Samsung 850 Evo series hard drives are rated by experts as combining a low price with extremely impressive performance. In terms of speed, the corresponding devices are comparable to many premium disk models. What are the main technological advantages of these solutions? How do users evaluate their effectiveness?

General information about the device

Samsung 850 Evo is a series of SSD drives. These devices are characterized by a large capacity and a high level of reliability. They are in demand when solving problems related to providing high-speed data transfer.

Samsung 850 Evo devices are manufactured using the 3D V-VAND architecture, which is characterized by the use of cylindrical cells that are adapted to eliminate interference that occurs when the device components interact. Ensuring a large capacity of devices is carried out by placing elements in several layers. At the same time, the reliability of file storage, as well as the speed of their transfer, does not decrease.

Among other notable features of the devices in this series is the ability to switch to RAPID mode, in which the drive starts working at an even higher speed. This is achieved, in particular, due to the fact that the device begins to use the available volume random access memory PC as cache.

The Samsung 850 Evo features efficient energy saving technologies. According to experts, in a number of modes, the device is able to consume ten times less electricity compared to outdated storage models.

The disks of the series under consideration implement a number of high-tech solutions in the field of file security. Among them - AES encryption, dynamic thermal protection.

It can be noted that the introduction of Samsung 850 Evo series devices to the market was preceded by the successful work of the Korean corporation to create and ensure successful sales of SSD 830 and 840 Pro series devices, which were classified by experts as the best SSD devices in the upper price segment. The company did not forget about products for the mass segment: for example, the 840 and 840 EVO devices were launched on the market.

Subsequently, Samsung Corporation continued its developments in the production of multilayer crystals, and one of the results of their practical implementation was the release of 32-layer drives of the 850 Evo line. This device was launched in the mass segment. In the premium segment, Samsung introduced the 850 Pro product, which is characterized by an exceptionally high combination of performance and reliability.

The drive as a product of technological modernization

What features, in turn, are characterized by drives of the 850 Evo series?

Above, we noted that these devices implement the best developments of Samsung on previous products. So, those main components that were installed in the 840 series products - TLC memory, a branded controller, as well as the TurboWrite solution, were duplicated in new series devices. In addition, a number of updates were also implemented in it - in particular, instead of the proprietary MEX controller, the manufacturer installed an improved MGX hardware component.

Certain additions were also made to the TurboWrite technology in the Samsung 850 Evo series.

3D V-VAND technology

Perhaps the most notable component of the new series of drives is 3D memory, which is a combination of 3D NAND and TLC NAND solutions. The new technology made it possible to eliminate the shortcomings that characterize the use of the two previous ones separately.

The use of the 3D V-NAND concept has allowed Samsung to implement a 40nm process in the new product while maintaining the ability to use dies with a smaller area than, in particular, conventional MLC NAND technology, which is manufactured using a 16nm process. In turn, cells of 40 nm are characterized by greater resistance to wear, as well as stability in operation.

Another advantage of the corresponding updated technology that powers the Samsung 850 Evo SSD is to provide faster device performance by reducing the duration of read and write operations. Due to the recording in one separate memory cell, not 2, but 3 bits of data, the capacity of the crystals used in the devices of this series can reach 128 Gbps. Moreover, these chips have an area that is about 2 times smaller than that of the corresponding TLC NAND components in a conventional modification with a similar capacity, which are produced using a 19 nm process technology.

It can be noted that the manufacturer gives a guarantee for devices for a period of 5 years. This is one of the most competitive indicators on the market.

It will be useful to consider what the corresponding devices look like.

Appearance of drives

Regardless of the capacity of the Samsung 850 Evo - 250GB or 1TB, all devices in the line look almost the same. Outside, they have a compact - 7 mm thick, black aluminum case. On the reverse side of it is a label, from the content of which you can find out the exact name of the drive model, as well as its serial number.

If you open the case cover, it turns out that, depending on the specific volume of the disk, the contents may vary. So, for example, in a model with a capacity of 250 GB, a printed circuit board is installed with dimensions smaller than that of a 500 GB modification. But in both cases, the size of the corresponding hardware component is small, that is, we can say that the body of the device could be even thinner, there are empty spaces in it.

Installing the drive on a PC

How is the Samsung 850 Evo hard drive installed in a PC? Installing the device is very easy. Most cases for modern PCs have slots for installing disks the size of which the 850 Evo device has - 2.5 inches. It is necessary to position the drive accordingly, and then connect 2 cables to it - power supply, as well as data transfer.

