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Review: Samsung 840 EVO mSATA 250GB ADVERTISEMENT
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Samsung have taken the 840 EVO making it available in the
much smaller mSATA form factor. There are few motherboards available which already
have an mSATA slot available, but it is most likely that the 840 EVO mSATA SSD is
aimed at the Ultrabook and laptop market. The Samsung 840 EVO mSATA utilises
the now familiar Samsung MEX SSD controller, coupled with 19nm toggle 2 TLC
NAND.
Samsung was kind enough to send me two SSDs for review. A
250GB model, and the world's first 1TB mSATA SSD. In this article I will be
taking a look at the 250GB model, having covered
the 1000GB model last week.
So let's find out how this new SSD performs in our range of
tests.
Samsung company information
Samsung should need no introduction, but those of you who
would like to find out more about Samsung, can do so at their website.
The Samsung 840 EVO mSATA - 250GB SSD
Now it’s time to take a look at the drive itself and what it
came shipped with.
Packaging
The review sample I received was the full retail kit.
Samsung 840 EVO mSATA SSD full retail kit
The full retail kit contained the following items. The
Samsung 840 EVO mSATA SSD itself, a couple of 'Samsung SSD activated' stickers,
and an instruction and warranty information booklet.
Box front
Box rear
Software
The software supplied, via download from the Samsung website,
is as follows.
- Samsung Magician 4.3
- Samsung Migration software (not shown or tested)
Samsung Magician
The Samsung Magician software allows the user to maintain
the SSD, and has the following features.
- Disk drive: Brings up useful information about the
SSD, including its health status, and how much data has been written to
the SSD. - System info: Allows the user to see system and
drive properties. - Performance Benchmark: Performs a basic benchmark
on the SSD. - Performance optimization: Performs a manual TRIM of
the SSD. - OS Optimization: Allows operating system features,
that can affect SSD performance, to be switched on or off. - Firmware Update: Allows the Samsung 840 EVO mSATA firmware
to be updated. - Secure Erase: Sends a Secure Erase command to the
SSD, clearing all NAND and returning the SSD back to its default factory
state. - Over Provisioning: Allows the user to set aside a
given amount of NAND as a manual over provisioning area. - SSD authenticity test: Checks to make sure
that the SSD is a genuine Samsung SSD. - Enable Rapid mode: Enables the NVELO 'Rapid' cache
feature. - Data Security: Applying 256-bit AES keys, the new self
encryption feature allows strong data security, and is compliant with TCG
Opal and IEEE 1667 standards.
Now let's head to the next page, where we look in more
detail at the Samsung 840 EVO mSATA SSD.....
