Samsung 960 Evo M.2 SSD Review, Specs & Features: Is the Samsung 960 EVO the Fastest SSD in the Market?

As PC technology grows, the need for bigger and faster PC drives grows with it as well. And, recently, Samsung has released what could be considered the fastest Solid-State Drive (SSD) right now: the Samsung 960 EVO M.2.

According to Forbes, the Samsung 960 EVO M.2 SSD can process data at over 3,000MB/sec, beating the 950 PRO which can read data with a max speed of 2,500 MB/sec. Before the release of the Samsung 960 EVO, the 950 PRO was one of the top-of-the-line SSDs in the market.

Cnet cites the Samsung 960 EVO M.2's technical specs in more detail, reporting that it has a maximum read speed of 3,200MBps and a maximum write speed of 1,900MBps. When it comes to random access performance, the Samsung 960 EVO M.2 can reach up to 380,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS), placing it as one of the fastest SSDs on the market.

However, the Samsung 960 EVO might run into compatibility problems, per report, due to the SSD's M.2 design. The Samsung 960 EVO doesn't have a traditional 2.5-inch SATA design and current desktops will need a PCIe adapter to use Samsung's latest SSD.

The use of SATA ports limits the SSD's speeds considerably compared to the M.2 interface, which both the Samsung 950 PRO and Samsung 960 EVO are compatible with, that allows for faster drive speeds. The Samsung 960 EVO M.2 interface is based on the PCI-Express standard and only limited PC models are compatible with this.

But like previous Samsung SSDs, the Samsung 960 EVO also uses Samsung's 3D VNAND flash memory and supports TurboWrite, a feature that uses a small amount of high-performance SLC memory as buffer to increase write speed. The drive also supports hardware encryption, making it hard for hackers to access files and data in the drive.

The Samsung 960 EVO M.2 is available in 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB and is priced at $129, $249, and $479, respectively. The UK and Australia prices have not yet been announced.