Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB Review

By Olin Coles

Manufacturer: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Product Name: 860 EVO Solid State Drive
Part Number: MZ7LH1T0HMLU
Model Number: MZ-76E1T0 (MZ-76E1T0B/AM)
UPC: 887276232294 EAN: 0887276232294
Price As Tested: $237.99 (Amazon | Newegg)

Full Disclosure: The product sample used in this article has been provided by Samsung.

Samsung announced their 3-bit MLC V-NAND flash technology with the latest SSD 860 EVO solid state drive series. In this article, Benchmark Reviews tests the 1TB Samsung SSD 860 EVO, which pairs 64-cell layer V-NAND and 1GB LPDDR4 DRAM cache buffer with their MJX controller to produce up to 550 MB/s reads at 98,000 IOPS and 520 MB/s writes at 90,000 IOPS, and we compare SATA 6 GB/s performance against all the leading SSD storage competition.

It’s been more than three years since Samsung last released a solid state drive for the SATA 6GB/s interface, which we covered in our Samsung SSD 850 EVO Solid State Drive Review. The primary difference hardware between then and now is their 64-cell layer V-NAND architecture, which now delivers twice as much capacity per IC. This allows Samsung to offer their new 860 EVO in capacities up to 4TB. That same improvement also doubles reliability, as the Total Bytes Written (TBW) jumps from 150TB for the 500GB 850 EVO to 300TB for the new 500GB 860 EVO.

If you’ve kept up with technology news, you might have been misled into believing the SATA 6Gb/s interface was made obsolete by speedy M.2 2280 form factor on the PCIe 3.0 interface. This is not true. The Samsung 860 EVO is a 2.5″ solid state drive made for the SATA 6Gb/s interface, which is still widely utilized by most desktop computers and notebook PCs. The Samsung 860 EVO series accommodates SATA, mSATA, and M.2 interfaces.

Solid State Drive performance revolves around two dynamics: bandwidth speed (MB/s) and operational performance I/O per second (IOPS). These two metrics work together, but one may be more important than the other depending on the workload. Consider this analogy: bandwidth determines how much cargo a ship can transport in one voyage, and operational IOPS performance is how fast that ship moves back and forth. By understanding this and applying it to SSD storage, there is a clear importance set on each variable depending on the task at hand.

For casual users, especially those with laptop or desktop computers that have been upgraded to use an SSD, the naturally quick response time is enough to automatically improve the user experience. Bandwidth speed is important, but only to the extent that operational performance meets the minimum needs of the system. If an SSD has a very high bandwidth speed but a low operational performance, it will take longer to load applications and boot the computer’s Operating System than another SSD that offers higher IOPS performance.

Samsung SSD 860 EVO solid state drives are available for 2.5″ SATA, M.2, and mSATA form factors, and offered in five capacities: 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB. The 1T Samsung SSD 860 EVO solid state drive we’re testing is available online for $237.99 (Amazon | Newegg). This kit includes the SSD, install guide, and warranty.

Solid state storage has become standard equipment for performance-minded consumers because they work equally well in PC, Linux, or Apple computer systems. Likewise, these storage devices easily install into desktop and notebook platforms without any necessary modifications. 860 EVO is designed to give personal computers a much faster response time that can really help boost productivity and user experience.Samsung’s 64-cell layer V-NAND technology is designed to sustain an 80GB daily workload per 250GB unit of capacity, which means 160GB daily workload for the 500GB, and 300 Terabytes Written (TBW) over five years for our drive, coinciding with Samsung’s industry-leading 5-year limited warranty.

Unlike fragile Hard Disk Drive (HDD) magnetic storage products, SSDs are not nearly as sensitive to impact damage and do not require (or benefit from) any kind of special vibration dampening or shock-proof enclosures.

The Samsung 860 EVO features a 7mm thick chassis that comes with a matte black metal finish. Samsung utilizes a standard two-piece metal enclosure for the 860 EVO, with their branding at the top and product information label on the bottom. Internal components are revealed by removing two small counter-sunk screws located at the underside of this solid state drive (removing screws or label will void warranty).

Standard 2.5″ drive bay mounting points are pre-drilled into the SSD chassis with fine screw threading, allowing this drive to fit directly into notebook computers that use SATA connections. For older notebooks that fit a 9mm drive, users should purchase a plastic adapter that fits atop this 7mm SSD. The threaded mounting positions matched up to the drive bracket on my notebook computer.In the next few sections we’ll test the Samsung SSD 860 EVO, and compare this solid state drive to other SATA 6G storage products intended for notebook and desktop installations. For reference, Samsung advertises up to 550 MB/s read and 520 MB/s write speeds for all their 860 EVO solid state drives.

