Review Samsung 990 EVO NVME SSD 2TB: universal model with high random access

Aad Munsterman

The speed of the PCIe bus to which this SSD is connected increases with every generation. The 990 EVO SSD is designed for 4-path PCIe4 (Gen4x4) and compatibility with dual-path PCIe5 (Gen5x2). This makes this SSD suitable for general use in laptops, PCs and work and game computers with a PCIe3 to PCIe5 bus. Because all components are placed on one side, this SSD is easy to install in small systems, such as laptops.

Technology
It uses Samsung’s sixth version V-NAND technology in combination with the Picollo controller, which enables sequential read and write speeds of up to 5000/4200MB/s. However, more important with this model are the random read and write operations of 700K/800K IOPS. This puts this SSD at the top and is therefore extremely suitable for general use in PCs, laptops and the like. Compared to the previous model, the 970 EVO Plus SSD (PCIe3), performance is more than forty percent higher. Another important point is that the power efficiency has been greatly improved so that the battery of a laptop runs out less quickly. The SSD is equipped with a heat spreader and Samsung’s Dynamic Thermal Guard ensures that the temperature remains within the optimal range.

Compatibility with PCIe5
This SSD is fully compatible with PCIe5 and automatically uses only 2 paths without loss of performance, compared to a PCIe4 bus. This technology is expected to become the standard in laptops to keep energy consumption within limits and therefore also heat development. This SSD can also be used as a pair in RAID configurations for fault tolerance or extra high performance.

Migration and management
As part of a Samsung SSD, the Samsung Magician Software can be downloaded, making extensive performance testing, monitoring and management software available. Possible firmware updates can also be carried out with this. Migrating from a hard disk to an SSD or from SSD to another SSD can also be started from this software.
The issued Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) is 1.5 million hours. The warranty is 5 years or 600TB and 1200TB respectively for the 1 and 2TB model.

Conclusion
This SSD is a future-oriented universal model for general use in various systems. The sequential speeds are slightly lower than expected (R5058/W4042) but the random access is higher (R3137/W3163). The introductory price is a bit on the high side.

Product: Samsung 990 EVO NVMe SSD M.2 2TB