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Change of consumer preferences: in search of the ideal drive with support for the NVMe protocol

In 2011, an alternative to the Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) protocol — the NVM Express protocol — was introduced. Why a controller with NVMe architecture (Non-Volatile Memory Express)?



A bit of theory: roughly speaking, SSD is a way to store data on memory chips, while mentioning the “hard disk” means that the data is stored on circular magnetic plates. Now the notion of a form factor: implies how the device looks and how it connects. For example, 2.5-inch SATA SSD connects using a SATA connector. The form factor M.2 is the bare boards on which the chips are placed, respectively, the connector for connecting M.2 is used. To fully operate the drive with the host system, physical and software interfaces are needed, the most common 2.5-inch SATA SSDs use the AHCI protocol, but the AHCI controller was created for mechanical HDDs in order to optimize the interaction of the hard disk with the system itself: minimize the movement of magnetic heads, synchronize reading and writing processes. Accordingly, in solid-state drives, where a completely different principle of data storage, AHCI is not able to unlock the full potential of SSD operating at high speeds. Although no one has canceled the fact that the SATA SSD is more limited by the SATA connection factor itself, it can transfer data at a speed of no more than 550-600 MB / s, not that it was too little, but! SSD drives can do much more. In order to circumvent these speed limits, PCI Express and M.2 drives were invented, although they still either use or emulate the AHCI software interface, the main drawback of which is the number of commands that it can simultaneously transmit, this is only 32 queues.

Therefore, there was a need to develop a software controller that would be designed specifically to optimize the performance of SSD drives, taking into account their features. Emphasis was placed on the speed of data transmission, a significant reduction in latency, improvement of work with multi-threaded loads. As a result, low access delays and queue depth for read / write operations (up to 65 thousand command queues with 65 thousand commands in the queue). When working with databases, these parameters often become critical.
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The best performance of SSD drives with NVMe interface


Samsung 960 Pro 512GB




+ Excellent performance
+ Good price per GB
+ Capacity up to 2 TB
- High price



Samsung is the first company to present the M.2 NVMe solid-state drives to the world, until today it occupies a leading position in this market segment. The 950 Pro and SM951 NVMe demonstrated excellent performance, but the Samsung 960 Pro exceeded all expectations. Many consider it a revolutionary. The 960 Pro is available to users of 512 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB capacities. First of all, such a highly reliable drive is designed for heavy workloads. The speed of sequential read / write operations up to 3500/2100 MB / s, and in 1TB and 2TB drives, the performance of read / write operations develops up to 440 thousand / 360 thousand IOPS, 512 GB - 330 thousand / 330 thousand IOPS, respectively . The cost of the 960 Pro is even less than the 950 Pro (a nice bonus).

The 960 Pro uses a Polaris controller from Samsung, a feature of such a controller: the number of cores of the ARM architecture has been increased, while the 960 Pro has 5 cores at once, one of which serves to communicate with the host system. The more cores involved in the task, the lower the frequency of each of them, and therefore the temperature at a constant working load will be lower. The line uses 48-layer third-generation MLC 3D V-NAND memory with a crystal density of 256 Gbps, instead of 32-layer memory with a crystal density of 128 Gbps. Polaris and good bandwidth MLC 3D V-NAND provide high speed recording.

But what does this theory mean in real conditions? The Samsung 960 Pro with a capacity of 512 GB was taken to participate in the test, and it turned out to be the fastest consumer storage device NVMe SSD at the moment. The model is 10% superior to the Intel 750 Series drive (1.2 TB) and Samsung's 950 Pro (512 GB).

Synthetic performance test:


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The more important question is not whether the 960 Pro is fast, but whether you really need this kind of SSD performance. For work with a large load, the 960 Pro is magical, but for copying files, for example, 18 GB folders from a disk to the same disk (reading and writing at the same time), it demonstrates no better than the earlier 950 Pro.

The high price of the 960 Pro is justified as NVMe drives, since they are an expensive proposition on the market. The performance of solid-state drives using the NVMe protocol is really noticeable when copying heaps of files or installing a large application.
View prices for 960 Pro 512 GB

The best solid-state drive from the budget options M.2 NVMe


Intel 600p 512GB




+ Lowest price per GB from all NVMe drives
+ Faster than the Samsung 850 Pro with moderate loads
- Half speed 960 Pro
- TLC 3D NAND slower with write operations

Last year, NVMe drives were extremely expensive offers. Things changed a little after several companies offered NVMe drives that use TLC NAND memory. Intel became the first company to offer a low-cost NVMe drive for public use. This is a 600p series with 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB capacities.

