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Review: Samsung 840 EVO mSATA 1TB

Reviewed by: Wendy

Robertson

Provided by: Samsung

Model: MZ-MTE1T0

Firmware version: EXT41B6Q ADVERTISEMENT

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.com 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.

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.

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.

: 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.

: Allows the user to see system and drive properties. Performance Benchmark : Performs a basic benchmark

on the SSD.

: Performs a basic benchmark on the SSD. Performance optimization : Performs a manual TRIM of

the SSD.

: Performs a manual TRIM of the SSD. OS Optimization : Allows operating system features,

that can affect SSD performance, to be switched on or off.

: 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.

: 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.

: 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.

: 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.

: Checks to make sure that the SSD is a genuine Samsung SSD. Enable Rapid mode: Enables the NVELO ‘Rapid’ cache

feature.

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…..