Solid-State Standouts
Reviewers are Impressed by the Remarkably Balanced
Performance of Samsung’s New 470 Series SSDs
FEBRUARY 1, 2011
Summary
What The Reviewers Said
More than a dozen leading news publications and blogs have
evaluated Samsung’s 470 Series solid-state drives (SSDs) since
their introduction in late 2010. Their outstanding performance
has been widely praised by numerous reviewers, who have
subjected them to an exhaustive battery of tests.
“The Samsung 470 Series
SSD is the top-performing
SSD tested since our first
review was published in
2007. . . This is simply the
best drive on the market.”
– Les Tokar, The SSD Review
Although different reviewers have chosen to emphasize a variety
of performance benchmarks, the predominant conclusion is that
the 470 Series SSDs are among the fastest drives currently on the
market, and that they offer outstanding all-around performance
in both reading and writing data.
Les Tokar, editor and founder of The SSD Review website, set the
tone for later reviewers in his November 4, 2010 review1, which
noted that “The Samsung 470 Series SSD is the top-performing
SSD tested since our first [review] was published in 2007.” Tokar’s
article went on to conclude that: “This is simply the best drive on
the market.”
About this report
This report is intended to help readers better understand the
advantages of Samsung’s 470 Series SSDs. By collecting in one
place the highlights from multiple reviews and digesting their
sometimes lengthy and technically detailed results into a more
concise format, our intent is to provide a comprehensive resource
for consumers evaluating SSD upgrades for their own computers.
Samsung Electronics is grateful to the many journalists and
technical evaluators who took the time to review our new
SSDs. Their findings are summarized on the following pages.
2
Introduction
The Solid-State Difference
SSDs, unlike conventional hard disk drives that store data on
spinning disks, rely on NAND flash memory chips that are extremely
fast, silent, energy efficient and—because they have no moving
parts—resistant to shock, vibration and other physical damage.
As the cost of SSD storage declines, consumers are increasingly
opting for the speed, reliability and energy savings of solid-state
storage. Objective Analysis forecasts that worldwide SSD
shipments will reach nearly 40 million drives per year in 2015,
generating more than $7 billion in annual revenue.2
Samsung introduced the 470 Series line of SSDs in August, 2010.
These new drives are the company’s first aftermarket SSDs designed
specifically for consumers upgrading their existing computers.
They are also the first SSDs to use Samsung’s 30-nanometer (nm)
class toggle-mode double data rate (DDR) NAND chips, which
enable extremely high data throughput rates. Equipped with a
3 gigabits per second (Gb/s) Serial ATA 2.0 interface and available
in three storage capacities—64 gigabytes (GB), 128GB and
256GB—the 470 Series SSDs read and write data up to three
times faster than typical hard disk drives, allowing them to store
two standard-length DVD movies in just a minute.
3
470 Series Overview
Inside Samsung’s SSDs
One of the key differences between Samsung’s SSDs and other
manufacturers’ drives is the high percentage of components
designed and manufactured by Samsung itself. As HotHardware.com
reviewer Paul Lilly noted: “Pop the hood and you’ll find the Samsung
label through and through, from the memory chips to the custom
controller... as well as a pair of 128MB [dynamic random-access
(DRAM)] modules.”3 In contrast, most SSD makers procure their
NAND and DRAM memory, controller chips, or all of the above,
from outside suppliers.
Samsung’s ability to control the production of all major components
offers several advantages. Not only is it able to assure a reliable
supply of key components, it also has the unique ability to ensure
that its NAND flash memory chips and SSD controllers are
optimized to work together for maximum performance.
“Samsung has clearly put
together a formidable
controller that’s more than
capable of holding its own
next to the competition.”
– Paul Lilly, HotHardware.com
SSD controllers are embedded microprocessors that reside
between the drives’ input/output interface and their flash memory.
Besides managing the reading and writing of data to the flash
chips, controllers typically oversee a variety of other essential
drive functions such as diagnostics, error correction, wear leveling,
caching and security. Controller technology is often considered the
single most important factor affecting SSDs’ overall performance.
