Are you are in the market to pick up a brand new SSD and is confused between the Samsung 850 Evo vs. SanDisk SSD Plus? Read along to know more about these products. In this article, we explore and compare both the product specifications in a side-by-side comparison. But, first, a quick history lesson.
In the beginning days of computing, secondary storage was just meant to holding individual data as ‘long-term persistent storage‘ so that it does not get erased when a system is rebooted or shutdown. It was never expected to be more than that. However today, things have changed. The applications of computing today require high IOPS with synchronous data read & write operations, let it be gaming, video editing or any content creation workloads. Thus, the quality and performance of your storage profoundly affect the overall performance of your system. In fact, for a very long time, the slowest part of the entire computer sub-system was the secondary storage.
Unlike traditional HDDs, SSDs are much faster. Their storage capacity is limited in comparison to conventional disk drives; however, they offer a much superior speed and performance. For people involved in gaming, VFX, animation, professionals, etc. a good and fast storage makes a significant difference.
Also Review: Compare Western Digital Purple vs Seagate Skyhawk Features & Specs
Samsung 850 Evo vs. SanDisk SSD Plus
Today, we are going to discuss two of the best SSD storage options available out there in the market: Samsung 850 EVO and SanDisk SSD Plus. We will go through a side by side specs comparison and also a brief discussion and review. For now, let us begin with the side by side specs comparison:
Specification | ||
| Available Capacity | 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB, 250 GB, 500 GB | 120 GB, 240 GB, 480 GB, 960 GB |
| Hardware Encryption | Yes Self Encrypting Drive TCG Opal Encryption 2.0 | Not Available or mentioned by the vendor. |
| Interface & SSD Controller | 1x 7 pin Serial ATA 600 @ 6 GB/s (m-SATA) M.2 & 2.5″ SATA Samsung MHX | 1x 7 Pin Serial ATA 600 @ 6 GB/s Silicon Motion SM2258 |
| Buffer Size | 1 GB | — |
| MTBF | 1500000 Sec | 1700000 Sec |
| Internal Data Rate | 540 MB/s Read Speed 520 MB/s Write Speed | 480 MB/s Read Speed 400 MB/s Write Speed |
| Drive Transfer Rate | 600 MB/s External Drive Transfer Rate | 600 MB/s External Drive Transfer Rate |
| 4KB Random Read / Write | 90000 IOPS Write 98000 IOPS Read | 68000 IOPS Write 37000 IOPS Write |
| Form Factor | 2.5” / 6.4 cm SSD | 2.5” / 6.4 cm SSD |
| Features Highlight | 3D V NAND Technology DRAM Cache World Wide Name Dev Sleep Mode Dynamic Thermal Guard Protection Garbage Collection technology Hardware Full Disk Encryption Low power DDR2 SDRAM Cache Samsung MEX Controller TRIM Support TURBO White Technology | Faster Boot up, Shutdown, Application Load and Response Up to 20 x superior speed compared to traditional hard disk drive Generous battery life with cool and quiet operations Enhanced durability Ideal For typical PC workloads |
| SSD Endurance | 150 TB | 120 TB |
| Included Software | Samsung Magician Software Samsung Data Migration | — |
| Compliant Standards | 256 bit AES IEEE 1667 S.M.A.R.T. | — |
| Dimension | 2.7 x 3.9 x 0.3 inches | 2.7 x 4 x 0.3 inches |
| Weight | 2.33 oz | 1.88 oz |
| Power Mode Consumption | Ideal 3.7 Watt Read 4 mW Sleep 4.4 Watt Write 50 mW | — |
| Shock / Vibration Tolerance | 1500 g shock acceleration 0.5 ms half sine pulse shock duration 20 g vibration acceleration 20-2000 Hz Vibration Frequency Rage | 1500 g Shock acceleration 0.5 ms half sine pulse shock duration 4.9 g Vibration acceleration 7 – 800 Hz Vibration Frequency Range |
| Service and Support | 5 years of limited warranty from a manufacturer | 3 years of limited warranty from the manufacturer |
Capacity:
Both Samsung EVO 850 and SanDisk Plus come in a variety of available capacity options. However, if your requirements are high, we recommend you to go with Samsung as it offers up to 4 TB of storage capacity. SanDisk is ideal if your use is limited to home and small business as it offers 960 GB max.
Encryption & Security:
Samsung 850 EVO offers hardware encryption with Self Encryption and TCG opal encryption 2.0 technologies, which provides data protection at the certain level. SanDisk recently released its security encryption mechanism for its drives. However, it’s non-existence in this model makes it less secure. How can always use an external encryption mechanism such as the Windows 10 BitLocker.
Performance
Both SSDs come with a Serial ATA 600 interface that offers up to 6 GB/s of peak theoretical transfer rate. EVO 850 has 1.5 million mean times between failure. For SanDisk Plus, it is 1.7 million, which is better. Their external rate is same, but Samsung EVO leads with its excellent internal read and writes rate. Moreover, Samsung 850 EVO posses better random read and write input-output per second. Furthermore, it also comes with a large 1 GB of buffer size. If you do not already know what buffer size is, it is a total amount of memory the SSD can keep in the buffer when communicating with the storage controller and the system CPU. The more it is, the better performance will be delivered in most cases.
If we consider these additional features, Samsung is a clear winner here. They have listed some technologies such as 3D NAND, DRAM Cache and much more like that as shown in the table. SanDisk does not have anything impressive as they have listed standard features like faster than HDD and all [duh!]. Samsung offers SSD endurance of 150 GB, and SanDisk offers only 120 TB.
Reliability:
SanDisk has a better MTBF of 1.7 million hours. However, Samsung offers encryption and better shock and vibration tolerance. If these SSDs are tested inexact environment and load, SanDisk might not be able to keep up. Without a doubt, the Samsung EVO 850 is ahead in every term related to durability and reliability such as shock endurance, vibration tolerance, encryption, etc.
Support and Service:
Both Samsung and SanDisk are quite favorite brands now. We expect both their customer service and support to be top notch. In case of these particular products, Samsung offers five years of support and warranty which is two years more than the what Sandisk offers.
Conclusion:
As it is seen, Samsung 850 EVO beats SanDisk Plus in most of the aspects. However, this doesn’t mean that SanDisk Plus is a bad drive. It all depends on one’s requirements. The comparison we did here was our generalized view of these products. If your usage and conditions are limited, you don’t want to waste your money buying a fully fledged SSD in the first place. However, if your requirements are I/O intensive and you require intense performance and endurance, Samsung EVO should be your best choice, albeit at a higher price.
We hope that this comparison will help you to pick the right product for yourself. For any queries and suggestions, feel free to use the comment box below.
