Samsung Introduces 960 PRO & EVO M.2 NVMe SSDs With Up To 2TB Of Capacity

by Adam Armstrong September 21, 2016

written by Adam Armstrong September 21, 2016

Today at Samsung SSD Global Summit in Seoul, South Korea, Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., announced its newest SSDs, the 960 PRO and 960 EVO. The new drives leverage Samsung’s V-NAND technology, come in M.2 form factors, up to 2TB in capacity, and use Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) interface. Samsung states that the drives deliver high performance and use a more robust Samsung Magician software package.

Consumer users want the same thing that is being sought after all across the industry, storage with faster performance, a smaller physical footprint, and higher capacity. The new drives offer all three in a small M.2 form factor aimed at ultra-thin notebooks and PCs. Both drives use the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) Gen.3 x4 lane interface and are compliant with NVMe specifications. And since both drives are geared for extreme workloads, they both feature Samsung Dynamic Thermal Guard technology.

Looking at performance, Samsung is claiming that the 960 PRO can hit sequential reads of 3,500MB/s reads and 2,100MB/s write and random reads of 440K IOPS and writes of 360K IOPS. The 960 EVO leverages Samsung’s new Intelligent TurboWrite technology enabling the drive to hit sequential reads of 3,200MB/s and writes of 1,900MB/s as well as random performance of 380K IOPS read and 360K IOPS write. The 960 PRO comes in capacities of 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB (the highest commercially available M.2 as of this writing); with the 2TB offering reliability and endurance of 1.2PBW or a 5-year warranty, whichever comes first. The 960 EVO comes in 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB capacities; with the 1TB offering reliability and endurance of 400TBW or a 3-year warranty, whichever comes first.

Samsung is also introducing updated Magician software. The new software comes with a new user interface allowing users to control and adjust SSD settings including firmware updates.

Key specifications:

960 EVO
- Ideal for mainstream NVMe users looking for next generation PC performance
- Capacities: 250GB, 500GB and 1TB
- First Samsung product to integrate Samsung Intelligent TurboWrite technology, accelerating sequential read and write speeds:
  - Sequential read speeds up to 3,200 MB/s
  - Sequential write speeds up to 1,900 MB/s
- 3-year limited warranty up to 400 TBW for 1TB capacity, whichever occurs first.
- Dynamic Thermal Guard technology to manage performance levels and prevent overheating
- M.2 form factor ideal for ultra-thin notebooks and PCs.
- Features PCIe Gen.3 x4 lane interface
- Compliant with all NVMe specifications
960 PRO
- Samsung’s highest capacity NVMe consumer SSD (2TB) for next generation, professional-level performance and endurance with an innovative new PCB design
- Capacities: 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB
  - Sequential read speeds up to 3,500 MB/s
  - Sequential write speeds up to 2,100 MB/s
- 5-year limited warranty up to 1.2 Petabytes for 2TB capacity, whichever occurs first.
- Dynamic Thermal Guard technology to manage performance levels and prevent overheating
- M.2 form factor ideal for ultra-thin notebooks and PCs
- Features PCIe Gen.3 x4 lane interface
- Compliant with all NVMe specifications