Samsung PM961 Polaris 1TB M.2-2280

I guess it depends on whether you are going to be writing a lot of big files to the drive?

Personally I've had various SSD's (albeit SATA one's) and I genuinely couldn't tell them apart speed-wise in day to day use even though the quoted read/write speeds were considerably different!
 
I have a 1TB PM961 Polaris SSD as my OS drive and a 1TB Evo 850 SSD as a storage drive.

IMO a 1TB OS drive is essential for gaming (especially with mods) and will last for years (or until it dies, anyway). :)
 
Richdog said:
I really don't understand why someone would buy a 512GB 960 Pro for the same price as a 1TB PM961. They are awful value for money for little tangible performance gain.
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To be fair, I was going to get the 1TB PM961. But I went for the better write speed, far better warranty option and got it cheaper than it should've been.
A part of me feels should still have got the 1TB, but overall happy with the smaller capacity top-dog. 512GB is more than enough for uses.
 
Rossi~ said:
To be fair, I was going to get the 1TB PM961. But I went for the better write speed, far better warranty option and got it cheaper than it should've been.
A part of me feels should still have got the 1TB, but overall happy with the smaller capacity top-dog. 512GB is more than enough for uses.
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The 20% increase in write speeds means almost nothing in practise when you are talking about 1700MB/s vs 2100MB/s. The 100% more space is infinitely more useful... data demands are only rising and you can't make a smaller SSD bigger. Anyway, that was my logic.
 
The Samsung 960 PRO M.2 NVMe looks like a beautiful piece of kit but as Richdog pointed out one pays a hefty premium for that extra write performance and extended warranty.

I think if I was having a nice dream where I could afford or justify spending around £700 on storage I'd probably go for a 1TB Samsung EVO 960 M.2 NVMe for the boot drive and a 1TB Samsung PM961 M.2 NVMe for data, assuming of course the mobo has it least one M.2 slot and putting the second drive in an PCI-e adapter.
  • Samsung 960 Pro 512GB M.2 NVMe + Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SATA SSD = £748.98 @ OcUK
  • Samsung 960 EVO 1TB M.2 NVMe + Samsung PM961 1TB M.2 NVMe = £759.98 @ OcUK
 
Also be aware that these (IE, SM961/PM961) are true OEM products aimed at professional system builders (rather like the SM951 that I have) and thus have ZERO support from Samsung. Even the warranty resides with the seller (IE. not Samsung).
 
Mikeo, When you say these are "OEM products aimed at professional system builders" surely there must be some support from Samsung? I mean Samsung made drivers for the Polaris controller for different O/S and they seem to work fine with no issue? and if some esoteric hardware problem arises in the future surely Samsung will leap into action with either a driver/firmware update to keep their professional system builders happy?

Imagine an OEM like HP having some NVMe related glitches on tens of thousands of their products? Isn't it reasonable to assume that updates would be available and filter through the interweb and eventually end up on these very forums?
 
I can only speak from personal experience with the SM951. But when mine failed in the first week, the retailer that i bought it from said "contact Samsung", which i duely did. Samsung said that these drives were not intended to be sold via a retail outlet and to go back to the supplier, which i did and after a bit of moaning, i finally got a refund. Then re purchased from ocuk.

As far as I'm aware, Samsung's own magician software does not even support these OEM drives. So no way to even update the firmware on them!!!! Let alone secure erase them, or even read / interprate the smart data on them. Good luck using parted magic to secure erase them. Numerous reported incidents (Google is your friend here) on sm951 ended up being bricked. Maybe it works for the later sm/pm 961, different controller i suppose. I started a thread on parted magical forum about this and got some what shot down by one of their "experts" on this issue, though this was i think December 2015, so maybe things are better now.

Personally, i would recommend one of their "retail" products over these. But each to their own. My second sm951 has been faultless.

Not trying to be smart or anything, just trying to point out my own experiences here.

