Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA Review

Name: Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA Review
Brand: Samsung

by Marco Chiappetta — Friday, March 28, 2014, 11:45 AM EDT

Performance Summary: The Samsung SSD 840 EVO series of mSATA solid state drives performed extremely well throughout our entire battery of tests. Whether using synthetic benchmarks, trace-based tests like PCMark, or highly-compressible or incompressible data, the 500GB Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA drive we tested offered class-leading performance. As evidenced by the ATTO Disk Benchmark, the 840 EVO excelled with small block transfers, where it outpaced a number of other drives by a significant margin.

The Samsung 840 EVO mSATA Solid State Drive

We liked Samsung’s 2.5” SSD 840 EVO series of solid state drives when we reviewed them a few months ago, and the mSATA versions are just as attractive, which is no surprise given their similarities. Performance is good and pricing is right in line with the competition. Street prices for the entire range of drives, in capacities of 120GB to 1TB are as follows:

As is typically the case, the cost per gigabyte of Samsung’s SSD 840 EVO series of mSATA drives decreases as capacities increase. So, the larger drive you can afford, the better the deal. And in light of many current competitive offerings, the 840 EVO series is downright affordable.

In terms of their performance, the Samsung SSD 840 EVO mSATA series of drives are clear winners. We can’t definitively speak to their long-term reliability since they’re relatively new, but based on past experience with Samsung’s drives, we don’t expect any surprises. Samsung is also offering a 3-year warranty on the drives, which is in-line with competing products. If you're in the market for a new solid state drive in the mSATA form factor, the Samsung SSD 840 EVO series should absolutely be one of your considerations, especially if you've got the budget for one of the larger capacity drives in the line-up.


Great Overall Performance RAPID Mode Option Competitively Priced	TLC NAND Technically Not As Durable as True MLC

Tags: Samsung, Storage, drive, mSATA, 840 EVO

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com