Samsung’s NVMe M.2 SSD 950 PRO

Samsung has introduced its 950 PRO SSD, specifically designed for high-performance consumer and business laptops - and PCs.

The drive has the M.2 form factor, as opposed to the 2.5-inch 7mm notebook hard disk form factor, which means that it works in compatible desktop PCs/workstations but also those aforementioned cutting-edge, high performance ultrabooks, who will ‘benefit from industry-leading storage endurance, and reliability.’

The 950 PRO is Samsung’s first ‘consumer-ready Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) M.2 form factor SSD with vertical NAND (V-NAND) technology; supporting the PCIe 3.0 interface.’

With the introduction of NVMe, the first protocol optimised for SSDs, users of the Samsung 950 PRO will benefit from improved performance which can help increase battery life compared with previous Samsung SSD products.

The drive is ideal for anyone who doesn’t just want but NEEDS cutting-edge performance, higher bandwidth and lower latency from their high-end PCs and workstations, ideal for projects such as computer-aided design, data analysis and engineering simulation - Tom Cruise and his need for speed included.

The compact M.2 2280 form factor also ensures compatibility with next-generation desktop and mobile platforms that support the M.2 PCIe slot and interface.

The article continues below - please read on.

Todd Lynton, Director of Enterprise and Small Medium Business at Samsung Electronics Australia said: “We’re extending our Australian leadership through advanced product innovation and R&D with the introduction of the SSD 950 PRO.

“The SSD 950 PRO is yet another example of a branded memory solution that continues to elevate our portfolio of products and reflects Samsung’s continued commitment in the memory industry.

“Last year, we launched the world’s first SSD with 3D V-NAND technology to overcome limitations of traditional 2D SSD design.

“We also launched Samsung’s first portable SSD product with the T1 which combined our advanced memory technologies in a beautifully designed and highly portable device. By continuing to innovate in these categories, we are helping to drive change in the market to deliver better products and experiences for Australians,” Lynton said.

Featuring the PCIe Gen.3 x4 interface and supporting the NVMe protocol, the Samsung 950 PRO offers improved random and sequential performance over SATA interface drives utilising the legacy AHCI protocol.

Users of applications that benefit from high input/output operations per second (IOPS) will experience up to four times faster performance than with traditional Samsung SATA SSDs.

The 950 PRO also features Samsung’s ‘second generation MLC V-NAND 32-layer 128Gb die with UBX controller and magician software and will be available in 512 gigabyte (GB) and 256GB storage capacities.’

The 512GB version delivers sequential read/write speeds of up to 2,500 MB/s and 1,500 MB/s. Random read performance is up to 300,000 IOPS, with write speeds of up to 110,000 IOPS. This statement comes with the caveat that ‘Performance may vary based on the SSD’s firmware version, system hardware and configuration.’

The SSD 950 PRO additionally integrates ‘AES 256-bit Full Disk Encryption to protect data and Dynamic Thermal Guard, which can protect the device and data in a range of temperatures from 0 to 70 degrees Celsius. It can also withstand physical shock of up to 1500G/0.5ms and vibrations up to 20G.’

Both capacities come with a 5-year warranty up to 200 terabytes written (TBW) for the 256GB and 400TBW for the 512GB - with the warranty ‘in addition to the rights of consumers under the Australian Consumer Law’.

The 950 PRO is now available at $379 for the 256GB capacity and $659 for the 512GB capacity from specialty resellers.

For more information, visit Samsung’s SSD site here. 

Samsung's specs are embedded below as an image supplied by Samsung - turn your phone horizontal to see the image in full: