Counterfeit Samsung 980 Pro SSD Looks Genuine, Fools Magician Software
Counterfeit versions of Samsung's popular 980 Pro M.2 SSD have started appearing for sale, and it's difficult to tell they aren't the real thing.
As Tom's Hardware reports(Opens in a new window), a Chinese user posted images(Opens in a new window) on the Baidu Tieba forums of a recently-purchased 2TB Samsung 980 Pro SSD. It arrived in official Samsung packaging, had the correct Samsung label attached to the SSD, and the firmware also looked to be legitimate on first inspection. Even Samsung's own Magician SSD management software detected the drive as the real thing.
It wasn't until the user started testing the drive that suspicions were raised. The real 980 Pro drives are capable of achieving 7,000MB/s read speeds and 5,100MB/s writes. This drive only managed 4,200MB/s and 3,900MB/s respectively.
That led the buyer to remove the Samsung sticker attached to the M.2 SSD to reveal the non-genuine parts. This fake 980 Pro uses a Maxio MAP1602A PCIe 4.0 SSD controller manufactured using TSMC's 12nm process and 128-layer TLC 3D V-NAND chips from Chinese manufacturer YMTC. The real drives use Samsung's own 128-layer V-NAND chips and an 8nm Samsung Elpis controller.
These counterfeit Samsung SSDs are being sold on the second-hand market in China through Taobao's Xianyu marketplace, and they typically carry a price around $40 less than the genuine 980 Pro drive listings. The use of official packaging and the fact they look genuine when opened means many buyers probably don't realize they are now using a counterfeit drive in their PCs.
Even though Samsung produces a 990 Pro series of drives now, the 980 Pro continues to be popular because it works well as an SSD for the PS5. However, anyone installing one of these counterfeit
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