Performance Analysis
What's most clear throughout our tests is just how effective Rapid Mode is. We've only included the results for the 1TB drive just to keep our graphs from becoming too unwieldy but essentially the picture is similar right across the range. However, given our caveats noted previously we certainly can't view Rapid Mode as the outright indicator of performance.
Looking then at AS-SSD, in terms of sequential performance the whole Evo range is right up there with the best of them, with only the 120GB drive falling behind when it comes to write speed. But still, with 389MB/s it is still mighty fast for such a small drive, and is about 3x faster than the 120GB 840 drive.
The story's largely similar when it comes to random read and write performance with all the drives on test, bar the 120GB, keeping up with the top performers. Even then it's only in the 64 queue depth write test that this drive really falls behind. Notable is the big advantage all the drives have when it comes to random reads at a queue depth of one, with even the 120GB drive beating all others on test. And, arguably it's this test that is the most important for the 'feel' of an SSD being fast.
The picture is nearly identical when we look at Crystal Disk Mark with all the drives performing very impressively at both sequential reads and writes. Again the 120Gb drive can't quite keep up when the going gets tough but for an £80 drive it's still impressively nippy - it even out does the 840 Pro for sequential read speeds.
The only fly in the ointment here is the random write test at a queue depth of 32. Here the 120GB really struggles, only just matching the performance of the 256GB Samsung 830.
Intriguingly PCMark 7 shows Rapid Mode in the least favourable light with it having next to no impact in the Gaming Test. Otherwise, all the 840 Evos again put in a good showing, trailing only to the 840 Pro.
As we've come to expect, the boot time test shows a wildly more variable story than the other benchmarks with some of the fastest drives proving the slowest, as it were. Indeed the 1TB and 750GB Evo drives actually come bottom of our test. We're yet to determine precisely why this is but regardless all the drives on test deliver perfectly nippy boot times.
Looking at the cost per gigabyte of these drives, while they don't blow the competition out of the water, they certainly prove to be on the money. It's intriguing to note just how 'good value' the 1TB drive is despite its high asking price. Nonetheless, £509.99 really is a high price to pay when hdd storage is still so much cheaper. Likewise the £415.99 for the 750GB drive. As such the 500GB model is the clear sweetspot of the range, offering the equal best performance, low cost per gigabyte and affordable overall cost. You'll still need an extra drive for large media collections but at least you shouldn't have to uninstall games all the time, unlike with ≦256GB drives.
Conclusion
There's little to fault with the new Samsung SSD 840 Evo range of SSDs. They're good value in terms of cost per gigabyte, they're fast and they look pretty smart too. Add in the potentially rip-roaring performance provided by Rapid Mode and there's little more one could ask for.
Performance of the 120GB drive is markedly down on the rest of the range but it still far outstrips most competing drives in its price range. Meanwhile the larger drives compete strongly with most other standard SATA SSDs. We'd probably suggest spending £400+ on either the 750GB or 1TB models is unnecessarily extravagant when HDD prices are still so much lower but at least it's not the case that you're paying a premium for the extra capacity.
The most extreme users will certainly still want to opt for the Samsung SSD 840 Pro (or equivalent) thanks to its higher reliability, longer five year warranty and of course faster consistent performance but for the rest of us we have a new SSD leader, whatever your size/price requirements. For this reason we've given the whole range the same score - they all offer the same set of features, have class-leading performance and offer great value for their capacity.
What's most clear throughout our tests is just how effective Rapid Mode is. We've only included the results for the 1TB drive just to keep our graphs from becoming too unwieldy but essentially the picture is similar right across the range. However, given our caveats noted previously we certainly can't view Rapid Mode as the outright indicator of performance.
Looking then at AS-SSD, in terms of sequential performance the whole Evo range is right up there with the best of them, with only the 120GB drive falling behind when it comes to write speed. But still, with 389MB/s it is still mighty fast for such a small drive, and is about 3x faster than the 120GB 840 drive.
The story's largely similar when it comes to random read and write performance with all the drives on test, bar the 120GB, keeping up with the top performers. Even then it's only in the 64 queue depth write test that this drive really falls behind. Notable is the big advantage all the drives have when it comes to random reads at a queue depth of one, with even the 120GB drive beating all others on test. And, arguably it's this test that is the most important for the 'feel' of an SSD being fast.
The picture is nearly identical when we look at Crystal Disk Mark with all the drives performing very impressively at both sequential reads and writes. Again the 120Gb drive can't quite keep up when the going gets tough but for an £80 drive it's still impressively nippy - it even out does the 840 Pro for sequential read speeds.
The only fly in the ointment here is the random write test at a queue depth of 32. Here the 120GB really struggles, only just matching the performance of the 256GB Samsung 830.
Intriguingly PCMark 7 shows Rapid Mode in the least favourable light with it having next to no impact in the Gaming Test. Otherwise, all the 840 Evos again put in a good showing, trailing only to the 840 Pro.
As we've come to expect, the boot time test shows a wildly more variable story than the other benchmarks with some of the fastest drives proving the slowest, as it were. Indeed the 1TB and 750GB Evo drives actually come bottom of our test. We're yet to determine precisely why this is but regardless all the drives on test deliver perfectly nippy boot times.
Looking at the cost per gigabyte of these drives, while they don't blow the competition out of the water, they certainly prove to be on the money. It's intriguing to note just how 'good value' the 1TB drive is despite its high asking price. Nonetheless, £509.99 really is a high price to pay when hdd storage is still so much cheaper. Likewise the £415.99 for the 750GB drive. As such the 500GB model is the clear sweetspot of the range, offering the equal best performance, low cost per gigabyte and affordable overall cost. You'll still need an extra drive for large media collections but at least you shouldn't have to uninstall games all the time, unlike with ≦256GB drives.
Conclusion
There's little to fault with the new Samsung SSD 840 Evo range of SSDs. They're good value in terms of cost per gigabyte, they're fast and they look pretty smart too. Add in the potentially rip-roaring performance provided by Rapid Mode and there's little more one could ask for.
Performance of the 120GB drive is markedly down on the rest of the range but it still far outstrips most competing drives in its price range. Meanwhile the larger drives compete strongly with most other standard SATA SSDs. We'd probably suggest spending £400+ on either the 750GB or 1TB models is unnecessarily extravagant when HDD prices are still so much lower but at least it's not the case that you're paying a premium for the extra capacity.
The most extreme users will certainly still want to opt for the Samsung SSD 840 Pro (or equivalent) thanks to its higher reliability, longer five year warranty and of course faster consistent performance but for the rest of us we have a new SSD leader, whatever your size/price requirements. For this reason we've given the whole range the same score - they all offer the same set of features, have class-leading performance and offer great value for their capacity.
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Performance45 / 50
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