After that, you need to switch the PC controller to AHCI mode. To do this, however, it may be necessary to update the BIOS version - using the firmware from the official website of the PC motherboard manufacturer. The drive is recognized in the system without problems. If necessary, you can use branded programs to configure the system and monitor disk performance.

Drive resources

Using Samsung SSD 850 Evo 1TB, you can write about 82 GB of files per day to it. A similar resource has a 500 GB disk. A slightly smaller, but nevertheless impressive resource, have younger modifications of devices - 120, 250 GB. They can record about 42 GB of information per day.

Thus, the considered series of SSD drives is designed for a long service life. Models with even the smallest capacity in the Samsung 850 Evo line - 120 GB or 250 GB - have a resource comparable to that of many premium models.

Work speed

The speed of the devices in this series also impresses experts. At the same time, the indicators characterizing the junior model of the 850 Evo line, as shown by tests conducted by experts, are not too inferior to those of the premium model, the 850 Pro.

In many ways, good performance is achieved through the use of TurboWrite technology, as well as the use of a fast cache. Which is 3 GB in the Samsung 850 Evo 250GB model, 6 GB in the 500 GB modification, and 12 GB in the 1 TB disk.

The capabilities of the drives under consideration in terms of providing data write speed again allow us to talk about their competitiveness in relation to premium products.

Drive testing: read and write speed

Let's now study the practical results of studying the capabilities of the drives of the series under consideration by experts. As for the reading mode, the high technologies implemented in the corresponding devices make it possible to achieve the highest performance here.

But regarding the recording, the test results, depending on the specific modification of the device, may be different. So, for example, a drive with a capacity of 500 GB has indicators comparable to those that characterize the older model. In this sense, when choosing - Samsung 850 Pro or 850 Evo - the user gets a clear advantage in price if he prefers the second model, despite the fact that in terms of speed it is practically not inferior to the older modification.

In turn, the model in the 250-gigabyte version is significantly inferior to the more capacious version in terms of sequential write speed. This is largely due to the relatively small cache size that the corresponding modification of the drive has - its value is 3 GB. Which, at the same time, is enough to solve a large number of user tasks in practice.

Drive Testing: Random Read Speed

Another interesting performance indicator of Samsung 850 Evo devices is the random read speed test of drives. Equipped with an updated MGX controller, the devices have significantly improved performance compared to previous modifications, according to experts.

At the same time, the 500-gigabyte drive model showed especially good results. Its performance allows it to be characterized as a virtual leader in the segment in terms of performance in the corresponding mode.

Drive Testing: Random Write Speed

What is the performance of the device in random read speed mode?

As tests conducted by experts show, everything is also in order here. True, as the queue depth indicator increases, the performance of the 850 Evo line devices decreases. But even though this feature, the devices can be described as exceptionally competitive in the respective mode of use.

Drive Testing: Copying Files

Perhaps one of the most indicative criteria for evaluating the performance of a drive is the file copying speed achieved when using a particular device. Here, the indicators of the devices in the modification under consideration are, again, very decent. Especially if we talk about modifying a disk with a capacity of 500 GB.

In turn, the performance of the 250-gigabyte modification is somewhat more modest. Nevertheless, this contributes to a high assessment of the competitiveness of the device when used in the appropriate mode, which generally reflects the typical user load on the drive.

In some modes of working with files, the difference between device modifications of 200 and 500 GB is completely insignificant. Therefore, in practice, the user may not notice it at all.

In general, the performance tests of devices in the 850 Evo line from Samsung allow us to say that the Korean brand has ensured the presence on the market of a largely unique product: on the one hand, it has a relatively low price, on the other hand, it has technological advantages that make it comparable in terms of functions and performance with premium solutions.

According to experts, Samsung was able to implement this approach through purposeful and competent work to consistently improve the developments of previous years, as well as supplement them with relevant innovations that make devices even more competitive.

Let's talk about how to set up an SSD for Windows 10. I'll start simply: in most cases, any configuration and optimization of SSDs for the new OS is not necessary. Moreover, according to Microsoft support staff, independent optimization attempts can harm both the system and the disk itself. Just in case, for those who accidentally come in: .

However, some nuances should still be taken into account, and at the same time, things related to how SSD drives work in Windows 10 should be clarified, and we'll talk about them. The last section of the article also contains information of a more general nature (but useful), related to the operation of solid-state drives at the hardware level and applicable to other versions of the OS.