“It’s important to put [SSD drive] controllers in the spotlight,
because most SSD innovation happens on this front,” noted
Tom’s Hardware editors Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos in a
recent roundup of leading SSDs.4 “In reality,” they contend, “it’s the
controllers [on the drive] that are responsible for most performance
tweaking and faster interface bandwidth.”
Not surprisingly, many reviewers of Samsung’s 470 Series drives
take note of their triple-core controllers, which improve multi-tasking
performance by distributing reading, writing and optimization tasks
as needed between the cores. “Samsung has clearly put together
a formidable controller that’s more than capable of holding its own
next to the competition,” commented HotHardware.com, adding:
“We have to give kudos to Samsung where they are due, for putting
together an impressive SSD controller.”
4
470 Series Overview
Controllers aren’t the only hardware highlight of Samsung’s
470 Series drives. Geoff Gasior’s review for The Tech Report, for
instance, cited Samsung’s toggle DDR NAND chips as important
contributors to the drives’ impressive performance. “Faster flash
chips can make a big difference,” he said.5 He went on to explain
how toggle NAND technology enables data rates up to 133
megabits per second (Mbps)—more than three times as fast as
conventional single-data-rate NAND chips.
Several reviewers also cited the 470 Series’ use of 256 megabytes
(MBs) of DRAM cache memory. “We were surprised to find two
cache chips, one on either side of the PCB [printed circuit board],
as every SSD we have seen so far only includes a single cache
chip,” notes TechSpot reviewer Steven Walton.6 Cache memory
helps to reduce data-transfer bottlenecks by holding frequently
accessed data that is needed repeatedly and by speeding up the
writing of small data files. “Whether you want to give full credit to
the controller or the decision to use two 128MB DRAM chips when
most SSDs use a single chip is irrelevant,” wrote HotHardware.com.
“The bottom line is Samsung’s 470 puts up respectable numbers
and hardly ever flinches at virtually any desktop workload you can
throw at it.”
A final differentiator mentioned by most reviewers was the 470
Series drives’ aesthetic appearance and packaging. Unlike most
competing drives’ plain, utilitarian appearance, Samsung’s new
consumer SSDs distinguish themselves with stylish, brushed metal
enclosures highlighted by a thin, orange accent band and corner
insert. Samsung capitalizes on the drives’ attractive design with
clear acrylic cases that show off their visual appeal to full effect.
“It’s almost a shame to hide it inside your desktop or notebook
chassis,” commented HotHardware.com’s Lilly. Slashgear editor
Ewdison Then described the 470 Series as having “a premium feel
that sets it apart.”7 Storage Review’s Editor in Chief Brian Beeler
praised the ”gorgeous design” of Samsung’s consumer SSDs.
“We don’t talk about drives being pretty and well packaged very
often,” he admitted, adding “This may even be a first.”8
5
Test Results
Test methodologies
Reviewers have relied upon a variety of standard as well as
customized benchmark tests to evaluate Samsung’s 470 Series
SSDs. Among the more popular applications used to put the drives
through their paces were:
•
•
•
•
•
ATTO Technology’s ATTO Disk Benchmark
Crystal Technology’s CrystalDiskMark benchmark
Simpli Software’s HD Tach hardware benchmark
EFD Software’s HD Tune Pro hard disk utility
The Iometer Project’s open source IOMeter
benchmark tool
• Futuremark’s PCMark Vantage HDD test suite
Others supplemented those benchmarks with additional tests,
some of which are custom-designed to simulate real-world SSD
use patterns. Typically, they began with drives that were blank
and unpartitioned, unless the tests called for specific partitions
or formatting.
Boot-ups and software loading
“Until I installed this drive,
it would take me about five
minutes between the time
I turned on the PC and the
time I could actually start
to use it. ... Now it takes
about 30 seconds from a
cold start”
– Larry Magid, San Jose
Mercury News
One of SSDs’ biggest advantages over conventional hard disk
drives is how much faster they allow users to boot up their PCs and
load software applications. Larry Magid, technology columnist for
the Huffington Post and the San Jose Mercury News, for instance,
experienced a significant speedup after installing a Samsung
256GB 470 Series SSD in his desktop PC.
