# Samsung 850 Evo or 850 Pro?



## Hisuoir (Feb 17, 2016)

Currently debating whether to get an 850 512GB Pro or an 850 500GB Evo.

What are the differences between these two SSD's? Is the Pro faster than the Evo? Is the Pro better quality? Does the pro run hotter than the Evo?

I'm more curious about the temps, whether or not the Pro runs hotter than the Evo and by how much hotter if so.
Thank you in advance


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## Jetster (Feb 17, 2016)

Temps are the same, The pro has a longer life. More writes, 10 year warranty where the EVO has a 5 year. Speeds is the same.

I use a EVO has my system and games drive. I use a Pro for my temp drive for video editing

Ive never seen a firmware upgrade for the Pro version. I suspect they put more work into the firmware the first time


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## MxPhenom 216 (Feb 17, 2016)

the crucial mx200 has mlc nand like the 850 pro, but similar cost as the evo. Crucial also makes its own nand, like samsung. Crucial being a branch within Micron.


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## arbiter (Feb 17, 2016)

Only difference would be evo if writeing like 4+gb of data might slow down as its cache will get full but not much. Evo's are still very good drive for price, one of the best.

As for heat, don't need to worry so much about heat with SSD's.


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## AsRock (Feb 17, 2016)

Crucial only offer a 3 year warranty even on their MX200,

If the SSD going be under a lot of disk writes i would opt for the pro but if it's just installing games on it every so often then the EVO.


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## taz420nj (Feb 17, 2016)

MxPhenom 216 said:


> the crucial mx200 has mlc nand like the 850 pro, but similar cost as the evo. Crucial also makes its own nand, like samsung. Crucial being a branch within Micron.



The 850 pro uses V-NAND, not MLC.  V-NAND has better performance and endurance than MLC.


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## MxPhenom 216 (Feb 18, 2016)

taz420nj said:


> The 850 pro uses V-NAND, not MLC.  V-NAND has better performance and endurance than MLC.



the 850 Pro uses MLC V-NAND. Its vertically stacked MLC NAND. Image from Anandtech 850 Pro review. The 850 uses Samsungs 2nd gen V-NAND.

Its still MLC. Just like Toggle NAND can still considered MLC or TLC (In the case of the 840 Evo). All MLC means is Multi-Level Cell.


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## taz420nj (Feb 18, 2016)

MxPhenom 216 said:


> the 850 Pro uses MLC V-NAND. Its vertically stacked MLC NAND. Image from Anandtech 850 Pro review. The 850 uses Samsungs 2nd gen V-NAND.
> 
> Its still MLC. Just like Toggle NAND can still considered MLC or TLC (In the case of the 840 Evo). All MLC means is Multi-Level Cell.



Yeah I know what it is..  But V-NAND is still a separate category of NAND, and it is still superior to the MLC that Crucial is using.  To say the MLC in the MX200 is the same as the "MLC" in the 850 Pro is like saying a 3.9L V6 is the same as a 426 Hemi because they're both engines as an argument against the higher price of the Hemi.


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## alucasa (Feb 18, 2016)

Samsung's V-Nand is in league of its own at the moment but quite frankly even the cheapest SSD will perform fine in bare eyes.


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## RejZoR (Feb 18, 2016)

Technically 3D V-NAND is TLC NAND and they are both MLC NAND's. Difference between 3D-V and TLC is how it is made. The 3D-V still has 3 cells, but they are designed with 3rd dimension where TLC is planar. What this means is that 3D-V is less prone to getting stuck, resulting in much more reliable and durable NAND memory. Where TLC cells tend to get stuck faster (an unavoidable side effect of toggling NAND cell states constantly). Plus, since it goes into 3rd dimension, you can fit more of it on the same surface size.


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## fusionblu (Feb 28, 2016)

Hisuoir said:


> Currently debating whether to get an 850 512GB Pro or an 850 500GB Evo.
> 
> What are the differences between these two SSD's? Is the Pro faster than the Evo? Is the Pro better quality? Does the pro run hotter than the Evo?
> 
> ...



Performance between both SSDs are consistent in terms of benchmarks and real world performance.
As for quality the Pro would be slightly better, made to last longer and has a longer warranty than the EVO.
Can't be certain about temperature, but I doubt there is a real difference given it would be news if it was.

Both versions of SSDs are good but I prefer the PRO for the extra GB, but this does not really matter when the SSD is 1TB or more given the extra GB difference is often overlooked due to change in unit; and the other reason is anything more than 500GB is good where SSD capacity is concerned.


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## RejZoR (Mar 27, 2016)

I'm thinking of doing something slightly "stupid" and just buying a 2TB SSD now, entirely replacing all spinning drives.

