Samsung SSD 980 Pro With Heatsink PCIe 4.0 NVMe 1TB Review

Introduction

PCIe 4.0 based storage drives have been with us for a little while now. However, since Intel’s release of their Z690 chipset, these drives are more widely used, and as such, we should start seeing more and more of them on the market. Today, we are taking a look at the Samsung SSD 980 PRO With Heatsink in a 1TB size. Currently available for £193 direct from Samsung themselves, the SSD 980 Pro With Heatsink boasts reads speeds of up to 7,000MB/s which is insanely fast! PCIe 4.0 has been a godsend to storage speeds and it is great to see Samsung capitalizing on that and the addition of a heatsink onto the drive only further helps to make sure you will get the most from it.

With so many options on the market, it is hard to know what is the best choice for storage these days. Do you need a blazing fast NVMe driver, or do you need a standard HDD for storing larger files? While this is all subjective and will come down to each individual user’s own needs, there are more options than ever to chose from so let’s take a look at the SSD 980 Pro With Heatsink and see if it lives up to what we have come to expect from Samsung.

Specifications

Closer Look

As we have seen in the image above, the heatsink is more than just a showpiece. It serves a function that some are still arguing about and that is the thermal side of PCIe 4.0 drives. The Heatsink is going to make sure the heat created from the super-fast transfer speeds is dissipated from the drive as quickly and efficiently as possible, ensuring your drive doesn’t get thermal throttled.

The SSD 980 Pro’s heatsink is going to make it a great addition to any PS5 or PC. The heatsink is well within the size needed to be added to a PlayStation 5 and again, it will help to keep temps down so you can enjoy the best gaming experience possible.

Not that you will be able to see it in most cases but the SSD 980 Pro’s heatsink also adds a nice aesthetic to the drive. Some heatsinks seem to try and do a bit too much. Samsung has kept things simple and elegant and most would be more than happy to share off a drive like this in their system.

 

The whole drive is encased in the heatsink and as such, Samsung has added the SN/MN sticker to the bottom of the drive. A lot of times on drives that don’t have heatsinks, this sticker is actually on the top of the drive and would be seen in a PC if the motherboard doesn’t offer its own heatsink. Adding this to the bottom of the drive means that once it is installed, it won’t be seen and instead, you are left with an aesthetically pleasing drive.

At the top of the heatsink, there are some tunnels/air passageways that will allow for any heat created by the drive to escape quicker. While I can’t comment for Playstation users, those of us on PC will generally have some sort of airflow throughout our system which will utilize these tunnels and make sure that the hot air is being expelled at all times.

The drive is installed in the same way as any standard M.2 drive with or without a heatsink. There is no need to change any screws or mounting hardware when it comes to installing the SSD 9o80 Pro With Heatsink.

Test System

Motherboard – ASUS STRIX Z690-E Gaming WiFi

CPU – Intel Core I5 12600K

CPU Cooler – Noctua NH-D15

RAM – 16GB Adata 4800MHz DDR5 (2x8GB)

SSD – Samsung 980 Pro

GPU – Zotac AMP Holoblack GeForce RTX 3070 8GB

*Link are affiliate links to Amazon UK at the time of review.

Performance Benchmarks

ATTO Disk Benchmark

CrystalDiskMark

AS SSD

Final Words

Let’s jump right into it. Unfortunately, in our testing, the drive didn’t quite hit the 7,000MB/s read speeds as advertised. However, in a couple of our tests, we weren’t that far off. Now, this can always be down to the difference in test systems being used but looking around and it seems quite a few others we also not able to quite hit the 7,000MB/s read mark.

Looking across the current market and these speeds are the norm for top-end PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe 1.3c drives. The SSD 980 Pro features a Samsun V-NAND 3-bit MLC storage controller and has 1GB Samsung low power DDR4 SDRAM as its RAM cache. While it may not be breaking any performance records what it does have to offer is Samsung components. When it comes to memory chips, Samsung is regarded as some of the best on the market. From GPUs to Memory, enthusiasts and overclockers are always looking for products that are comprised of Samsung chips. This is in some cases due to their overclocking prowess but also in many regards, it has to do with their reliability.

As mentioned the SSD 980 Pro With Heatsink is available direct from Samsung for £193. Those who are fans of Amazon can actually pick it up for just shy of £179 at the time of review. While this is far from the cheapest of drives out there, it is going to be one of the most reliable, and the fact it comes backed by a 50year limited warranty speaks volumes on the faith Samsung has in their SSD 980 Pro. Those looking to save a few pennies can pick up the 1TB version without a heatsink for £142 currently.

What it all comes down to is that the Samsung SSD 980 Pro With Heatsink is one of the fastest drives on the market and it is competitively priced. If you are looking for a larger-sized PCI 4.0 NVMe drive, you really can’t go wrong with this one!