Hey folks, Valkor here. A few weeks ago I got the chance to hang with the folks at Samsung to witness the launch of their latest SSD - the 830 series (complete with Batman and a guest panel). And at the end of the event I got the chance to walk with one of the beast, to have my way with it in the Val-Cave. Well it's been a couple of weeks since the event and after putting it through the course, the 830 SSD is ready for prime time!
The Samsung 830 SSD is a sleek 2.5" SATA 3 6Gps drive with a brushed aluminum black finish emblazoned with the Samsung logo that's a sight to behold. Seriously, I didn't want to put the drive in my laptop since keeping it out would make for a great showpiece. It measures in at 7mm thin making it one of the slimmest drives out on the market, which is also a perfect fit not only for standard laptops (and PCs with the included chassis) but it can also fit inside netbooks as well. The model I received was the 256GB, but you can also find the drive in flavors of 64, 128, and 512 GB. Along with the drive is a one-time use copy of Norton's Ghost (incase you'd like to migrate data from your old drive to the new), a copy of Samsung SSD Magician to optimize the drive, and a chassis with all the inputs and screws needed in case you'd like to pop this puppy into your PC. Additionally, and at further cost, you can purchase the drive with an upgrade kit, which includes a USB adapter for easy migration or to use the drive as an external back-up Finally, and I mentioned this in the event piece, if you get an 830 Series SSD you'll also get a code to download a copy of Batman Arkham City.
Now let's take a quick peek on the inside of the drive:
- You get 8 32GB MLC NAND Flash drives
- A single chip 256 MB Cache
- Samsung ARM Controller
The 830 256 gb drive has a read speed of approximately 520 MB/s and a write speed (for this model) of approximately 400MB/s. To test the drive, I used my Toshiba Tecra laptop with 3GB DDR3 ram, and a fresh install of Windows 7 32 bit Home Premium Edition with service pack 1. Afterwards I reloaded the drive with all of my previous and favorite software such as AVG Free Antivirus, Zone Alarm, Advanced System Care, Dreamweaver CS5, CyberLink Media Suite, and Google Chrome for surfing. Since the only drive I have at the moment to compare this drive to is the original drive that came with my laptop (and this HDD is about hmmmm 4 years old) I decided to keep this review as standalone.
The 830 series touts speeds so fast that it will dramatically reduce windows startup times, load times of programs and improve loading and increased performance in gaming. Sounds like we got a fighter with this SSD, so let's see how well this boat floats in the TOV Breakdown.
The Bang:
Performance wise the 830 SSD far surpassed any and all of my expectations as being one of, if not, THE best SSD out there. Sure I've tested Intel's X25 and Imation's M-Class (Digispa got his hands on the 470 series and loved it); they of course pale in comparison to the 830. Installation of Windows 7 went without a hitch and it installed faster than the estimated 30 minutes that was stated for the install. Startup is also faster though not the instant on that I one day hope to see, it's still pretty swift when compared to my older HDD. I don't heavy game on this laptop, but the games I do play have shown a definite decrease in loading to almost nil. Multitasking was cake as I had several windows open at once such as PowerDVD, Google Chrome, and Dreamweaver CS5 (The conclusion to that? a review for SpongeBob Holiday gift set) with nary a hiccup, though I had to hold back opening any additional windows, not wanting to stretch the rRAM too far. Overall everything loaded and ran smoother as smooth can be. Thumbs up!
The Slack:
The price for this particular drives has a suggested retail of 549.99. And on Amazon.com it goes for about 439.99. So maybe come black Friday we'll see a bit of a dip? The price might be steep for the average user who may not make full use of the devices capabilities, but power users and heavy gamers should consider the investment. But everyone wins should they get this drive.
Though my Toshiba Tecra isn't using the 830 SSD to its fullest, which it was made for much newer laptops. However make no mistake, there's some new found vigor in my device as the Samsung 830 SSD has definitely given this old horse some new kick with increased performance and improved functionality. Would I reccomend it? Most definitely! And out of TOV 5 stars, I'm giving the Samsung 830 a definite 5 making this not only the perfect SSD but also consider it as the perfect gift for your favorite tech geek.