Samsung - 990 EVO PLUS SSD 2TB, PCIe Gen 4x4 | 5x2 M.2 2280, Speeds Up to 7,250 MB/s

I added this to an open slot on my desktop motherboard and as expected I found the install to be easy and straight forward and used Windows Disk Management tool to create a simple volume to allow for use of the drive. This Samsung 990 EVO Plus SSD has thus far met my expectations in terms of performance with no problems whatsoever. I’m happy to have the added 2TB capacity that will come in handy for me for gaming and everyday tasks. File transfer rates are impressive with a maximum read speed of 7250 megabytes per second and maximum write speed of 6300 megabytes per second. Samsung notes this as 45% faster than the 990 EVO and a similar write speed to their PRO series. Those doing complex tasks especially should benefit from the vastly improved specs of this 990 EVO Plus as compared to 990 EVO. I appreciate that my gaming experience is improved with faster load times, smoother gameplay, and responsiveness. Everyday tasks such as movement of files is a quick operation with the 990 EVO Plus’s fast transfer rates. This SSD is future proofed with the latest technology and Samsung has provided a five-year warranty in the unlikely event that problems should occur. Samsung’s Magician Software is available for firmware updates, extra encryption and monitoring of drive health. I see no real cons to this SSD and find it to be a nice balance of price and performance by a brand that I’ve found to be reliable.

Introduction I have used many Samsung products as a whole and for the most part have been very happy. Going in I already have a Samsung 990 PRO 2 TB in the past, so I was excited to see how much faster the 990 EVO plus would be. What comes in the box? Out of the box you get the SSD and an insert… nothing else. Usage The SSD is easy to install, but super fragile. This is the first SSD I got without a heatsink, so it looked like a stick of gum without the extra hardware. Installing a SSD is super easy. The hardest part is opening the desktop or laptop to install it into. To test the speed, I transferred 20 gigs of photos from an external HDD to the 990 Plus, and the write speed was averaging 112 MB/Second. The whole process took 3 minutes. I would say that’s pretty fast. 80 GB games from my game launcher downloaded onto the drive in about 13 minutes. Now I’m pretty sure it’s more dependent on the internet speed as well, but that’s the time that I got. Games ran nice and smooth on the SSD. Games launched immediately on the SSD, and very little to no loading times in game. That’s a definite win. I’m imaging that with a lot of use the SSD would heat up without a heatsink. This is still a head scratcher for me as to why they didn’t include in. It probably would have cost another $10-15 dollars to the MSRP for it to be included. Minor issues I wish this came with a heatsink. I’ve never used a SSD NVME that didn’t have one, so I ended up getting a thin one just in case. Major issues It really bugs me when I get a new SSD and my computer doesn’t recognize it automatically. I have to go into disk management and create a new volume every time. I had to do it with the 990 Pro, and now with the Plus. I wish manufacturers would create something that would allow for drives to be recognized without the extra work… or I’ve been doing it wrong all along. Primarily for This is a great SSD for anyone in the market looking for a nice 2TB primary or secondary drive. This would also be great for content creators who are constantly editing and transferring high volumes of files, photos, and videos. Probably not for People who don’t need the extra space or the speed. All in all I’ve always liked Samsung SSD’s. The EVO Plus is a great addition to an already great lineup of existing SSD’s. Do I think they’re a little overpriced? Yes, a little. If you want to best, you’ll have to pay the luxury price I guess.

The Samsung 990 Evo Plus features up to 7,250 MB/s read speeds and 6,300 MB/s write speeds across a PCIe 4.0x4 or PCIe 5.0x2 system. I used the 2TB model and found that while these may be “peak” read/write speeds, in reality you will likely get less on average, but that really isn’t saying much since it is still blazingly fast. I initially tested the SSD in my PC before ultimately moving it to my PS5. I had to get a separate heatsink for the SSD before it could go in the PS5, which was easily attached and was installed in the system in just minutes. On the PS5, I started by transferring just over 1.5 TB worth of games to the Samsung Evo 990 Plus from the internal PS5 SSD. I was getting read/write speeds in the mid 6000/5000+ MB/s range consistently, with a very quick transfer process end-to-end. I then went and loaded several PS5 first-party games like Ratchet & Clank & Demon Souls to test the SSD speed in-game with games that require fast speeds, and had no issues whatsoever in loading times, or hitches in games. Despite games like Ratchet & Clank doing high levels of read/writes from the SSD to memory in real-time, I didn’t notice any difference vs. the internal SSD in the PS5. When it came to game loading times, they were likewise extremely fast and did seem to be slightly faster than the internal PS5 SSD, particularly with older games. In terms of heat, although for much of my time using the SSD I used an external heatsink, I personally noticed no issues when in my PC, or now in the PS5. Despite putting under it a pretty heavy upfront load, I did not see any throttling or signs of tension on the SSD. It has been absolutely blazing end-to-end, and shows no signs of slowing down. Samsung has killed it.