Samsung 840 EVO mSATA 1TB SSD Review

Review: Samsung 840 EVO mSATA 1TB
Reviewed by: Wendy
Robertson

Provided by:  Samsung
Model: MZ-MTE1T0
Firmware version: EXT41B6Q

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Last year was a big year for Samsung and their SSDs, and it
isn't that long ago that I tested the Samsung 840 EVO range of SSDs. In fact
the review editors here at Myce.wiki voted the 840 EVO series of SSDs as the best
consumer grade SSD of 2013.

Let's fast forward a few months, and 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 TLC NAND. The NAND onboard the 840 EVO is
a little more interesting than the NAND of the normal 840 EVO series of SSDs,
but we'll take a look at the NAND a little later in this article.

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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 1TB model, and I will cover the 250GB model a little later.
There are also 120GB and 500GB versions available.

I will also introduce the new 'revision 3 Myce Reality Suite',
with an expanded range of tests, and a new test platform. We will also take a
look at this a little bit later in the article.

So let's find out how this new SSD performs in our range of
tests.

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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 - 1000GB 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.....

 

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