Early on in our SSD coverage, Benchmark Reviews published an article which detailed Solid State Drive Benchmark Performance Testing. The research and discussion that went into producing that article changed the way we now test SSD products. Our previous perceptions of this technology were lost on one particular difference: the wear leveling algorithm that makes data a moving target. Without conclusive linear bandwidth testing or some other method of total-capacity testing, our previous performance results were rough estimates at best.

Our test results were obtained after each SSD had been prepared using DISKPART, or similar proprietary tools such as Samsung Magician. As a word of caution, applications such as these offer immediate but temporary restoration of original ‘pristine’ performance levels. SSDs attached to TRIM enabled Operating Systems will benefit from continuously refreshed performance, whereas older O/S’s will require a garbage collection (GC) tool to avoid ‘dirty NAND’ performance degradation.

It’s critically important to understand that no single software tool for the Microsoft Windows platform can accurately measure comprehensive SSD performance in a comparable fashion. Synthetic benchmark tools such as ATTO Disk Benchmark and Iometer are helpful indicators, but should not be considered the ultimate determining factor. That factor should be measured in actual user experience of real-world applications. Benchmark Reviews includes both bandwidth benchmarks and application speed tests to present a conclusive measurement of product performance.

 

• Motherboard: ASUS P8P67 EVO (Intel P67 Sandy Bridge Platform, B3 Stepping)
• Processor: Intel Core i7-2600K 3.4 GHz Quad-Core CPU
• System Memory: 8GB Dual-Channel DDR3 1600MHz CL6-6-6-18
• SATA 6Gb/s Storage HBA: Integrated Intel P67 Controller
  • AHCI mode – Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver 11.7.0.1013
• SATA 3Gb/s Storage HBA: Integrated Intel P67 Controller
  • AHCI mode – Intel Rapid Storage Technology Driver 11.7.0.1013
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition 64-Bit with Service Pack 1

• AS SSD Benchmark 1.6.4067.34354: Multi-purpose speed and operational performance test
• ATTO Disk Benchmark 2.46: Spot-tests static file size chunks for basic I/O bandwidth
• CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1a by Crystal Dew World: Sequential speed benchmark spot-tests various file size chunks
• Iometer 1.1.0 (built 08-Nov-2010) by Intel Corporation: Tests IOPS performance and I/O response time
• Finalwire AIDA64: Disk Benchmark component tests linear read and write bandwidth speeds
• Futuremark PCMark Vantage: HDD Benchmark Suite tests real-world drive performance

This article utilizes benchmark software tools to produce operational IOPS performance and bandwidth speed results. Each test was conducted in a specific fashion, and repeated for all products. These test results are not comparable to any other benchmark application, neither on this website or another, regardless of similar IOPS or MB/s terminology in the scores. The test results in this project are only intended to be compared to the other test results conducted in identical fashion for this article.

Alex Schepeljanski of Alex Intelligent Software develops the free AS SSD Benchmark utility for testing storage devices. The AS SSD Benchmark tests sequential read and write speeds, input/output operational performance, and response times.

AS-SSD Benchmark uses compressed data, so sequential file transfer speeds are reported lower than with other tools using uncompressed data. For this reason, we will concentrate on the operational IOPS performance in this section.

Beginning with sequential transfer performance, the 1TB 860 EVO solid state drive produced read speeds averaging 517 MB/s and write speeds averaging 498 MB/s. These sequential speeds compared well against other high-performance SSDs we’ve tested. Single-threaded 4K IOPS performance tests delivered 38 MB/s reads and 75 MB/s writes, while the 64-thread 4K read test recorded 389 MB/s with write speed at 330 MB/s.

1TB Samsung 860 EVO AS-SSD Results

AS-SSD 64-thread 4KB IOPS performance results are displayed below, comparing several SATA 6GB/s solid state storage devices. In the 64-thread 4KB IOPS performance tests, the 1TB Samsung SSD 860 EVO offered excellent results that placed it among the top SSDs. The chart below is sorted by total combined performance, which helps illustrate which products offer the best operational input/output under load:

In the next section, Benchmark Reviews tests transfer rates using ATTO Disk Benchmark.

