Samsung unveils 960 PRO and EVO M.2 NVMe SSDs with up to 2TB storage capacity

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Solid state drives have dramatically changed the PC market. Long gone are the need for slow mechanical hard drives that create irritating noise. SSDs are silent, not to mention both faster and more energy efficient too.

NVMe-based M.2 SSDs are the latest and greatest, as they overcome the SATA speed limitations. Not to mention, since they are smaller than a 2.5 inch drive, computer manufacturers can create even thinner machines. Samsung's 950 line of SSDs were extremely popular, as they offered tremendous speed and reliability. Today, the company launches the next generation -- the 960 EVO and PRO -- which are only available in M.2 NVMe.

"On top of being the world’s fastest M.2 NVMe SSD, the 960 PRO will also offer 2 terabyte (TB) capacity, which is the highest capacity commercially available for M.2 NVMe SSDs, along with 512GB and 1TB versions. The 960 PRO's high density was made possible by Samsung V-NAND technology and the uniquely restructured package design. As user capacity demand trends continue to rise, the high-density 960 PRO capacities are poised to conveniently meet the needs of personal data and information storage. The 960 PRO promises additional reliability and endurance with the five-year limited warranty and up to 1.2 petabytes written (PBW), whichever occurs first, for the 2TB capacity", says Samsung.

The popular manufacturer further says, "960 EVO is available in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB capacities and provide users with next-generation personal computing performance. The new Samsung Intelligent TurboWrite technology makes its debut in the 960 EVO and accelerates sequential read and write speeds, that reach peaks of 3,200 MB/s and 1,900 MB/s respectively. The 960 EVO's random read speed reaches up to 380,000 IOPS and random write speed up to 360,000 IOPS. The 960 EVO comes with a three-year limited warranty and up to 400 terabytes written (TBW), whichever occurs first, for the 1TB capacity version".

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Keep in mind, to truly leverage the full performance of these drives, you will need a computer with PCIe 3.0. Some motherboards and laptops come with a PCI 3.0-based m.2 slot; this makes things very easy. If you have a PCIe 3.0 compatible desktop without an M.2 connector, however, you will hit a bit of a snag. You will also need to purchase a PCI card adapter. Using the adapter, for best performance, you should use an x4 lane at minimum, which on many motherboards will mean using an x16 slot.

So, how do the two drives differ? There a few notable things. The 960 PRO offers a max read/write of 3,500/2,100 MB/s while the EVO "only" does 3,200/1,900. The EVO comes in 250GB, 500GB and 1TB capacities, while the PRO is offered in 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB. The PRO also comes with a 5-year warranty -- 2 years longer than the EVO.

When can you buy these insanely fast drives? They will go on sale in October. Pricing on the EVO starts at $130, while the PRO begins at $330.

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