Bought this as a boot drive for my new 9900K build.
Was a bit concerned at first about the speed as my last NVMe boot drive was a Samsung Pro 960 and I wanted to have similar performance.
I shouldn't have worried. This little guy is lightning fast and it seems by the time my finger has lifted off the power button my PC is already at the login screen.
Would recommend this to anyone looking for a relatively cheap NVMe boot drive for their next build.
With the 500gb model you also have enough room for your main software to take advantage of the extra speed. Bought this as a boot drive for my new 9900K build.
Was a bit concerned at first about the speed as my last NVMe boot drive was a Samsung Pro 960 and I wanted to have similar performance.
I shouldn't have worried. This little guy is lightning fast and it seems by the time my finger has lifted off the power button my PC is already at the login screen.
Would recommend this to anyone looking for a relatively cheap NVMe boot drive for their next build.
With the 500gb model you also have enough room for your main software to take advantage of the extra speed.

Extremely fast! Bought this drive to put into an external enclosure. The first enclosure that I bought was for devices that use the B-Key interface and this drive uses the M-Key interface, so it didn't work. Be aware of this difference if you are wanting to put this into an external enclosure. Extremely fast! Bought this drive to put into an external enclosure. The first enclosure that I bought was for devices that use the B-Key interface and this drive uses the M-Key interface, so it didn't work. Be aware of this difference if you are wanting to put this into an external enclosure.

Samsung’s been making quality SSDs for a while now, we’ll before NVMe became a widely adopted standard. These SSDs aren’t going to give you much faster boot or game load times than a SATA SSD but they may help depending on your specific workload.

Samsung provides a wonderful utility on their site for cloning your existing Samsung drive to a new one, making upgrading my boot drive very simple. Samsung’s been making quality SSDs for a while now, we’ll before NVMe became a widely adopted standard. These SSDs aren’t going to give you much faster boot or game load times than a SATA SSD but they may help depending on your specific workload.

Samsung provides a wonderful utility on their site for cloning your existing Samsung drive to a new one, making upgrading my boot drive very simple.

Had this for about 1 week. My last PC only had SATA2 and mechanical drives. Made this the OS drive. Super fast. Does get warm according to the monitoring tool. Gets to about 51-52 degrees (it can withstand 70 degrees, so well within limits) - but doesn't have a heatsink on it. No complaints. Works fine.
Pros:
Fast, like really fast.
Small and easy to install - no external cables to attach.

Cons:
No heatsink, but don't think it matters.
"Limited" to PCIe3 (that's still very fast). Had this for about 1 week. My last PC only had SATA2 and mechanical drives. Made this the OS drive. Super fast. Does get warm according to the monitoring tool. Gets to about 51-52 degrees (it can withstand 70 degrees, so well within limits) - but doesn't have a heatsink on it. No complaints. Works fine.
Pros:
Fast, like really fast.
Small and easy to install - no external cables to attach.

Cons:
No heatsink, but don't think it matters.
"Limited" to PCIe3 (that's still very fast).

If you're looking at getting an SSD but have the option to install an M.2, get the M.2 every time! Waaay faster and it can actually multitask well, unlike an SSD which will stall if you try to do two separate heavy read/write loads at the same time due to SSDs using the SATA interface, where these use PCI-e lanes. This handles file transfers and heavy multi-tasking with ease, splitting bandwidth fairly evenly between tasks. It'll happily copy around 4GB in a couple of seconds, but anything over about 8GB will taper off over time, sometimes down to between 500-900MB/s. You won't notice an advantage with boot times over an SSD, but everything...view more If you're looking at getting an SSD but have the option to install an M.2, get the M.2 every time! Waaay faster and it can actually multitask well, unlike an SSD which will stall if you try to do two separate heavy read/write loads at the same time due to SSDs using the SATA interface, where these use PCI-e lanes. This handles file transfers and heavy multi-tasking with ease, splitting bandwidth fairly evenly between tasks. It'll happily copy around 4GB in a couple of seconds, but anything over about 8GB will taper off over time, sometimes down to between 500-900MB/s. You won't notice an advantage with boot times over an SSD, but everything else will be exponentially better! Also perfect if you care about a tidy build and don't want to mess with SATA cables

Much faster than my old SSD definitely a noticeable difference in the 3 weeks I've owned it so far. Although while faster than my old SSD the fastest I've seen in real-world performance is about 2.5GB read and 2GB write not that I'm worried as it is still very fast and still faster than the 960 evo in my PC at work Much faster than my old SSD definitely a noticeable difference in the 3 weeks I've owned it so far. Although while faster than my old SSD the fastest I've seen in real-world performance is about 2.5GB read and 2GB write not that I'm worried as it is still very fast and still faster than the 960 evo in my PC at work

easy installation easy installation

This little unit has it all, speed and reliability at a fantastic price. While this isn't the cheapest M.2 available it is worth that little bit extra as you'll notice the difference. I have now upgraded all of my systems (Desktops & Laptop) to use this 970 Evo as the main bootable drive and it hasn't let me down once.

Read/Write performance is great
Solid temperature under sustained loads without throttling
Quality build

If you're currently using SATA drives to boot/Operating System from then don't hesitate, do yourself a favor and get one of these little unit as it will change your experience. This little unit has it all, speed and reliability at a fantastic price. While this isn't the cheapest M.2 available it is worth that little bit extra as you'll notice the difference. I have now upgraded all of my systems (Desktops & Laptop) to use this 970 Evo as the main bootable drive and it hasn't let me down once.

Read/Write performance is great
Solid temperature under sustained loads without throttling
Quality build

If you're currently using SATA drives to boot/Operating System from then don't hesitate, do yourself a favor and get one of these little unit as it will change your experience.

The SSD is extremely fast. The Windows and games load in seconds. Very pleased with the speed The SSD is extremely fast. The Windows and games load in seconds. Very pleased with the speed

Works exactly as advertised on the box . Works exactly as advertised on the box .

Was hoping that getting this would increase the speed of my computer so I could game without having to do an overhaul. It did that and some. Would recommend to anyone who's computer is feeling a bit slow and has an M.2 slot available. Was hoping that getting this would increase the speed of my computer so I could game without having to do an overhaul. It did that and some. Would recommend to anyone who's computer is feeling a bit slow and has an M.2 slot available.

Super quick, especially for productivity
. The Samsung magician toolkit is really easy to use too. Super quick, especially for productivity
. The Samsung magician toolkit is really easy to use too.