Samsung Pro 950 256GB M.2 NVMe SSD Review

As was mentioned before this SSD is an industry first that combines NVMe and M.2 together however, this isn't the first NVMe SSD.  Before this we had the PCI Express card version from Intel along with a standard 2.5” that required a special connector.  Both drives were created for Enterprise applications with lots of onboard storage and a hefty price tag.  What makes the Samsung Pro 950 special is its affordability due in part to the M.2 form factor.

PCI Express based storage is still very new and unless you have a motherboard with a true M.2 expansion slot you are limited to many of the PCI Express based expansion cards like the one featured in our review of the HyperX Predator SSD.  If you are fortunate enough to have the MSI X99 Godlike you will have gotten an NVMe adaptor card allowing you to run the 2.5” Intel drive, assuming you could afford it.

The Samsung Pro 950 combines both of these into a small package which has the benefit of easy installation but will be limited in capacity by form factor and chip density.  Either way the drive is a win for enthusiasts and can only get better from here.

There isn’t much to a M.2 SSD, just a card with chips attached on each side.  The 256GB version featured in this review is using the Samsung UBX controller with a 512MB cache and transfer speeds up to 2200 MBps Read and 900 MBps Write.   Samsung offers a 512GB version of the 950 Pro using the same controller and cache but with 2500MBps Read and 1500MBps Write.

The changes in speed are likely a benefit from higher chip density but I suspect there are two 256GB drives on the same card with a RAID style bonding to increase the write and read speeds.