We’ve got two Samsung drives here, the PCIe 3.0 Samsung 980 and the PCIe 4.0 Samsung 980 Pro, as well as another strong PCIe 4.0 option, the Crucial P5 Plus. All three offer great value for money at their reduced price point, so let’s cover each in turn! Let’s start with the cheapest option. The Samsung 980 is a surprisingly quick DRAM-less SSD that uses TLC memory. The 1TB size comes with a large 160GB SLC cache that helps keep performance up even during sustained read/write operations, and performance is generally on-par with older (but more expensive) PCIe 3.0 options like the Samsung 970 Evo. It’s been reduced from its regular price of £85 to just £70 at Currys when you use code FNDDGAMING at the checkout - an excellent value given the 3500MB/s peak read speeds, 2900MB/s peak write speeds, 500K IOPS reads and 480K IOPS writes. The drive also comes with a five-year warranty, which is among the best in the business. Altogether, it’s incredible that you can get a drive this good for less than £70 these days! For more info, check our Samsung 980 SSD review.
Samsung 980 1TB NVMe SSD for £70 w/ code FNDDGAMING (was £85)
Next up is the Samsung 980 Pro, a massively faster drive that uses Samsung’s latest PCIe 4.0 controller, fast TLC flash memory and a DRAM cache. This bleeding-edge tech lets the 980 Pro hit peak sequential speeds of 7000MB/s (reads) and 5000MB/s (writes), putting it amongst the very fastest drives on the market. Random I/O performance is also strong, rated at 690K IOPS reads and 660K IOPS writes. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this makes the drive an excellent choice for PC gaming or content creation, and the drive also meets Sony’s requirements for the PS5. This model even comes with a heatsink, so getting a 1TB size for £100 is pretty legit. For more info, check our Samsung 980 Pro review.
Samsung 980 Pro w/ heatsink 1TB NVMe SSD for £100 (was £124)
Finally, the Crucial P5 Plus. This uses Micron’s TLC flash memory and PCIe 4.0 controller, made slightly after Samsung’s equivalent parts, and produces broadly similar performance. Max sequential speeds are listed as 6600MB/s and 5000MB/s for reads and writes, respectively, which is a bit below the Samsung 980 Pro but noticeably faster than earlier PCIe 4.0 drives. Random speeds are also fast at 630K/700K IOPS, for reads and writes, respectively. If you prefer Crucial drives to Samsung ones, this is a great choice, but I’d say that the included heatsink with the 980 Pro highlighted above makes it the better choice for most people.
Crucial P5 Plus 1TB NVMe SSD for £100 (was £120)
Thanks for joining me on this special episode, and if you have any questions or comments please share them below and I’ll endeavour to help out!
