Samsung 990 Evo Plus 1 TB NVMe SSD review

pcgamer.com:

Few names in the PC gaming industry command quite as much respect as Samsung does with its SSDs. It's synonymous with that manufacturing avenue. Or at least it was. It's wild really; the company was absolutely dominant with PCIe 3.0 and early PCIe 4.0 SSDs. The 970 and 980 series were incredible and still remain popular today if PC Part Picker's stats are anything to be believed. It wasn't without merit either; Samsung's drives have typically always been high performers, suitably durable, and backed up by a solid warranty, with decent customer support (at least for the few times I've had to make contact with them).

Still, it's been over 17 months since the advent of PCIe 5.0 and the subsequent slew of Phison E27-powered performance SSDs, and since then, at least from Samsung, we've heard absolutely diddly squat on that front. Certainly, when it comes to dedicated drives.

Weirdly, Samsung's 990 EVO series, and now its 990 EVO Plus line (which I have on test here today), do bizarrely support the connection standard, but in a rather odd use-case, although more on that in a little bit.

So, top-line specs, what are we looking at here? Well, the 990 EVO Plus is available in three separate variants, ranging from 1 to 4 TB. Sequentials look to max out the PCIe 4.0 standard, with my 1 TB review sample topping out at 7,150 MB/s on the read and 6,300 MB/s on the write, and it's utilizing the M.2 2280 form factor, although the overall design suggests Sammy's been smart here and is optimizing it for use in OEM capacities as well.

Capacity: 1 TB
Interface: PCIe 4.0 x4 / PCIe 5.0 x2
Memory controller: Samsung Piccolo Controller
Flash memory: Samsung 236-Layer TLC V-NAND
Rated performance: 7,150 MB/s sustained read, 6,300 MB/s sustained write
Endurance: 600 TBW
Warranty: Five years
Price: $90 | £106 | AU$195

For the core hardware, the 990 EVO Plus, pairs Samsung's latest 236-layer TLC V-NAND with its proprietary in-house «Piccolo» controller (the same one found on the original 990