“Until I installed this drive, it would take me about five minutes
between the time I turned on the PC and the time I could actually
start to use it... Now it takes about 30 seconds from a cold start to
loading Mozilla Firefox,” Larry Magid reported.9 He also noted that
his PC now wakes much faster from sleep mode. “Before, from
the time I touched the keyboard or moved the mouse while the
machine was sleeping, I had to wait 30 seconds or more for the
hard drive to spin up. Now it’s usable a few seconds after I start
waking it up. It’s also faster to shut down a machine, because
that often requires writing to the drive.”
TechSpot reported similarly impressive speed increases in
booting up a Windows 7 PC test system. TechSpot’s Walton noted
6
Test Results
that there is typically “very little difference” between most SSDs on this
test because nearly all SSDs perform exceptionally well in terms of
boot-up time. “That was until we tested the Samsung 470 256GB, which
loaded Windows 7 about 18 percent faster [9.5 seconds vs. 11.7 seconds]
than the Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB,” he said. “The result makes the
Samsung 470 Series 256GB the fastest SSD we have tested here.”
(See Figure A, below).
TechSpot also compared how fast Samsung and 10 other SSDs and hard
disk drives loaded a variety of popular games and software applications,
including Photoshop, StarCraft II, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Excel,
Outlook, PowerPoint and Word. In all but one test, the Samsung SSD
achieved the fastest launch time (although the 100GB OCZ Vertex2 Pro was
a half-second faster in launching eight simultaneous software applications
in a Windows 7 environment).
Figure A. Samsung’s 470 Series SSDs booted up faster in Windows 7 than any
previous SSDs tested by TechSpot.
Source: http://www.techspot.com/review/340-samsung-470-series-ssd/page6.html
7
Test Results
IOMeter data-transfer rates
Several reviewers used IOMeter file transfer tests to evaluate the 470
Series drives’ sequential data transfer rates. IOMeter’s software allows
testers to evaluate how quickly the drives transfer both sequential and
random files of varying sizes. In Storage Review’s tests of transferring
2MB sequential files, Samsung’s 256GB 470 Series drive demonstrated
an average read speed of 243MB/s and a write speed of 233MB. That
gave it a slightly slower average read speed than SSDs from Corsair,
Crucial and Intel, but higher average write speeds than every other
model tested except the 256GB Crucial RealSSD C300.
Where Samsung’s 470 Series drive really stood out, however,
was in Storage Review’s IOMeter 4K random transfer test, where the
Samsung drive “blew away” Intel’s 160GB X25-M SSD, the previous
performance leader in that category, with an exceptional 54.69MB/s
write speed, and a read speed of 12.36MB/s. As Storage Review’s
Beeler notes, “. . .the Samsung SSD 470 excels in unaligned 4K
transfers. . . actually beating out the Intel in its stronghold.”
Read and write performance
HotHardware.com used the latest version of HD Tune Pro (v4.60)
to test a variety of read and write performance factors including
minimum, maximum and average transfer rate, access time and
burst rate. This suite of tests offers a wide-ranging performance
overview and also helps to reveal drives that run inconsistently.
READ
Minimum Transfer
Rate (MB/s)
Maximum Transfer
Rate (MB/s)
Average Transfer
Rate (MB/s)
Access Time
(ms)
CPU Usage
(%)
Samsung 470 Series 256GB
221.8
226.2
225.3
0.18
1.4
Corsair Nova Series V128 128GB
217.9
225.4
222.2
0.08
1.1
Intel X25-M Gen2 80GB
175.2
234.1
227.5
0.09
1.3
Kingston SSDNov V Series 64GB
221.8
233.5
226
0.22
1.3
OCZ Vertex 2 100GB
194.4
206.3
201.1
0.11
1.1
WRITE
Minimum Transfer
Rate (MB/s)
Maximum Transfer
Rate (MB/s)
Average Transfer
Rate (MB/s)
Access Time
(ms)
CPU Usage
(%)
Samsung 470 Series 256GB
184.5
194.2
191.9
0.05
1.3
Corsair Nova Series V128 128GB
150.2
192.6
177.5
0.04
1.2
Intel X25-M Gen2 80GB
0.4
82.7
73.5
0.5
0.6
Kingston SSDNov V Series 64GB
7.4
154.9
94.4
0.09
0.7
131.5
200
197.9
0.18
1.2
OCZ Vertex 2 100GB
Figure B. HotHardware’s test results show that Samsung’s 470 Series SSDs offer the fastest
minimum data transfer rates for both reading and writing.
