Samsung's 950 Pro line of solid-state drives is their first retail M.2 form factor SSD. It that runs at a full PCI-Express 3.0 x4 speed, which provides lots bandwidth and results in performance that is multiple times what a SATA III based SSD can provide. This 256GB model has sequential read speeds that peak at 2.2GB/s with write speeds around 900MB/s.
Please note that some M.2 slots on motherboards only run at PCI-E x2 speed, rather than the x4 this SSD is capable of. In such cases, performance will be limited by the speed of the slot. This drive also gets very hot during extended read / write operations (typically around 40-60 seconds), and if it gets too hot it will throttle down to prevent overheating. That will reduce performance by as much as 60% in such situations, but even then performance is well above what SATA-based SSDs offer.
Please note that some M.2 slots on motherboards only run at PCI-E x2 speed, rather than the x4 this SSD is capable of. In such cases, performance will be limited by the speed of the slot. This drive also gets very hot during extended read / write operations (typically around 40-60 seconds), and if it gets too hot it will throttle down to prevent overheating. That will reduce performance by as much as 60% in such situations, but even then performance is well above what SATA-based SSDs offer.
John Dinning (Research and Development Engineer) Says:
The Samsung 950 M.2 drives bypass the SATA controller and run directly on PCI-Express. That means they're fast. Really fast.
The Samsung 950 M.2 drives bypass the SATA controller and run directly on PCI-Express. That means they're fast. Really fast.
Model: Samsung MZ-V5P256BW
Specifications
| Capacity | 256 GB |
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x4 |
| Form Factor | M.2 2280 |
| Idle Noise | 0 dB |
| Seek Noise | 0 dB |
| Endurance (TBW) | 200 TBW |
| Peak Power Draw | 5.7 Watts |
Performance | |
| Sequential Read (Peak) | Up to 2,200 MB/s |
| Sequential Write (Peak) | Up to 900 MB/s |
| Random 4KB Read | Up to 270,000 IOPS |
| Random 4KB Write | Up to 85,000 IOPS |
NAND Type Samsung V-NAND
Controller Samsung UBX controller
Cache Memory Samsung 512 MB Low Power DDR3 SDRAM
Reliability (MTBF) 1.5 Million Hours Reliability (MTBF)
Operating Temperature 0 *C to 70 *C (Measured by SMART Temperature. Proper airflow recommended)
Humidity 5% to 95%, non-condensing
Vibration 20~2000Hz, 20G
Shock 1500G , duration 0.5m sec, 3 axis