The ATTO Disk Benchmark program is free, and offers a comprehensive set of test variables to work with. In terms of disk performance, it measures interface transfer rates at various intervals for a user-specified length and then reports read and write speeds for these spot-tests. There are some minor improvements made to the 2.46 version of the program that allow for test lengths up to 2GB, but all of our benchmarks are conducted with 256MB total length. ATTO Disk Benchmark requires that an active partition be set on the drive being tested. Please consider the results displayed by this benchmark to be basic bandwidth speed performance indicators.

1TB Samsung 860 EVO ATTO Benchmark Results

Our bandwidth speed tests begin with the Samsung 860 EVO solid state drive attached to the Intel P67-Express SATA 6Gb/s controller operating in AHCI mode. Using the ATTO Disk Benchmark tool, the test drive performs basic file transfers ranging from 0.5 KB to 8192 KB.

The 1TB model provided to Benchmark Reviews for testing produced 565 MBps maximum read speeds that plateau from around 256-8192 KB file chunks, and 538 MBps peak write bandwidth that plateaus from 128-8192 KB. These read and write speeds exceed Samsung’s specified 550 MB/s maximum read and 520 MB/s write speeds.

Below is a comparison of all recent test results, sorted by combined total:

In the next section, Benchmark Reviews tests sequential performance using the CrystalDiskMark 3.0 software tool…

CrystalDiskMark 3.0 is a file transfer and operational bandwidth benchmark tool from Crystal Dew World that offers performance transfer speed results using sequential, 512KB random, and 4KB random samples. For our test results chart below, the 4KB 32-Queue Depth read and write performance was measured using a 1000MB space. CrystalDiskMark requires that an active partition be set on the drive being tested, and all drives are formatted with NTFS on the Intel P67 chipset configured to use AHCI-mode. Benchmark Reviews uses CrystalDiskMark to illustrate operational IOPS performance with multiple threads. In addition to our other tests, this benchmark allows us to determine operational bandwidth under heavy load.

CrystalDiskMark uses compressed data, so sequential file transfer speeds are reported lower than with other tools using uncompressed data. For this reason, we will concentrate on the operational IOPS performance in this section.

CrystalDiskMark 3.0 reports sequential speeds reaching 525 MB/s reads and 502 MB/s writes. 512K test results reached 471 MB/s read and 481 MB/s write performance. 4K tests produced 33 MB/s read and 101 MB/s write performance. The CrystalDiskMark results for this 1TB Samsung 860 EVO placed performance near the very top of all results collected for SATA-based solid state drives.

1TB Samsung 860 EVO CrystalDiskMark Results

Maximum 4KB IOPS performance results at queue depth 32 are reported in the chart below, sorted by combined total. These values represent the performance levels for several enthusiast-level storage solutions, and illustrates which products offer the best operational performance under load:

In the next section, we continue our testing using Iometer to measure input/output performance…

Iometer is an I/O subsystem measurement and characterization tool for single and clustered systems. Iometer does for a computer’s I/O subsystem what a dynamometer does for an engine: it measures performance under a controlled load. Iometer was originally developed by the Intel Corporation and formerly known as “Galileo”. Intel has discontinued work on Iometer, and has gifted it to the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL). There is currently a new version of Iometer in beta form, which adds several new test dimensions for SSDs.

Iometer is both a workload generator (that is, it performs I/O operations in order to stress the system) and a measurement tool (that is, it examines and records the performance of its I/O operations and their impact on the system). It can be configured to emulate the disk or network I/O load of any program or benchmark, or can be used to generate entirely synthetic I/O loads. It can generate and measure loads on single or multiple (networked) systems.

To measure random I/O response time as well as total I/O’s per second, Iometer is set to use 4KB file size chunks over a 100% random sequential distribution at a queue depth of 32 outstanding I/O’s per target. The tests are given a 50% read and 50% write distribution. While this pattern may not match traditional ‘server’ or ‘workstation’ profiles, it illustrates a single point of reference relative to our product field.

All of our SSD tests used Iometer 1.1.0 (build 08-Nov-2010) by Intel Corporation to measure IOPS performance. Iometer is configured to use 32 outstanding I/O’s per target and random 50/50 read/write distribution configuration: 4KB 100 Random 50-50 Read and Write.icf. The chart below illustrates combined random read and write IOPS over a 120-second Iometer test phase, where highest I/O total is preferred:

1TB Samsung 860 EVO IOPS Results

Producing 94,500 total IOPS, the 1TB Samsung SSD 860 EVO outperformed every other modern SATA SSD we’ve tested to date. This edged out both the 1TB 860 PRO, and also the 500GB 850 PRO.

