RamCity, and although the drive is listed in Australian dollars on the company's website, it's selling to US customers via Amazon for $460. That seems reasonable for such a fast M.2 device.

Read the complete review.

 

[VitalyT]

That's one mighty device. I definitely would want one for my new PC, though I'm not planning on one soon, and by the time it happens, NVMe will be out to leave no alternative for fast PC builders, as SATA-III SSD-s are just too far behind.

Looking forward to NVMe reviews when the product is released.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Very impressive, but I can't find a use for one of these yet. I'm gonna hold onto my SATA III Samsung SSD for a little while longer, and after that I'll probably go up in density at least one more time before I even think about PCIe storage solutions.

 

[Guest]

All the new motherboards have M.2 so I am anxious to get away from having to buy 2.5 to 3.5 adapters and mounting 2.5 SSD's. Seems the storage manufacturers are quite a ways behind the motherboard manufacturers on this transition.

I know there are several AHCI M.2 products out there. Samsung still does not offer their 850EVO in M.2 which I find surprising.

 

[Julio Franco]

Samsung still does not offer their 850EVO in M.2 which I find surprising.

But they do: TechSpot review | newegg

 

[Guest]

Proud owner of an 256GB XP941

 

[BlueDrake]

Will there be a comparison when the NVMe version is released? I'm quite impressed between the two overall leading the pack, in one thing or another given this is an NVMe vs AHCI. Just hope to see an upcoming review of that one also, to see what was really improved.

 

[Julio Franco]

Yes, we'll test the NVMe version as soon as we can get one (and we were promised one just today, so )

 

[Nynoah]

I wish that computer manufacturers would create a 1tb 80mm version. As it stands, I would rather have an Msata slot and take the speed hit (minor in the real world situations) and have the option of more storage than M.2 and its size limitations. Honestly why is this drive SO BIG? Its killing the possibility for laptops to have mulitiple M.2 drives like many have for Msata.