Samsung 860 EVO 1 TB SATA 2.5 Inch Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) (MZ-76E1T0)

Samsung SSD 860 Evo 1TB SATA3When it comes to SATA3 SSD’s, there were only 2 brands for me which I looked at – Samsung and Crucial.This time I opted for this Samsung SSD 860 Evo 1 TB SATA3 to replace a standard HDD as a secondary drive in my laptop – there was already a Nvme SSD as a primary drive for system, etc, but I was fed up with speeds of traditional HDDs.Installation was super easy – I simply replaced a HDD with SSD. Nothing complicated at all – just swap and connect.After powering on, my computer detected SSD without any issues and the only thing required was to format it to to desired format. All done within 30 minutes.Did the swap change anything?Abuslutely yes. My games load several times faster, searching my photo collection is superfast as well as access to my music library. Video editing, encoding and audio editing are absolutely hassle-free.SSD does not also generate any noise and generates less heat, especially with normal usage.I tested my Samsung 860 Evo with AS SSD and CrystalDiskMark – results are great, as expected (disk is half full/half empty) - please see the photos attached.A few details about Samsung 860 Evo 1TB SATA3 (different models may have different specs):- NAND: Samsung V-NAND TLC (aka. 3Bit MLC)- Controller: Samsung MJX Controller- Cache: 1GB LPDDR4- 5 years warranty or 600TBW- SATA3Would I buy it again?Absolutely yes.I cannot imagine going back to HDDs, especially not for tasks I use it for. I used Samsung SSD 840 Pro previously, so I knew what to expect from Samsung SSDs (although I could not justify spending extra for Pro series this time).I understand that the price of this disk has not changed for years nearly at all, but the reason for is that it is probably the best SATA3 SSD, which can be purchased.It is also a great disk for PS4/PS4 Pro, although neither Xbox One nor Playstation 4 make a full use of SSD technology. Loading times are still better though, sometimes cut by half. Tested with PS4 Pro out of curiosity.10/10 score and full recommendation.Warning: Please do not make a mistake and do not buy Samsung QVO SSDs unless you are absolutely sure you want QVO series for some, unknown to me reason. They can be slightly cheaper (but sometimes can even be slightly more expensive), but their performance and reliability due to use of QLC NAND in comparison to Evo and Evo Plus (TLC NAND) is a lot worse. They are still good SSDs in comparison to other brands QLC SSDs but in my opinion there is no reason to buy them as Evo SSDs are a lot better and for similar price.

Was a little dubious before purchasing, as there is usually too much hype surrounding these types of disks.HOWEVER, cast away any doubt you may have !!Adding one of these units is like upgrading from a nissan micra to a ferrari !!I was about ready to throw my PC in the bin, as the original platter based HDD were getting slower and slower with the frquent windows 10 update ( no issues with Windows 7 ... ) .Given that my machine has an 8 core AMD Black edtion CPU with 32GB ram, this was clearly annoying.It got to the point where it take several minutes to bring up the login screen. Once logged in, the disk drives were going flat out and unresponsive for at least 10 minutes ( go and make a cup tea literally and another one to follow) . Apps were then slow to respond. Being a developer, many of the development tools were taking several minutes just to OPEN....Thought I would replace the Windows drive with one of these SSD from Samsung, as a last ditched desperate measure.UNBELIEVABLY IMPRESSIVE !!The machine now responds faster than I can.Whole thing boots up in under 2 minutes ( BIOS is the slow aspect now, as that takes over a minute) .Once logged in, the machine responds instantly , certainly faster than I can.The apps now open up instantly. The developer apps that used to take several minutes, now open in under 3 seconds and are responsive immefiately. Wooo Hoo .NOTE - You only need to replace the windows Boot drive for the performance gain. All my apps still run on a separate platter based HDD. Just proves that it was the OS that was causing the bottle neck ( that is windows 10 for you )As a measure of metrics, copying a very large file ( 7.5GB ) from a hard disk drive to the SSD achieved sustained transfer speeds over 200MB/s , with a total transfer time just under 50 seconds.However, on repeated copies of the same file, the transfer speeds demonstrated significant improvement, which would suggest a level of read buffer/caching implementation. The second copy of the same file took 20 seconds.I am definitely buying a few more of these.

Overall a good SSD and the improvements are insane. Came quick through the post and the speeds are all top notch. I am a newbie when it comes to these sort of stuff so I didn't realise you needed a sata cable alongside with the ssd so either make sure you have a spare in your case or buy a new one. Instantly feels like a new pc and boots up windows really quick. I used the data migration tool to transfer most of data from my HDD to the SSD and was really easy and simple, although I found it tricky to pick certain files I wanted to keep and its interface was confusing at first. Games see a massive improvements in load times and in some games in helped with the stuttering I had due to me only running 8gb ram set. Again this doesn't apply for all games only a select few had their stuttering issues disappear when playing watch dogs 2, Kingdom come deliverance and Black ops cold war. Now I got this ssd on a sale for £52. Its definitely worth the price however, if this isnt on sale or retailing at its msrp of £99 then your probably better off getting any cheaper models such as crucial mx500 or bx series. Yes it is from samsung which historically I known to have better build quality and better endurance but usually SSD only last for 5 years before you need to change them. So I say pick this up if this is on a sale if not just go for the cheaper companies. The difference in speeds are hard to see in the real world and more and right now just does not justify the extra £40 compared to its cheaper competition. If its on a sale grab one as personally Samsung products are better in build quality and offer better endurance for the long haul but at £99, your better off getting more storage capacity from a different company at the same price.