It should be noted that most modern SSDs deliver I/O far beyond the needs of multi-tasking power users and hardcore gamers, however our results indicate that the Samsung SSD 860 EVO series would also be ideal for systems running utilizing virtual machines.

In our next section, we test linear read and write bandwidth performance and compare its speed against several other top storage products using AIDA64 Disk Benchmark. Benchmark Reviews feels that linear tests are excellent for rating SSDs, however HDDs are put at a disadvantage with these tests whenever capacity is high.

Many enthusiasts are familiar with the Finalwire AIDA64 benchmark suite (formerly Lavalys EVEREST), but very few are aware of the Disk Benchmark tool available inside the program. The AIDA64 Disk Benchmark performs linear read and write bandwidth tests on each drive, and can be configured to use file chunk sizes up to 1MB (which speeds up testing and minimizes jitter in the waveform). Because of the full sector-by-sector nature of linear testing, Benchmark Reviews endorses this method for testing SSD products, as detailed in our Solid State Drive Benchmark Performance Testing article. However, Hard Disk Drive products suffer a lower average bandwidth as the capacity draws linear read/write speed down into the inner-portion of the disk platter. AIDA64 Disk Benchmark does not require a partition to be present for testing, so all of our benchmarks are completed prior to drive formatting.

Linear disk benchmarks are superior bandwidth speed tools in my opinion, because they scan from the first physical sector to the last. A side affect of many linear write-performance test tools is that the data is erased as it writes to every sector on the drive. Normally this isn’t an issue, but it has been shown that partition table alignment will occasionally play a role in overall SSD performance (HDDs don’t suffer this problem).

1TB Samsung 860 EVO Read Results

The high-performance storage products tested with Lavalys AIDA64 Disk Benchmark are connected to the Intel P67-Express SATA 6Gb/s controller and use a 1MB block size option. Charted above, read performance on the 1TB Samsung 860 EVO measured average speeds of 503 MB/s, which arrives near the top of all test results. After an initial delay, the read speed up to 510 MB/s, which it carried across the remainder of capacity.

AIDA64 linear write-to tests were next…

1TB Samsung 860 EVO Write Results

The waveform chart above illustrates how the 860 EVO managed file write-transfers. Using ‘clean’ NAND, the 1TB 860 EVO recorded linear write-to speeds averaging 478 MB/s. 3-Bit MLC (TLC) NAND architecture offers an advantage over planar NAND, but sequential performance is typically not as impressive as 2-bit MLC.

The chart below shows the average linear read and write bandwidth speeds for SATA devices tested with AIDA64:

Linear tests are an important tool for comparing bandwidth speed between storage products – although HDD products suffer performance degradation over the span of their areal storage capacity. Linear bandwidth certainly benefits the Solid State Drive, since there’s very little fluctuation in transfer speed. This is because Hard Disk Drive products decline in performance as the spindle reaches the inner-most sectors on the magnetic platter, away from the fast outer edge.

In the next section we use PCMark Vantage to test real-world performance…

PCMark Vantage is an objective hardware performance benchmark tool for PCs running 32- and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7. PCMark Vantage is well suited for benchmarking any type of Microsoft Windows Vista/7 PC: from multimedia home entertainment systems and laptops, to dedicated workstations and high-end gaming rigs. Benchmark Reviews has decided to use the HDD Test Suite to demonstrate simulated real-world storage drive performance in this article.

PCMark Vantage runs eight different storage benchmarks, each with a specific purpose. Once testing is complete, results are given a PCMark score while and detailed results indicate actual transaction speeds. Samsung’s 860 PRO produced a noteworthy total PCMark Vantage (secondary) HDD Test Suite score of 82077, positioning this SSD near the top of all our SATA test results. Specific benchmark speeds reported below:

1TB Samsung 860 EVO PCMark Vantage Results

Our tests were conducted on an Intel P67-Express Sandy Bridge motherboard using the onboard native SATA 6Gb/s controller with 64-bit Windows 7. This test is not comparable to other PCMark tests, and may not be fairly compared to storage devices attached to other computer systems.

In the next section, I share my review conclusion and final product rating.