Source: http://hothardware.com/Reviews/Samsung-470-Series-256GB-SSD-Review/?page=3
8
Test Results
When compared to a selection of Corsair, Intel and OCZ SSDs,
Samsung’s 470 Series drive recorded the second-highest average
read speed (just 2.2 MB/s slower than Intel’s 80GB X25-M drive) as
well as the second-highest average write speed (6 MB/s slower than
OCZ’s 100GB Vertex 2 drive). In terms of minimum transfer rates,
though, the Samsung drive easily outperformed every other model
tested (See Figure B, previous page). HotHardware.com’s reviewer
complimented Samsung’s SSDs for their solid, all-around performance.
“Samsung didn’t turn in the highest average transfer rate, but it did
come awfully close and trounced the competition in minimum transfers,”
he said. “What this all means is that over the long haul, the Samsung
drive should perform more consistently no matter what the task.”
TechSpot reported a “rather strong’’ sequential read speed of
262.1 MB/s after using CrystalDiskMark 3.0 to compare the performance
of Samsung’s 470 Series drives to 10 other leading SSDs and hard
disk drives. Although Samsung’s SSDs were slower than the top-ranked
256GB Crucial RealSSD C300, they offset that deficit by dominating
the sequential write-speed test with a speed of 257.2 MB/s. (See
Figure C, below) “This is simply off the charts, beating the next fastest
SSD by an 18 percent margin,” exclaimed TechSpot’s reviewer.
Figure C. Samsung’s 470 Series SSDs dominated TechSpot’s sequential write speed
rankings, with a speed of nearly 260 MB/s.
Source:http://www.techspot.com/review/340-samsung-470-series-ssd/page7.html
9
Test Results
Real-life testing
Although numerous reviewers took note of the Samsung SSDs’
outstanding write speeds measured by CrystalDiskMark, PCMark
Vantage and other standard benchmark tests, they were also
impressed by the results generated by their own customized tests
designed to duplicate real-life SSD users’ challenges.
“The real-world performance
is impressive, posting some
of the best times we have
seen.”
– Joe Evans, Legit Storage Reviews
Joe Evans of Legit Storage Reviews, for instance, used a free
application called Teracopy to measure how fast the Samsung SSD
470 could copy large numbers of JPG and MP3 files from one folder
to another on the same drive, requiring the drive to simultaneously
perform both sustained read and writes. Evans was surprised at
how well the Samsung SSD performed. “The real-world performance
is impressive,” he said, “posting some of the best times we have
seen.”10
For its real-world benchmarks, Storage Review used several
custom StorageMark 2010 traces designed to simulate common
user scenarios. The first test aimed to replicate the storage
demands of a home theater PC (HTPC) by playing one 720p
high-definition movie in Media Player Classic mode, playing
another 480p standard-definition movie in VideoLAN’s VLC media
player, downloading three movies simultaneously through iTunes
and recording one 1080i HDTV stream through Windows Media
Center—all within a 15 minute period. In the HTPC test the
Samsung SSD 470 trailed the 120GB Corsair F120 drive
(by 179 MB/s to 248 MB/s), but handily outperformed the 256GB
Crucial RealSSD C300 (140 MB/s) and the 160GB Intel X25-M
SSD (127 MB/s).
A second real-world “productivity” test included three hours of
running Outlook 2007 in 32-bit Windows Vista while connected to
an Exchange server, surfing the Internet with both Google Chrome
and Internet Explorer 8 browsers, editing files in Office 2007,
viewing PDF files in Adobe Reader, and an hour of local music
playback followed by two hours of streaming online music from
Pandora. Again, the Samsung 470 Series SSD trailed the Corsair
F120 (by 166 MB/s to 209 MB/s) while keeping its lead over the
Intel (120 MB/s) and Crucial (114 MB/s) drives.