It is better not to touch drives of 128 GB and 256 GB, because they are identical in performance to the flagship SATA SSD, but the cost is several times more expensive. The 600p series becomes interesting if we consider the offer for 512 GB and 1 TB. Reasonably priced for high performance, Intel is balancing between price and speed.

The Intel 600p line-up is a third-party Silicon Motion SM2260 controller with 8 channels of flash memory and a dual-core processor with ARM Cortex architecture. A 32-level TLC 3D NAND (co-developed by Intel and Micron) is used. Intel provides the ability to configure part of NAND, like the SLC cache, to at least somehow compensate for the lack of parallelism in the architecture, although continuous recording will fill the SLC cache and performance will suffer. With reading operations, 600p copes with a bang, but for example in the synthetic test IOMeter, when the drive is working in read / write mode, it is inferior in terms of the best SSD SATA (and therefore does not go beyond the speed limit of 550-600 MB / s).

In reality, while copying the catalog of games with 8800 files of 18.4 GB, the performance was almost twice as much as in any SATA drive. Download Windows, run applications and other everyday tasks - at a good level. The PCMark 8 Storage test showed a bandwidth of about 350 MB / s.


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If you work with a lot of small files or a large database, the Intel 600p is not the best choice, but for a gaming PC with a capacious SSD as the main drive, the Intel 600p is a great alternative to the SATA SSD, which is usually recommended for gaming.

View Intel 600p pricing

Best Alternative NVMe SSD


Samsung 960 Evo 1TB




+ Almost as fast as the 960 Pro
+ Good price for GB for NVMe
+ Capacity up to 1 TB
- No 2TB model, still expensive

SSD with a capacity of 480 GB - 512 GB SSD in our time is more popular than others, they provide a sufficient amount of disk quota for the system, your regular applications, a collection of games. In the server sentences, SSD drives are preferred for storing more popular and frequently used files.

If you choose a balanced product on indicators such as performance, capacity and price, the choice is obvious - Samsung 960 Evo.







The 960 Evo is very close in performance to the 960 Pro, but is 25% cheaper. 960 Evo will not work if you need a 2 TB SSD in the M.2 form factor. Normally, a regular 1TB user should be enough. SSD 960 EVO with NVMe interface and Polaris controller provide speed during read / write operations 3200/1900 MB / s, 380 thousand / 360 thousand IOPS, respectively. Unlike the 960 Pro, the third-generation TLC 3D V-NAND is installed in the 960 EVO.





Currently, the Intel 600p is the only NVIDIA 1TB SSD drive that is cheaper than the 960 Evo ($ 100), but if you're looking for better performance, this is a good alternative.

View Samsung Evo 960 1TB prices

Not all NVMe drives are the same, and the three drives provided in the review are the best, budget and trade-off (between performance, capacity and price) options. Most of the new drives still don't match the performance of the Intel SSD 750 and Samsung 950 Pro, the first consumer NVMe drives. Time will tell whether NVMe will be offered, which will be able to replace Samsung and Intel.

The pcgamer team conducted 10 tests among NVMe SSDs. It was a test suite for SSD drives: synthetic benchmarks for performance, file processing in real-world conditions. Ten separate test results were combined into a common metric. Performance is not the only factor in the choice of SSD, the drive capacity is two more factors that were taken into account in the results (performance / price / power).







Let's take a look at some more NVMe interface drives, the test results of which are in the photo above. Many of them compete with the above-mentioned leaders, especially in the public sector, where a slight change in price matters. Below is a list of NVMe SSDs (in the form factor: AIC (optional card), M.2 or U.2) in alphabetical order.

Corsair Force MP500 (M.2)




Corsair Force MP500 (M.2): The NVMe, MP500 Corsair uses a Phison PS50007-E7 controller and a MLC NAND controller. Impressive performance, including very high levels of performance during the synthetic test, on the whole, the MP500 is superior only to Samsung drives and the Intel SSD 750 solid state drive. Unfortunately, the 960 Evo offers higher capacity and slightly higher performance.

Intel 600p (M.2)




Intel 600p (M.2): the budget choice is actually one of the slowest NVMe drives that have been tested, but it is much cheaper than many others. There is a model for 512 GB for only $ 130, which is equal to the budget offers of SATA SSD. Maximum performance - 1775/560 MB / s and 128.5 thousand / 128 thousand IOPS, which is lower than most other NVMe drives. 600p is suitable for light workloads.

