SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus SSD 2TB - M.2 NVMe Interface Internal Solid State Drive with V-NAND Technology (MZ-V7S2T0B/AM)

I traded in an ADATA XPG SX8200 PRO 500GB hard drive for this one, and I'm glad I did. All PCIE NVME drives are not created equal, and benchmarks are meaningless because they are artificial, and the drives are designed to show the "best" performance on the benchmarks, which can be very different from how they perform in real life. First, the XPG SX8200 Pro website only lists the best specs for the 1TB drive, and it's nearly impossible to find information about the slower performance of the 512GB and 256GB drives (which should be a big hint about performance because they don't easily publish it, or list the smaller drive specs on the main page). Second, while the cyrstal diskmark benchmarks were fairly close, when I was actually testing 9GB file copies to and from the XPG, the speeds were consistently below 600MB/s (even as low as 150MB/s). It did perform better at times, but it was so inconsistent and never came close to meeting the benchmarks on a consistent basis that I either got a dud or it's just not as good in real-world performance as the specs suggest. Yes, it was about $30 less expensive than the new Samsung EVO PLUS 970, but the real-world performance far outweighed the price difference. br>br>So, when I got the 500GB Samsung EVO PLUS 970, I put it in the same slot as the ADATA, and it not only exceeded the specs of the CrystalDisk Mark bench, but it also consistently copied files at around 2000MB/s in real-world conditions (using the same file as before). Although not as fast as the benchmark, it is light years ahead of the ADATA and other PCIE NVME drives I've tested. Furthermore, those speeds remained constant throughout the file copy, unlike most other drives, which fluctuate up and down. I understand that even larger file copies will eventually slow down as the cache fills up, but this is true of all PCIe NVME drives that use TLC (or any other type of flash other than MLC). And Samsung is transparent about not only the drive's benchmark read/write performance when using TurboBoost with the cache, but also the performance speeds you can expect when the cache runs out. No other manufacturer is doing so, which demonstrates Samsung's faith in their hard drives. br>br>I was so taken aback by this drive that I immediately ordered another. Other "similar" drives, in my opinion, aren't even close in terms of performance (the WD N750 comes closest, but it's still nowhere near this drive in terms of REAL-world performance). PERFORMANCE IN THE WORLD FOR FILE COPIERS). If you're thinking about saving a few bucks by getting a cheaper PCIe NVME drive, I'd recommend doing your own large file copies to see if your "cheaper" drive performs as well as it claims based on the superficial benchmark tests. Otherwise, save yourself the disappointment and start with the Samsung EVO PLUS, and you'll be glad you did.

Ivory Preston

| Jun 14, 2021

Re- I'm writing this review because when I first bought this drive, it didn't work with Mac OS X. Fortunately, they released a firmware update that fixed the issue. As a result, I'm happy to report that this drive is now fully functional. It's incredibly quick, pushing the PCI-Express bus to its limits. M. is taking an express bus. There are two slots in use. I'm glad I didn't send it back and instead just waited because it was a great deal from a reputable brand. If you have one of these drives and it's crashing or rebooting macOS, you should update the firmware on it.

Mohamed Powers

| Oct 19, 2021

It's worth noting that the nvme mounting screw isn't included in the package. Examine your motherboard kit or go out and buy a new one.

Jaime Rush

| Jan 01, 2022

Installing on a Dell Inspiron 14 laptop was a complete nightmare. I mounted the Samsung drive in a USB enclosure to clone my existing drive, but the software only works if it detects a Samsung drive. WRONG! It now recognizes the enclosure name, and the Samsung software is unable to function because the drive is not recognized as Samsung. Samsung, you have a really stupid way of doing things. It'll be difficult to upgrade your drive, and your cloning software will be rendered useless. I needed to use a cloning program from a third party. I tried three of them before finding one that worked. It took me a long time to figure out how to make it work. The software is even worse than the documentation. However, once I got it to work, I was ecstatic. WOW! What a difference from the Dell NVME 128gb drive: it's a whole lot faster. A benchmarking program has proven this. I was very pleased with the performance. It has a significant impact. Customers should be able to migrate their data more easily with Samsung.

Natasha NORTH

| Jun 24, 2021

This item does exactly what it says on the box, which is unusual in PC hardware. Take a look at the diskmark results and decide for yourself. br>I used the free version of Macrium Reflect to clone my old 256GB SSD to this guy, set the UEFI bios to handle it, and I was good to go. br>br>There are a couple of things to remember with this drive, or any NVME drive: enable support in the BIOS. The drive won't be recognized unless this is done. It's not doom and gloom; you simply need to enable NVME in the UEFI (bios). br>br>In order to work with this drive, my board, the z170 s, didn't like any devices connected to SATA1 and SATA2. The bios found it, but Windows 7 had a fit. I had to think about this for a while before I realized what was going on. Also, if you're cloning another OS drive to this one, remove the other drive to avoid any unnecessary complications. br>br>I'm going to keep my other drive for a while just in case this one fails because it's a new model. You know what I'm talking about. br>br>I bought it before the price went up, because once word gets out that this thing is as good as it is, the price will go up.

Gunner Rivera

| Apr 04, 2021

OS X 10. 2 is not yet supported. Kernel panics followed by a reboot kept happening to me. br>br>I had been looking forward to this trip for a long time!.

Rosemary Chen

| Oct 17, 2021

It's a little faster than the 850 EVO it replaced, but not by much. I've only noticed that deleting takes less time. I transfer files to external drives most of the time, so the speed boost isn't very useful to me. It was well worth the upgrade for me because I enjoy having the latest and greatest. If you're using a PCIe adapter card, keep in mind that just because a motherboard has multiple PCIe slots doesn't mean they're all compatible with GEN3. Try a different slot if you're having problems with half-speeds.

Nalani Cox

| Mar 19, 2021

The Samsung Data Migration software is extremely helpful; it took me less than 30 minutes to clone my OS drive to my new Evo 970 plus.

Winter Mora

| May 25, 2021