I'm just in dilemma between Samsung 850 Evo and 850 Pro. I always had "I'm gonna buy the Pro" in my head, but it's over 200€ more expensive. That's a lot for slightly higher IOPS and more warranty.

Are there any reviews that point out any other benefits? Like better TRIM recovery on Pro or stuff like that? Then again, I want to aim for maximum reliability because I'll probably have this drive till the end. So it has to be reliable. Hm.


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## Ferrum Master (Mar 27, 2016)

RejZoR said:


> I'm thinking of doing something slightly "stupid" and just buying a 2TB SSD now, entirely replacing all spinning drives.



Well I am just as stupid as you... I hate the noise from the old spinners... and the lag on some installs when the old sucker spins up out of the blue.


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## Jetster (Mar 27, 2016)

Every advantage is pointed out in this thread.


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## RejZoR (Mar 27, 2016)

Jetster said:


> Every advantage is pointed out in this thread.



The thing is, differences were clear to me when in casual conversation about these drives. But when you're faced with a situation where you can spend 600€ or 800€ for a same capacity drive with those differences, you start to hesitate. Should I shell out 200€ more and be reassured long term or should I save the money and go with the lower end model. It sounds silly, but that's what I'm facing now. Though I have to admit I'm leaning more towards the 850 Pro. 10 years warranty does sound sweet and considering I'm super happy with 2TB capacity already (albeit a HDD), I won't be forced to upgrade soon because of capacity. Making it a very long term solution that will pay itself off in all this time. But still, 200€...

Though, if I sell my Samsung SM951 M.2 and my WD Caviar Black, I'll get back some funds back anyway...


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## AsRock (Mar 27, 2016)

with it being such a large drive i would opt for the Pro, although $200 could get you a 500GB 850 EVO .


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## RejZoR (Mar 27, 2016)

I'll ask something most people don't at this point. How's with the reliability in non-typical situations? For example, power outages. Is Pro more resilient to that than Evo? Pro does have slightly lower power consumption and higher IOPS which should mean it will be able to write more data to NAND before it goes dark on power outage. Are there any documented torture tests where they intentionally thrash around SSD's to see what it takes to break them this way? Samsung's NAND and SSD controllers seem reliable enough they rarely die out of the blue. But how do they behave when they experience "shocks" like power outages? HDD's seem to be like tanks against such scenarios. But I've heard quite some horror stories about SSD's that totally died after a power outage or a system crash. Maybe not Samsung specifically, but SSD's in general...


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## jsfitz54 (Mar 27, 2016)

Someone explain the difference between the Samsung MEX (pro) and MGX (evo) controllers.

http://www.thessdreview.com/our-rev...-1tb-differing-series-controllers-compared/4/


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## AsRock (Mar 27, 2016)

Power outages are more typical than not for me and never had a SSD issue due to one of those how ever i do the wise thing and use UPS for both of my systems.

As for shock, i take it you don't mean physical shocks.

I have had 1 SSD die on me and i been using them since Intel released their 80GB SATA Gen2 drives which were $230 each ( i have 2 ),  And the SSD what died was put in to a laptop and died (OCZ) after a few weeks which looked like it was a heat issue as the metal was very dis colored were the controller was.

There was 0% warning the laptop just said their was no drive one day, even tried baking it haha.

And for system crashes never had a issue with any SSD after a system crash, but i have known it with HDD's so i bet it can happen with SSD's too.


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## P4-630 (Mar 27, 2016)

Hisuoir said:


> Currently debating whether to get an 850 512GB Pro or an 850 500GB Evo.
> 
> What are the differences between these two SSD's? Is the Pro faster than the Evo? Is the Pro better quality? Does the pro run hotter than the Evo?
> 
> ...



Well I had that choice myself not too long ago, in the end I went with the Pro, because of reliability/10 year warranty.


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## RejZoR (Mar 27, 2016)

I think I'll be going with 850 Pro anyway. I've found something that suggests Pro has additional capacitors to ensure data writes to NAND more reliably on power failure. Higher IOPS, higher warranty and I'm looking at this long term, I think 200€ while not small amount can justify it. After all, even if I change entire system again 5 years in the future, it's very likely I'll just transplant this 2TB beast into it. SSD caching is really fast, but I'd really like to get rid of spinning drives entirely. After all, it's the current year 2016 already  I have my HDD silenced inside a case on rubber vibration suspenders, but I can still hear the damn thing. And I sleep in the same room so absolute removal of clicking would be worth it by itself


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## AsRock (Mar 27, 2016)

You could always turn down the AMC on the HDD.