IMPORTANT: Although the rating and final score mentioned in this conclusion are made to be as objective as possible, please be advised that every author perceives these factors differently. While we each do our best to ensure that all aspects of the product are considered, there are often times unforeseen market conditions and manufacturer changes occurring after publication which might render our rating obsolete. Please do not base any purchase solely on this conclusion, as it represents our rating specifically for the item tested which may differ from future versions. Benchmark Reviews begins our conclusion with a short summary for each of the areas that we rate.

Our performance rating compares how effective the 1TB Samsung SSD 860 EVO performed in benchmark operations against competing SATA-based solid state drive storage solutions. For reference, Samsung specifications suggest 550 MB/s maximum reads and 520 MB/s maximum write speeds for the 860 EVO series. In our storage benchmark tests, the 860 EVO exceeded these ratings. ATTO Disk Benchmark delivered 565/538 MBps peak read/writes speeds, placing it among the top performers. Sequential read/write speed tests with AS-SSD Benchmark produced 517/498 MBps, and 525/502 in CrystalDiskMark tests. Linear testing with AIDA64 Disk Benchmark produced an average 503 MB/s read speed while write performance averaged 478 MB/s.

The 1TB Samsung SSD 860 EVO solid state drive sent to us for testing advertises 98,000 4K read IOPS and 90,000 4K QD32 write performance. Using Iometer operational performance tests configured to a queue depth of 32 outstanding I/O’s per target across 100% of the drive, our benchmarks produced a combined 94,500 IOPS, which places 860 EVO’s operational I/O performance at the very top of modern SSDs tested. CrystalDiskMark IOPS performance again topped all other results, confirming Iometer’s results. Looking at 4K 32QD results using AS-SSD, performance settled near the top of our results, as it also did in PCMark Vantage storage tests, where 860 EVO placed near the top for synthetic ‘real-world’ performance results.

Performance for Samsung 860 EVO is best summarized as very fast, and very capable of extreme I/O tasks.

Solid State Drives are low-visibility products that you see during installation, and then they’re forgotten. Like their Hard Disk Drive counterparts, the Solid State Drive is intended to place function before fashion. Anything above and beyond a simple metal shell is already more than what’s expected in terms of the appearance. Samsung has repeated their elegant deep black finish again for the Samsung SSD 860 EVO series. As solid state storage controllers become faster and more advanced, heat dissipation through the enclosure walls may demand that chassis designs become more beneficial than they previously needed to be. For now, the adaptive thermal monitoring system on the 860 EVO suits it well for managing heat in ultrathin and embedded designs.

Construction is probably the strongest feature credited to the entire solid state product segment, as SSDs are immune to most physical abuses. Samsung’s 64-cell layer V-NAND doubles the TBW over the previous generation. If there are ever any problems with 860 EVO during the industry leading 5-year warranty period, end-users may contact Samsung Support.

As of July 2018, the 1TB Samsung SSD 860 EVO series is available for $237.99 (Amazon | Newegg). This price tag puts Samsung’s 860 EVO series just slightly above the market average for each capacity, which is impressive considering that nothing about this SSD is average. In fact, everything is considerably well beyond average, from its top-end I/O bandwidth and transfer speeds to write endurance and industry-leading warranty.

In conclusion, as it has done before, 860 EVO outperformed much of the competition in every aspect, while proving to be every bit as powerful as the 860 PRO. IOPS performance is the best we’ve seen from a SATA 6GB/s SSD, and transfer speeds were at the top end. There are plenty of SSDs on the market, but Samsung continues to lead in storage technology innovation. Based on all these factors, gamers and performance enthusiasts are well-suited to the 860 EVO series.

Benchmark Reviews recognizes how well the Samsung SSD 860 EVO series delivers highest-end operational performance at a terrific value for power users, and proudly earns our Golden Tachometer Award.

+ Impressive 565/538 MBps read/write speed with ATTO
+ Random 4K read/writes produced 94,500 IOPS
+ Samsung MJX controller supports TRIM and NCQ
+ Samsung 64-cell layer V-NAND doubles TBW durability
+ TCG/Opal 2.0 security automatic 256-bit AES hardware encryption
+ 5-Year Samsung product warranty support
+ Lightweight compact storage solution
+ Resistant to extreme shock impact
+ Device sleep (DEVSLP) function extends battery life

– 3-Bit MLC NAND offers less impressive sequential performance

• Performance: 9.50
• Appearance: 8.75
• Construction: 9.75
• Functionality: 9.50
• Value: 8.00

Excellence Achievement: Benchmark Reviews Golden Tachometer Award.

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