Final Thoughts and Rating

HEXUS Snapshot:

...though the limitations of the SATA 6Gbps interface prevent any giant leaps in performance, users living on the cutting edge will find that Samsung's latest is a genuine step up from many of its competitors.

We've been staunch advocates of SSDs for some time here at HEXUS, and we maintain that once you've experienced the speed and silence of a solid-state drive, there's no going back. Add an SSD to almost any system, and you'll witness a performance increase that no other single component can provide.

Anyone who remains undecided should know that there's never been a better time to make the transition to SSD storage. Tumbling NAND Flash memory prices have made high-end drives cheaper than ever before, and right now, there are dozens of ultra-fast solutions on the market that we'd quite happily recommend.

But this high-performance realm is where the enthusiast resides, and if one-of-the-fastest just isn't good enough, turn your attention to Samsung's 840 PRO Series. For those willing to pay a little extra, this is one of the quickest 2.5in drives to ever enter our labs and though the limitations of the SATA 6Gbps interface prevent any giant leaps in performance, users living on the cutting edge will find that Samsung's latest is a genuine step up from many of its competitors.

Samsung still needs to be aggressive on price - the cheaper 830 Series continues to offer better value for the masses - but make no mistake, the new-and-improved 840 PRO Series is backed by a longer five-year warranty, it's more efficient, it's faster and, though these are early days, it's shaping up to be one of the best SSDs to date.

The Good

Outstanding performance
Remains fast regardless of data type
Uses high-speed Toggle DDR 2.0 NAND
Bundle includes SSD Magician software
Limited five-year warranty as standard

The Bad

Pricey compared to most of the competition
Performance linked to capacity; 128GB model not as quick

HEXUS Rating

Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series (512GB)

HEXUS Awards

Samsung SSD 840 PRO Series (512GB)

HEXUS Where2Buy

TBC.

HEXUS Right2Reply

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Nice review :)

Our custom Iometer test bombards each drive with a random spread of 4K reads and writes, and though it bears little resemblance to real-world use, it can demonstrate a drive's ability to cope in a worst-case scenario.

Well, there is an ever-growing use for data storage that follows that pattern now…..virtual disk storage. Nice to see that as it was exactly what I was looking for :)

edit - It would be nice if the mass number of issues with Sandforce drives got a mention in the intro.

Its a shame they've set the price so high. Would be nice to see this come in lower and maintain the trend of lower SSD prices, this kinda sticks us back 12 months.

Awesome.

70p a gig is pretty good, and for that lower end performance I think it's justified against it's contenders. Still too much for me to want to RAID them for that 1TB grail, that's the end goal as soon as the price drops below 50-40p/Gb