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## Baum (Mar 27, 2016)

I had to buy ssd's some time ago...
went with this:
1. High performance system drive C: => Samsung 850Pro 256Gb   + 1TB HDD
2. Cheap office laptop (only drive)  => Adata SX300 128GB MSata (cheap and fast)
3. My 15" work laptop only drive  => Sandisk Extreme Pro 240GB  (10 years warranty and fast nice software)
4. parents pc (good old socket 775 C2Q6600) =>sandisk ultra plus 240GB (cheap and get the job done)

Want an ssd for system drive? Go Pro if you can afford, if not look on the sandisk side they are good too 
Speed perspective: 850Pro>Sandisk Extreme>all the rest as i can't feel a difference
In my book ok is: Adata Sandisk Corsair and Samsung 
Not ok and bad as fck: kingston...
Hope i helped a little!


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## RejZoR (Mar 27, 2016)

AsRock said:


> You could always turn down the AMC on the HDD.



Not on my drive. It's quite speedy drive, but if I change that, it resets back to default.



Baum said:


> I had to buy ssd's some time ago...
> went with this:
> 1. High performance system drive C: => Samsung 850Pro 256Gb   + 1TB HDD
> 2. Cheap office laptop (only drive)  => Adata SX300 128GB MSata (cheap and fast)
> ...



I'm planning on ditching spinning drives entirely because that would make the most sense, despite the attached price.

Also, Sandisk Extreme are fast drives, but they don't come in 2TB flavor. I need that. I want that.


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## AsRock (Mar 27, 2016)

RejZoR said:


> Not on my drive. It's quite speedy drive, but if I change that, it resets back to default.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Um resets it huh maybe the app your using sucks ?, AMC slows the read down in turn makes it quieter.


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## Jetster (Mar 27, 2016)

If your constantly doing writes because you work on video, music, programming or modeling then get a PRO smaller SSD. Then use your EVO 2Tb for storage. Just back your shit up


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## RejZoR (Mar 28, 2016)

Eh, I've decided. I'm buying the 850 Pro 2TB. I have enough of this. Was hesitating a bit still, but yesterday avast! fucked up my entire SSD cache and filled it with absolutely random files after doing a full system scan. It's still a holiday today so I have to wait till tomorrow, but this is it. If I'm going to spend this kind of money on storage, 600€ or 860€, what difference does it really make...

Besides, by selling my 2TB HDD and the M.2 PCIe SSD, I'll get back part of the difference.


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## Ferrum Master (Mar 28, 2016)

RejZoR said:


> 600€ or 860€, what difference does it really make.



Entire month on pasta  with sauce made from that other spare boot.


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## RejZoR (Mar 29, 2016)

Just when I wanted to order the drive, damn store bumped up the price by 20€. Fuck no. Now I'm gonna wait till it gets back to price I looked at originally or try to find another store. Argh.

Good. Found another German store that allows wire transfer and had same price as the original shop. This baby is now officially ordered 

Been living with my new Samsung 850 Pro for few days now and I must say it's pretty badass. 

Entire Windows 10 install with all updates took like 15-20 minutes. I shit you not. The longest thing during boot now is waiting for BIOS to even post. After that, it takes like 5 seconds to fully responsive desktop. The weirdest thing is I have no HDD grinding now. I'm already used to it from laptop that has SSD for ages, but it's still so weird. I guess we kinda developed PTSD for HDD grinding XD

What I also really like is Samsung Magician app. It's nice, clean and entirely contradicts Samsung's past crap software. Also, using Rapid mode because why the hell not. I got tons of RAM and supposedly, it's not prone to data loss since it's mostly smart DRAM read cache and less write cache.

It was a very expensive purchase but I think it's great and I'll probably justify it even easier over time as I use it even more. I just have to shake off the "NAND write wear anxiety". The drive is guaranted to survive 300TB of writes and when they absuse tested its older brother 840 Pro at Tech Report, it died at over 2PB. 2 PETABYTES! I sometimes wish I'd be an ignorant normie so I wouldn't worry over things because I understand them too much XD


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## redeye (Apr 5, 2016)

the samsung 850 pro. they have a "magic" about them that makes them FAST!!!!!.... really, i have a 1TB 850 evo and while it is great, it does not feel "silky" that the  samsung 850 pro has (specifically the 256GB) (i am assuming that the 1TB samsung is the "same" as the 256 pro)

of course, they measure the same (evo vs pro) but on an old laptop that i was upgrading to win 10 from win 7, the experience was silky smooth (lol, the upgrade was a nightmare, had to disconnect the wifi, use an usb iso, and disconnect from the internet completely)...

so go for the 850 pro... ( of course the 1TB has MOAR STORAGE... lol)


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## AsRock (Apr 5, 2016)

RejZoR said:


> Been living with my new Samsung 850 Pro for few days now and I must say it's pretty badass.
> 
> Entire Windows 10 install with all updates took like 15-20 minutes. I shit you not. The longest thing during boot now is waiting for BIOS to even post. After that, it takes like 5 seconds to fully responsive desktop. The weirdest thing is I have no HDD grinding now. I'm already used to it from laptop that has SSD for ages, but it's still so weird. I guess we kinda developed PTSD for HDD grinding XD
> 
> ...