PS. I expect that if a large system builder like HP had issues, then "yes" i suspect Samsung would step in. But that's the rub mate, we are not professional system builders. I have invited ocuk on a number of threads to comment on this, but it's always been very quiet.
 
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mikeo said:
I can only speak from personal experience with the SM951. But when mine failed in the first week, the retailer that i bought it from said "contact Samsung", which i duely did. Samsung said that these drives were not intended to be sold via a retail outlet and to go back to the supplier, which i did and after a bit of moaning, i finally got a refund. Then re purchased from ocuk.

As far as I'm aware, Samsung's own magician software does not even support these OEM drives. So no way to even update the firmware on them!!!! Let alone secure erase them, or even read / interprate the smart data on them. Good luck using parted magic to secure erase them. Numerous reported incidents (Google is your friend here) on sm951 ended up being bricked. Maybe it works for the later sm/pm 961, different controller i suppose. I started a thread on parted magical forum about this and got some what shot down by one of their "experts" on this issue, though this was i think December 2015, so maybe things are better now.

Personally, i would recommend one of their "retail" products over these. But each to their own. My second sm951 has been faultless.

Not trying to be smart or anything, just trying to point out my own experiences here.

PS. I expect that if a large system builder like HP had issues, then "yes" i suspect Samsung would step in. But that's the rub mate, we are not professional system builders. I have invited ocuk on a number of threads to comment on this, but it's always been very quiet.
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You can simply use Macrium Reflect to clone etc, I used it without any issues.
 
Richdog said:
You can simply use Macrium Reflect to clone etc, I used it without any issues.
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Fair enough.

You can also use acronis true image (2016 version onwards) as well.

What i was trying to point out in my post, is the total lack of support (from Samsung themselves) for individuals who purchase Samsung's OEM drives of this type through the retail chain. Something that a fair few people do not seem aware of. Maybe their stance has changed in the last 12 months or so, but I'd doubt it. Not knocking the drives, just trying to be helpful.
 
Mikeo, it does sound like you have all the luck!

Faulty products go back to the seller, they tried to fob you off and should be spanked!. Samsung magician software looks handy to have but I believe most of the important functions can be worked around? Secure erase is nice when you sell a drive on and I would like to know if this is possible using other software such as parted magic etc?

I do think a lot of us are "professional system builders" and use OEM products to bring the costs down, maybe we are not as big as DELL or HP but still the same but you are right to point out there are some users on this forum who may be just starting out on their professional system builders journey and therefore will need a little extra hand holding from Samsung.

Just to boil down the debate it really just comes down to cost vs an easy life. The folks who are advocating the OEM drives are really just saying that you can get the meat and potatoes buying the OEM products and that maybe the "retail" gravy is not worth paying extra for . . . however the NVMe prices are so volatile at the moment we have found ourselves in the position that some of the retail drives are actually selling for less than the OEM units and as much as I like to hold a good position I'm not actually going to recommend a user pay extra for an OEM unit! :D
In the above pricing we see an £84 premium on the 960 EVO 1TB over the PM961 1TB. There is some performance difference most notably the cheaper unit has nearly 40% slower write speeds but I personally would still pause on the choice between the two

Is it worth £84 for extra write performance, two years warranty and better support from Samsung? If it is then spend the money but if somebody thinks not then they have £84 to put towards another purchase.

I paused on this exact thought when buying a 256GB NVMe SSD, SM961 vs 960 EVO and the premium on the retail drive was only £20 and I still ended up with the OEM drive. If my unit breaks in 15 months maybe I would reconsider this position but I've taken a punt on the Samsung brand, I think they make quality products and I'm expecting it to perform faultlessly for the 24 months or so that I will keep this unit.

I got an extra wink from lady luck because as it turns out the 256GB 960 EVO is slightly slower than the 256GB SM961 . . . now if the drive lasts as long as I own it all will be good! :)
 
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