Samsung 840 non-Pro: Sufficient for my intended usage?

[Tifosi248F1]

Due to the sudden unforeseen death of my rig, I'm scrambling to decide on parts for a new one. I'm going to need a new OS drive so I figure it's best to just go SSD from the start.

The main usage for the system will be photo and video editing, with some gaming. I've got lots of high capacity mechanical storage for all those large files and I figure I can get away with the 120GB drive. The OS partition on all my systems has always been 60GB or under and I've never had issues with space. Keeping docs and pictures on a separate drive should keep the reads/writes down and not balloon up the space on the SSD.

Is the non-Pro 840 a solid drive that would suit my needs? As I said, this is an unexpected situation and I'm trying to budget it out to as little as possible to just get up and running. I'd like to stay around $100 for the SSD, and 120/128 GB. I'm not concerned with raw performance, I've lived with mechanical drives this long so I don't need instant app opening. I'm more concerned with reliability and smooth operation.

 

[garikfox]

Yes I think the 840 would be great for you.

I'f you can spend another 25 dollars I'd get the M5 Pro 128GB for 125.00

 

[TemjinGold]

As long as space isn't an issue and you aren't running some insane workloads, ANY modern SSD will be sufficient for your needs.

 

[Tifosi248F1]

As long as space isn't an issue and you aren't running some insane workloads, ANY modern SSD will be sufficient for your needs.

What would be considered an insane workload? I'm not sitting and editing for 8 hours a day that's for sure. Wouldn't all the source files being on a separate mechanical drive cut down on SSD wear anyway? I think that's where I'm getting confused the most with SSDs. I know installing programs and moving files to and from the SSD eats in to the cycles, but how much reading and writing gets done once a program is opened? Obviously browser caching would be a big contributor to those reads and writes along with temp files and such.

I also don't intend to use the SSD for any sort of storage at all. All photo/video source and output files will be on mechanical drives. I'm trying to get all intensive reads/writes off the SSD.

 

[AdamK47]

I'm not too keen on the TLC NAND in the base 840s. If you were to tell somone a few years back that there would be SSDs with NAND only capable of 1000 writes they would think you were crazy. Just 3 years ago MLC was at 10,000 writes and SLC was at 100,000. Todays MLC is just 3,000.

 

[TemjinGold]

What would be considered an insane workload? I'm not sitting and editing for 8 hours a day that's for sure. Wouldn't all the source files being on a separate mechanical drive cut down on SSD wear anyway? I think that's where I'm getting confused the most with SSDs. I know installing programs and moving files to and from the SSD eats in to the cycles, but how much reading and writing gets done once a program is opened? Obviously browser caching would be a big contributor to those reads and writes along with temp files and such.

I also don't intend to use the SSD for any sort of storage at all. All photo/video source and output files will be on mechanical drives. I'm trying to get all intensive reads/writes off the SSD.

If you were working an insane workload (i.e. tons of constant writes), you'd know it. What you're doing isn't.

Don't let the durability numbers fool you--the drive will last decades under normal use.

 

[Corporate Thug]

I tend to favor TLC NAND in larger SSD because the re-write "issue" becomes even a less of an issue and because the prices difference really begins to become a factor.

That's why I'm using a 500gb 840 as my primary drive

 

[Coup27]

Have a read of the below article. I can't see TLC NAND being an issue for most users. Even with 10GiB of writes per day the drive is expected to last over 10 years.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/6459/samsung-ssd-840-testing-the-endurance-of-tlc-nand

 

[mikeford]

My expertise on SSD extends to one night of shopping for one, but when I asked what sort of user would need the 840 pro, the Micro Center guy said video editing among some other business apps.

After running pretty well for 1.5 years my system started having issues with the raid mirror of two 2TB Seagates on Jan, 1, 2013. I am anxious to get it back up and even more so to recover the 2TB of data, but I am taking the opposite approach, this is not a good time to me to try and save money. OTOH I have no heavy or critical use planned for the SSD, just OS and applications with data files on the array, so I am thinking 830 or 840 either will suit me fine.

 

[tweakboy]

Your not going to tell a difference from sammy 830 to 840.

Save money, Grab the 830. Cuz 840 your paying more you wont see a real world diff. gl

 

[Diogenes2]

I just recently went with a Kingston HyperX 3K 240 , and am very pleased. Performance is way up there.. I see the 120 is $102 at Amazon & Newegg right now..

 

[JerYnkFan]

I used to think 120GB was enough was both O/S and games, but I wound up getting on Intel 330 240GB from NCIX and also have a Mushkin 120GB Chronos. I have a ton of MMOs loaded however. If you just need it for O/S then a 120GB should be fine, but if you can spare the extra $ I'd go for a 240GB for the long term. If you watch out for deals you can get a decent 240GB for 150.

 

[josephjpeters]

I'm not too keen on the TLC NAND in the base 840s. If you were to tell somone a few years back that there would be SSDs with NAND only capable of 1000 writes they would think you were crazy. Just 3 years ago MLC was at 10,000 writes and SLC was at 100,000. Todays MLC is just 3,000.

"Back in the day" you'd see Write Amplification of 10. Now it's getting closer to 1. If you think about it 10k P/E cycle MLC with a WA of 10 is the same as 1k TLC with a WA of 1...

As someone else said, TLC is fine if you're using a larger capacity (>128GB) and/or you don't do a ton of writes.

