Why the SAMSUNG 970 PRO SSD is Amazing
Here is why the SAMSUNG 970 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD is still an amazing piece of hardware.
TECH REVIEW
12/19/20241 min read


Produced by SAMSUNG the 970 PRO NVMe M.2 V-NAND SSD with a PCIe Gen 3x4 supporting interface comes in two storage sizes 512GB and 1TB. The 512GB drive utilizes 512MB of LPDDR4 DRAM cache memory while the 1TB drive utilizes 1GB of LPDDR4 DRAM cache memory. In simple terms LPDDR4 DRAM stands for Low-Power Double Data Rate Dynamic Random Access Memory. Okay - think of it as if the SSD has its own built-in RAM. The most significant feature of this piece of hardware is the fact that it uses 2-bit Multi-Level Cell NAND flash or MLC as opposed to SLC, TLC or QLC. SAMSUNG's decision to go with MLC NAND flash is the sweet spot for storage density, performance and reliability. The key here is it is not a standard NAND architecture, but a Vertical-NOT-AND (V-NAND). This is a type of non-volatile flash memory technology developed by Samsung. This is where memory cells are stacked vertically in multiple layers to increase storage density and performance. More bits per chip without sacrificing reliability is a win-win. However, after a certain point too many bits causes performance to taper off. That is not the case for the 970 PRO. The benefits include faster speeds, higher capacity and lower power consumption. These are major advantages over the traditional 2D planar and NAND flash memory types. Additionally, the 970 PRO has a sequential read/write speed of 3,500/2,700MB/s. As an owner of both drive size variants with many years of service on them in a system that experiences minimal downtime the reliability has been exceptional and the performance is incredible!