Samsung T3 Portable SSD Review (2TB) – Samsung Ups The Ante Yet Again

CRYSTAL DISK BENCHMARK VER. 5.0 X64

Crystal Disk Benchmark is used to measure read and write performance through sampling of random data which is, for the most part, incompressible. Performance is virtually identical, regardless of data sample so we have included only that using random data samples.

Crystal Diskmark provides some excellent results and it is great to even see a boost in the low 4k write performance.  Unlike just about every other external on the market, the Samsung T3 would have absolutely no problem working as an external OS in PC/Mac systems.

AS SSD BENCHMARK VER 1.7

The toughest benchmark available for solid state drives is AS SSD as it relies solely on incompressible data samples when testing performance.  For the most part, AS SSD tests can be considered the ‘worst case scenario’ in obtaining data transfer speeds and many enthusiasts like AS SSD for their needs. Transfer speeds are displayed on the left with IOPS results on the right.

Once again, we see very strong performance results from AS SSD.  If you look at history, reviewers would rarely test external SSDs through USB as it would take so long for AS SSD tests to complete.

The only comparable we have when looking at AS SSD Copy Benchmark is our original report on the Samsung 1TB T1 Portable SSD.  While both ISO and game transfer speeds are similar, it is great to see that Samsung trimmed 4 seconds off of the Program data transfer performance.

ANVIL STORAGE UTILITIES PROFESSIONAL

Anvil’s Storage Utilities (ASU) are the most complete test bed available for the solid state drive today.  The benchmark displays test results for, not only throughput but also, IOPS and Disk Access Times.  Not only does it have a preset SSD benchmark, but also, it has included such things as endurance testing and threaded I/O read, write and mixed tests, all of which are very simple to understand and use in our benchmark testing.

Anvil Storage Utilities is great at confirming what we have been seeing, as well as providing disk transfer speeds.  The fact that performance is a bit lower is typical of testing in Anvil.

PCMARK VANTAGE X64 HDD SUITE

The SSD Review uses benchmark software called PCMark Vantage x64 HDD Suite to create testing scenarios that might be used in the typical user experience. There are eight tests in all and the tests performed record the speed of data movement in MB/s to which they are then given a numerical score after all of the tests are complete. The simulations are as follows:

• Windows Defender In Use
• Streaming Data from storage in games such as Alan Wake which allows for massive worlds and riveting non-stop action
• Importing digital photos into Windows Photo Gallery
• Starting the Vista Operating System
• Home Video editing with Movie Maker which can be very time consuming
• Media Center which can handle video recording, time shifting and streaming from Windows media center to an extender such as Xbox
• Cataloging a music library
• Starting applications

PCMARK VANTAGE RESULTS

This is the first time we have ever posted PCMark Vantage results with an external SSD and this, in itself, speaks volumes for the Samsung T3 Portable SSD.  A quick look of the individual performance tests will display that only 2 of the 6 tests resulted in SATA 3 speeds, but the overall score is reflective of what we might have seen from an internal SSD some time ago.