As part of the Black Friday tradition (which has, at some not-to-be-named outlets, turned into "Black 2012"), Samsung will be offering their 250GB 840 SSD for $20 off of MSRP, putting it at $170, and will also be including a free copy of Far Cry 3 for PC. Samsung had this to say about their 840 SSD (the non-Pro version):
"Designed for cost-conscious consumers who still want outstanding performance, Samsung’s new SSD 840 drives offer a [SATA III] interface and triple-core MDX controller, while using economical triple-level cell (TLC) Toggle DDR2 flash memory. They offer blazingly fast random read speeds – up to 97,000 input-output operations per second (IOPS) and sequential read speeds up to 530 megabytes-per-second (MB/s) – as well as longer battery life, cooler, quieter operation and improved reliability compared with conventional hard disk drives."
The pricing really is quite good, if we're honest. At slightly less than a dollar per gig for the 250GB option (and, if you care for it, a free copy of Far Cry 3), the prices are undeniably competitive. Samsung's TLC SSDs do have slightly lower write speeds than their competitors, though, so if you're doing a lot of rendering, encoding, or bursted random file transfers (non-sequential writes), it may be worth evaluating how much that speed drop will impact you. For your convenience, we've reposted the specs of these drives below:
Samsung 840 and Samsung 840 Pro SSD Specs
| 840 Pro SSD | 840 SSD | |
| Storage | 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, 512GB | 120GB, 250GB, 500GB |
| Form Factor | 2.5" | 2.5" |
| Interface | SATA III | SATA III |
| Controller | 3-core MDX controller (300MHz) | 3-core MDX controller (300MHz) |
| Flash Memory | 2y-nm class DDR2 multi-level NAND (400 Mb/s) |
2y-nm class DDR2 triple-level NAND (400 Mb/s) |
| Warranty | 5 years. | 3 years. |
| Power Consumption | 0.15W | 0.15W |
| Price |
64GB: $100 128GB: $150 256GB: $270 512GB: $600 |
120GB: $130 250GB: $200 500GB: $400 |
You can view all of Samsung's 840 SSDs here. If you're the type who likes to consider multiple options, Mushkin's Chronos drive is a close competitor on cost-per-gig, though we haven't personally run this one through our benchmark yet.
Let us know if you have any questions or need support with your system shopping -- that's what we're here for.
- Steve "Lelldorianx" Burke.