10
Conclusion
Positive Impressions
Although Samsung is still a relative newcomer to the consumer
SSD market, the reviews of its new drives are rolling in, and the
verdict is extremely positive.
Consider the following comments:
“We were most impressed with how consistently Samsung’s
470 256GB performed throughout our entire round of testing.
With few exceptions, the 470 held a steady pace, and it really
flexed its muscle when it came to writes.”
– Paul Lilly, HotHardware.com.
“The Samsung 470 Series
256GB has certainly
surprised us. This quiet
achiever came from
nowhere to dominate our
performance charts with
stellar performance.”
– Steven Walton, TechSpot
“The Samsung 470 Series 256GB has certainly surprised us.
This quiet achiever came from nowhere to dominate our
performance charts with stellar performance.”
– Steven Walton, TechSpot
“The Samsung 470 reaches higher throughput and is stronger than
most of the other SSDs, including the SandForce party, in our
PCMark Vantage application tests. Additionally, we found it to be
the best drive on sustained performance.”
– Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos, Tom’s Hardware
“The Samsung 470 shines where it matters the most: performance.
Like other hard drives, we tested Samsung thoroughly with many
different applications, and it did an excellent job with most of
them.”11
– Dong Ngo, CNET
Reviewers agree, Samsung’s 470 Series SSDs are among the most
consistently high performing solid-state storage devices currently
on the market. Although not the fastest by every measure, they
offer remarkably consistent balance between read and write
speeds, while avoiding most of the weak points of other drives.
For additional information about Samsung’s new solid-state
drives, please visit: www.samsung.com/ssd
11
Sources
References
1. Les Tokar, “Samsung 470 series 256 GB SSD review (30nm),” The SSD Review, Nov. 4, 2010,
http://thessdreview.com/our-reviews/samsung-470-series-256-gb-ssd-review-30nm/
2. Lucas Mearian, “NAND flash memory pricing to plummet to $1 per GB,” Computerworld, Aug. 19, 2010,
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9180943/NAND_flash_memory_pricing_to_plummet_to_1_per_GB?
3. Paul Lilly, “Samsung’s Hot, New 470 Series 256GB SSD Burned In,” HotHardware.com,
Dec. 9, 2010, http://hothardware.com/News/Samsungs-Hot-New-470-Series-256GB-SSD-Burned-In/
4. Patrick Schmid and Achim Roos, “Roundup: The Best SSDs for Enthusiasts,” Tom’s Hardware,
Nov. 1, 2010, http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/samsung-470-sandforce-best-ssd,2783.html
5. Geoff Gasior, “Samsung’s 470 Series solid-state drive: Toggle DDR NAND arrives,” The Tech Report,
Dec. 13, 2010, http://techreport.com/articles.x/20087
6. Steven Walton, “Samsung 470 Series 256GB SSD Review,” TechSpot, Nov. 22, 2010,
http://www.techspot.com/review/340-samsung-470-series-ssd/
7. Ewdison Then, “Samsung 256GB SSD 470 Series Review,” SlashGear Nov. 24, 2010,
http://www.slashgear.com/samsung-256gb-ssd-470-series-review-24116133/
8. Brian Beeler, “Samsung 470 Series SSD Review 256GB (MZ5PA256HMDR),” Storage Review,
Nov. 2, 2010, http://www.storagereview.com/samsung_470_series_ssd_review_256gb_mz5pa256hmdr
9. Larry Magid, “Flash Drives Speed up PC Start Times,” Huffington Post, Nov. 14, 2010,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-magid/flash-drive-speeds-up-pc_b_783331.html
10. Joe Evans, “Samsung 470 Series 256GB SSD Review,” Legit Storage Reviews, Jan. 18, 2011,
http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1532/1/
11. Dong Ngo, “Samsung 470 (64GB, SSD): CNET Editor’s Review,” CNET, Nov. 15, 2010,
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptop-hard-drives/samsung-470-64gb-ssd/4505-9997_7-34212143.html
12