Samsung 830 Series SATA 3 512GB SSD Review – Amazing Performance and an Unbeatable Toolbox

CRYSTAL DISK BENCHMARK VER. 3.0.1 X64

Crystal Disk Benchmark is used to measure read and write performance through sampling of raw (0/1 Fill/compressible) or random data which is, for the most part, incompressible. Many new ‘SandForce Driven’ SSD owners who can’t wait to test the performance of their SSD often grab this program and run a quick test, not realizing that they are testing with incompressible data rather than compressible data used in testing by manufacturers.  Samsung does not use compression in storage and the best we can show you for this drive is our result with Crystal’s random data sampling.

The 512GB puts in a good showing with CrystalDiskMark.  It’s sequential reads and writes are stellar, generating some of the highest numbers around in that respect, and backing up the numbers seen in ATTO.  There is one reading which is so high that it would seem an anomaly if it weren’t repeatable time after time. The QD1 4K random write score is exceptional and at 119.8MB/s, it’s just a hair shy of 120MB/s. CDM uses the highest result from each repetition to display, and so it generally delivers higher results than the similar AS-SSD bench.

One thing is clear already; the 830 is a beast when it comes to sequential writes and QD1 4K random writes. The Samsung would likely excel in media editing and creation tasks, or anywhere compressed data needs to get written quickly.

AS SSD BENCHMARK VER 1.64

Up until recently, AS SSD was the only benchmark created specifically for SSD testing and it tests through use of incompressible data which shows us the ‘worse case’ performance scenario in SSD transfer speeds.  Many enthusiasts prefer benchmarking with AS SSD for their needs.

AS SSD averages results, and does more intensive testing of 4K randoms than CDM.  This bench does generate lower 4K scores than CDM, but are closer to speeds which might be realized in actual usage.  As a result, the 64.52MB/s achieved in the QD1 4K write category is most pleasing, even though it’s half of the CrystalDisk score.  AS SSD also records access times, which are arguably more important. The Samsung does quite well there, too, on par with it’s Marvell-powered peers and ahead of most SF drives.

ANVIL STORAGE UTILITIES PROFESSIONAL

You may not see this for long (and its definitely not common) but you get a freebee simply for reading!  Over the last little while, we have been assisting with beta testing new benchmark software called Anvil Storage Utilities which is an absolutely amazing SSD benchmarking utility.  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 utilize in our benchmark testing.

Anvil Storage Utilities has a vast array of options, including multiple compression levels, and multi-threaded read and write tests.

The larger 830s are said to reach 80,000 4K read IOPS and 36,000 4K write. We see 78,681 4K read IOPS and 35,712 4K write IOPS at QD128 and QD32 respectively, very close to the rated numbers and virtually identical to the 256GB version.