Intel SSD 750 (AIC or U.2)




Intel SSD 750 (AIC or U.2): the first consumer storage NVMe, which went into retail, a good rival. Excellent performance - 2500/1200 MB / s and 460 thousand / 290 thousand IOPS. The main problem is that it is available only in two formats: PCIe x4 AIC or 2.5-inch U.2 disk.

Patriot Hellfire (M.2)




Patriot Hellfire (M.2): The Patriot Hellfire turned out to be a powerful NVMe storage device. Its performance is much higher than Intel 600p, it is an alternative budget option. Available in capacities of 240 GB, 480 GB and 960 GB. Hellfire on read / write operations demonstrates 3000/2200 MB / s and 116 thousand / 210 thousand IOPS, respectively. Such a low IOPS reading is a huge disadvantage.

Plextor M8Pe (M.2 or AIC)




Plextor M8Pe (M.2 or AIC): another potential competitor, an excellent variant of the less expensive NVMe, depending on the volume. The M8Pe uses a Marvell 88SS1093 and MLC NAND controller, which provides high performance. Such a drive is not inferior to Toshiba OCZ RD400, available in 256 GB, 512 GB and 1 TB. You can also get it using an expansion card adapter at a higher price. Performance is (write / read) 2500/1400 MB / s with 280 thousand / 240 thousand IOPS, respectively. The M8Pe is potentially better than the 1TB 960 Evo if you are willing to sacrifice a “small amount” of performance in exchange for a lower price.

Samsung 950 Pro (M.2)




Samsung 950 Pro (M.2): Samsung's first NVMe drive, which went on sale, the 950 Pro is a worthy competitor for the 960 Pro. The combination of 3D V-NAND with a UBX controller provides high speed data transfer and excellent performance. Model 512 GB demonstrates 2500/1500 MB / s and 300 thousand / 110 thousand IOPS.

Samsung PM951 (M.2)




Samsung PM951 (M.2): Affordable NVMe drive, Samsung PM951 was the cheapest before the release of 600p from Intel. Unfortunately, this is only an OEM drive, you cannot find it on the Internet until you receive official support. The drives use TLC NAND, poor performance, no better than SATA SSD drives. It shows 1050/560 MB / s and 250 thousand / 144 thousand IOPS (512 GB model).

Samsung PM961 (M.2)




Samsung PM961 (M.2): predecessor of the 960 Evo for retail. The 512 GB model demonstrates performance in read / write operations at 2800/1600 MB / s and 260 thousand / 260 thousand IOPS, respectively. The PM961 uses TLC V-NAND and a Polaris controller. Reasonable budget option.

Samsung SM951 NVMe (M.2)




Samsung SM951 NVMe (M.2): Samsung's first drive in the form factor M.2 NVMe, an OEM product. Performance is actually the same as in the 950 Pro.

Samsung SM961 (M.2)




Samsung SM961 (M.2): Like the PM961, this is an OEM version of the 960 Pro with similar characteristics, but without official support from Samsung. Performance is 3200/1800 MB / s and 450 thousand / 400 thousand IOPS with read / write operations.

Toshiba OCZ RD400 (M.2 or AIC)




Toshiba OCZ RD400 (M.2 or AIC): Toshiba was the first to release a 1 TB solid state drive in the M.2 form factor, initial demand was very high. The price of a 1TB drive remains higher than that of the Samsung 950 Pro / 960 Pro. The RD400 does not work as fast as Samsung drives: performance on read / write operations is 2600/1550 MB / s and 210 thousand / 130 thousand IOPS, respectively.

Toshiba XG3 (M.2)




Toshiba XG3 (M.2): everything indicates that the XG3 is an RD400 for OEMs, there is no warranty support.

WD Black 512GB (M.2)




WD Black 512GB (M.2): the company is new to the SSD scene. WD Black uses a Marvell 88SS1093 + SanDisk 15nm TLC planar NAND controller. The performance is lower than that of many other tested NVMe drives: 2050/800 MB / s and 170 thousand / 134 thousand IOPS with read / write operations. However, like the Intel 600p, this is one of the budget drives. WD Black is barely ahead of the SATA SSD.

Zotac Sonix 480GB (AIC)




Zotac Sonix 480GB (AIC): The Zotac uses the same Phison PS5007-E7 controller as the Corsair MP500. Zotac Sonix boasts a high data transfer rate of 2800/1500 MB / s. Combined with a limited set of features (NVMe Sonix is ​​only available as 480 GB AIC) and a high price, the drive is currently difficult to recommend.

As you can see, there are many SSD SSDs with NVMe interface on the market, which reveal the full potential of high-speed drives. Such drives are beginning to successfully flirt with budget prices, becoming available not only for corporate clients.

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