 

[yefi]

As someone else said, TLC is fine if you're using a larger capacity (>128GB) and/or you don't do a ton of writes.

Even the 120GB is fine. It was tested at xtremesystems, and it achieved over 400TB host writes and over 3500 P/E cycles. (People forget about the DSP employed by the controller and the conservative numbers quoted for the nand.)

 

[jwilliams4200]

Even the 120GB is fine. It was tested at xtremesystems, and it achieved over 400TB host writes and over 3500 P/E cycles.

This statement can be misleading. People shoud NOT conclude that their Samsung 840 is likely to be useful up to 3500 erase cycles (or even half that). The data retention time of the SSD probably decreased drastically at some point past 1000 erase cycles, but the XS tester did not test data retention time, so we do not know.

It is best for most consumers to assume that the SSD should be replaced soon after it reaches 1000 erase cycles. Now, 1000 erase cycles will be more than sufficient for most consumer workloads for at least 3 years, and probably longer.

However, the 120GB Samsung 840 has another issue, which is that the sequential write speed is only 130 MB/s. Compared to other 128GB SSDs, that is quite slow. I don't think the 120GB Samsung 840 is worth buying unless you can find it for under $80. At about $100, the 128GB Plextor M5S or Crucial m4 are better choices than the Samsung 840.

In contrast, the 250GB Samsung 840 is a decent value at about $180, since its sequential write speed is more competitive at 250MB/s.

 

[SLM Crew Chief]

I just ordered a Samsung 840 non-pro, the 250Gig one. I'm new to the SSD game and the whole 1,000 cycle thing has me a bit scared but... the price was right.

My question is... how do I know when it's reaching that 1,000 cycle limit so I know to replace it? Does the drive report that or do I need some other type of monitoring software?

 

[Hellhammer]

I just ordered a Samsung 840 non-pro, the 250Gig one. I'm new to the SSD game and the whole 1,000 cycle thing has me a bit scared but... the price was right.

My question is... how do I know when it's reaching that 1,000 cycle limit so I know to replace it? Does the drive report that or do I need some other type of monitoring software?

Samsung SSD Magician will report the lifetime of the drive.

 

[jwilliams4200]

You just check the SMART attributes.

And unless you are planning on doing a huge amount of writes to the SSD, you should not have anything to worry about. For all but the most brutal workloads, the write amplification should be well under 10, but I will assume a brutal WA=10. Then 1000 erase cycles corresponds to more than 25,000 GB of writes to the SSD. That works out to more than 22GB every day for 3 years, or more than 13GB every day for 5 years.

The vast majority of workloads will have average WA less than 5, in which case you can at least double those estimates.

 

[yefi]

This statement can be misleading. People shoud NOT conclude that their Samsung 840 is likely to be useful up to 3500 erase cycles (or even half that). The data retention time of the SSD probably decreased drastically at some point past 1000 erase cycles, but the XS tester did not test data retention time, so we do not know.

That's a valid point. The figure is only applicable for an always-on system. It would be good if we had some graphs plotting data-retention times vs. P/E cycles, but I won't be the one buying the crateload of drives for that experiment!

 

[tweakboy]

I would say 840 non pro is as fast as sammy 830 which was already way fast.

Also look into 256GB model because 128GB youll start with 111GB free,,,,, put OS and couple apps and now you have 40GB free, and they say keep 20GB always free on SSD. gl

 

[SLM Crew Chief]

Samsung SSD Magician will report the lifetime of the drive.

You just check the SMART attributes.

And unless you are planning on doing a huge amount of writes to the SSD, you should not have anything to worry about. For all but the most brutal workloads, the write amplification should be well under 10, but I will assume a brutal WA=10. Then 1000 erase cycles corresponds to more than 25,000 GB of writes to the SSD. That works out to more than 22GB every day for 3 years, or more than 13GB every day for 5 years.

The vast majority of workloads will have average WA less than 5, in which case you can at least double those estimates.

Thanks! I've discovered that reading up on and researching SSD's will give me a throbbing headache!

 

[Tifosi248F1]

UPDATE:

I've been waiting for some cash to free up, so I haven't bought anything as of yet. During this time I have been reading about various SSDs and gathering up what info I can.

It seems the Samsung 840 is a capable drive, but some people have concerns about the TLC NAND. A couple other drives have caught my eye: the Kingston HyperX 3k and the Plextor M5S.

My budget is a strict $100. There's no way I can go any higher. Would I be better off with an MLC drive like the HyperX over the 840? Reliability is my major concern. I know that it's not likely to be an issue, I just want the piece of mind.

 

[Marcus Vinicus]

I've been doing some serious research of SSD's and the Samsung 840 was one I looked closely but TLC and the write performance were the reasons I didn't get one. I looked at the 840 Pro as well but they're a premium price here in NZ so I ordered an Intel 520 256gb which is much more reasonably priced.

 

[Tifosi248F1]

I need to make a decision and purchase my drive within the next few hours. There are 3 options I can get:

Kingston HyperX 3k
OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS
Mushkin Chronos (Non Deluxe)

The 840 isn't even a consideration now since it's more expensive than these 3 drives.

OCZ has the benefit of toggle NAND, but the Kingston has more favorable reviews on NewEgg.

 

[jwilliams4200]

I need to make a decision and purchase my drive within the next few hours.

Why? Isn't there anyway you can wait and get a better model?