Glad ya like it , did everyone forget boot times are crazy lol.


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## RejZoR (Apr 6, 2016)

I now have to figure out why it takes so long for Sabertooth X99 to even post. When I fire it up, it spins the fans up at higher RPM, slows down, beeps as it posts, shows the boot logo and then starts loading Windows. And out of all boot time, 80% of it is taken by the motherboard posting. Hm.


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## R-T-B (Apr 6, 2016)

RejZoR said:


> Technically 3D V-NAND is TLC NAND and they are both MLC NAND's. Difference between 3D-V and TLC is how it is made. The 3D-V still has 3 cells, but they are designed with 3rd dimension where TLC is planar. What this means is that 3D-V is less prone to getting stuck, resulting in much more reliable and durable NAND memory. Where TLC cells tend to get stuck faster (an unavoidable side effect of toggling NAND cell states constantly). Plus, since it goes into 3rd dimension, you can fit more of it on the same surface size.



Actually, it's just layers of NAND cells.  It's far simpler than making it 3d on the cell basis, they are literally just standard MLC or TLC NAND cells stacked.  The Evo is VNAND in TLC (3bits per cell) form, while the Pro is MLC (2bits per cell) VNAND.  They are both about 32 layers stacked IIRC, allowing a much lower process node (and thus higher endurance).

There's a great writeup on this at anandtech.  I'm sure google could find it.


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## RejZoR (Apr 6, 2016)

Actually 850 drives are intentionally using older (and larger) 40nm MLC NAND to enhance endurance. But since it's V-NAND, they could stuff same capacity into existing package physical volume as planar 19nm TLC's used by other NAND makers.



R-T-B said:


> Actually, it's just layers of NAND cells.  It's far simpler than making it 3d on the cell basis, they are literally just standard MLC or TLC NAND cells stacked.  The Evo is VNAND in TLC (3bits per cell) form, while the Pro is MLC (2bits per cell) VNAND.  They are both about 32 layers stacked IIRC, allowing a much lower process node (and thus higher endurance).
> 
> There's a great writeup on this at anandtech.  I'm sure google could find it.



As far as I know that's not exactly true. V-NAND uses taller cylindrical shaped cells where normal TLC uses lower, square shaped cells that are more prone to wear and failure. At least that's what I gathered from some Samsung schematics which I can't find right now.


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## R-T-B (Apr 8, 2016)

RejZoR said:


> As far as I know that's not exactly true. V-NAND uses taller cylindrical shaped cells where normal TLC uses lower, square shaped cells that are more prone to wear and failure. At least that's what I gathered from some Samsung schematics which I can't find right now.




That is possible.  However the main benefit of longevity comes from the lower process node.  This is a well noted trend in nand, in which process node shrinks reduce reliability.  The ability to use a larger node is thus a huge benefit.


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## RejZoR (Apr 8, 2016)

Node size and shape of the cells. These cylindrical ones are supposedly more resistant to wear when locking and unlocking electrons (or whatever they store in them) to store data. When loading and discharging, it wears way less than traditional NAND cells.


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## Vlada011 (Aug 26, 2016)

I need help, I search for serial number of Samsung 850 EVO 1TB 3rd GEN 48 layer TLC V-NAND.
From 2016 I think. If serial number is same with previous version than how to recognize him?


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## Komshija (Aug 28, 2016)

Vlada011 said:


> I need help, I search for serial number of Samsung 850 EVO 1TB 3rd GEN 48 layer TLC V-NAND.
> From 2016 I think. If serial number is same with previous version than how to recognize him?



It should be on the sticker on the back side of Samsung SSD.


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## Vlada011 (Aug 28, 2016)

I figure out, looks like blue *V*-NAND on front side.
But anyway I need him for gaming drive and I would use even 10% slower but bigger.
But 2TB SSD are to expensive. No below 300$. 850 EVO 1TB is now 260 euro and 280 euro cost 950 PRO.
512GB M.2 + 1TB SSD SATA III are enough for my need. But 48 layer have 40% smaller power consumption if someone one day decide to remove them in gaming
laptop could save a lot of money if choose cheaper gaming laptop with HDD and if power consumption is less even better.

List of my urgent need upgrades continues...
But in 2016 only GPU, M.2, SSD. That's it.
1080, 960 series M.2 and 850 EVO and my computer is ready.


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## lorraine walsh (Aug 29, 2016)

Realistically you are not going to notice a difference. The difference between 2 top performing SSD is quite negligible in all real-world scenarios. That being said the performance of the Pro is going to be a little bit faster and have better prolonged write reliability and longevity.


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