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.

This is the first M.2 drive I have purchased, this had made a huge performance increase in my PC. Even after a month, I am still extremely happy and have no regrets with this. Highly recommend this to anyone looking for an M.2 drive This is the first M.2 drive I have purchased, this had made a huge performance increase in my PC. Even after a month, I am still extremely happy and have no regrets with this. Highly recommend this to anyone looking for an M.2 drive

By: GregO49 18/02/21

Verified Owner

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

Have seen in the reviews that these can perform better than the 980 versions, so the higher price for the 980 doesn't seem worth it to me. The 500GB is single sided (no big chips on the bottom) - some systems may have an issue with thickness of the M.2 card. Performance is fast as expected. Seems to run cool with heatsink attached on the MB. Had to be careful not to bend the module during installation.

Installation was a breeze into MB, and can't fault the OS installation. Leaving part of it empty space to get 10 years of life as boot device/swap drive. Overall very happy, and would purchase this (or a 1TB) depending upon needs and pri...view more Have seen in the reviews that these can perform better than the 980 versions, so the higher price for the 980 doesn't seem worth it to me. The 500GB is single sided (no big chips on the bottom) - some systems may have an issue with thickness of the M.2 card. Performance is fast as expected. Seems to run cool with heatsink attached on the MB. Had to be careful not to bend the module during installation.

Installation was a breeze into MB, and can't fault the OS installation. Leaving part of it empty space to get 10 years of life as boot device/swap drive. Overall very happy, and would purchase this (or a 1TB) depending upon needs and price.

Boots up real quick Boots up real quick

By: VinS 26/07/21

Good value for money, good performance Good value for money, good performance

Greate product Greate product

After years of suffering with slow boot times and waiting an age for larger games to startup such as DayZ, Space Engineers and No Mans Sky, I decided to spend some cash and get myself this SSD.

Installing the device onto the motherboard was easy although my motherboard only detected it once I applied new firmware and fiddled with my Bios PCI settings.

Once up and running I was able to install Windows 10 in about 20 minutes and everything is now working lightning fast.
An excellent purchase for an ageing pc. Thanks PBTech! After years of suffering with slow boot times and waiting an age for larger games to startup such as DayZ, Space Engineers and No Mans Sky, I decided to spend some cash and get myself this SSD.

Installing the device onto the motherboard was easy although my motherboard only detected it once I applied new firmware and fiddled with my Bios PCI settings.

Once up and running I was able to install Windows 10 in about 20 minutes and everything is now working lightning fast.
An excellent purchase for an ageing pc. Thanks PBTech!