Many have noticed that by default, automatic optimization (in previous versions of the OS - defragmentation) is enabled for SSDs in Windows 10, and someone rushed to turn it off, someone to study what was happening during the process.

In general terms, Windows 10 does not defragment the SSD, but optimizes it by clearing blocks using TRIM (or rather Retrim), which is not harmful, but even useful for solid state drives. Just in case, .

Some have written lengthy articles on how SSD optimization works in Windows 10. To quote part of such an article (only the most important parts to understand) from Scott Hanselman:

I dug deeper and talked to the development team working on implementing drives in Windows, and this post is written in full accordance with what they answered the question.

Drive Optimization (in Windows 10) defragments the SSD once a month if volume shadow copy (system protection) is enabled. This is due to the performance impact of SSD fragmentation. There is a misconception here that fragmentation is not a problem with SSDs - if the SSD is heavily fragmented, you can achieve maximum fragmentation where the metadata can't represent more file fragments, resulting in errors when trying to write or grow the file. In addition, more file fragments means more metadata needs to be processed to read/write the file, resulting in a performance penalty.

As far as Retrim is concerned, this command runs on a schedule and is necessary due to the way the TRIM command is executed on filesystems. Command execution occurs asynchronously on the file system. When a file is deleted or space is freed up in some other way, file system queues a TRIM request. Due to peak load limits, this queue can reach the maximum number of TRIM requests, causing subsequent ones to be ignored. Later on, Windows Drive Optimization automatically performs Retrim to clean up blocks.

Summarizing:

  • Defragmentation is performed only if system protection is enabled (restore points, file history using VSS).
  • Disk optimization is used to mark unused blocks on the SSD that were not marked when TRIM was running.
  • Defragmentation for SSDs may be needed and is automatically applied if necessary. At the same time (this is already from another source), a different defragmentation algorithm is used for solid-state drives compared to HDD.

However, if you wish, you can.

What features to disable for SSD and whether it is necessary

Anyone who has wondered about setting up an SSD for Windows has come across advice related to disabling SuperFetch and Prefetch, disabling the swap file or moving it to another drive, disabling system protection, hibernation and indexing the contents of the disk, moving folders, temporary files, and more to other drives , disabling disk write caching.

Some of these tips come from Windows XP and 7 and do not apply to Windows 10 and Windows 8 and new SSDs (disabling SuperFetch, write caching). Most of these tips are actually able to reduce the amount of data written to the disk (and SSD has a limit on the total amount of data written over the entire life), which in theory leads to an extension of its life. But: by loss of productivity, convenience when working with the system, and in some cases to failures.

Here I note that despite the fact that the service life of an SSD is considered to be less than that of an HDD, it is highly likely that an average-priced SSD purchased today during normal use (games, work, Internet) in a modern OS and with reserve capacity (for no loss performance and life extension, it is worth keeping 10-15 percent of the space on the SSD free and this is one of the tips that is relevant and true) will last longer than you need (that is, it will eventually be replaced by a more modern and capacious one). In the screenshot below - my SSD, the period of use is a year. Pay attention to the column "Total recorded", a guarantee of 300 Tb.

And now for the points about various ways optimizing the operation of SSDs in Windows 10 and the appropriateness of their use. Again, these settings may only marginally increase lifespan, but will not improve performance.

Note: I will not consider such an optimization method as installing programs on the HDD in the presence of an SSD, since then it is not clear why a solid-state drive was purchased at all - is it not for the quick launch and operation of these programs?

Disabling the paging file

The most common advice is to disable the paging file (virtual memory) of Windows or move it to another drive. The second option will cause a drop in performance, since a slow HDD will be used instead of a fast SSD and RAM.

The first option (disabling the swap file) is very controversial. Indeed, computers with 8 GB or more of RAM in many tasks can work with the paging file disabled (but some programs may not start or detect crashes when working, for example, from Adobe products), thereby maintaining a reserve of the solid state drive (fewer write operations occur ).

At the same time, it must be taken into account that in Windows the paging file is used in such a way that it is accessed as little as possible, depending on the size of the available RAM. According to Microsoft, the read-to-write ratio for the swap file is 40:1 in normal use, i.e. a significant number of write operations do not occur.

It is also worth adding that SSD manufacturers such as Intel, Samsung recommend leaving the paging file enabled. And one more note: some tests (two years ago, really) show that disabling the swap file for non-performing cheap SSDs can lead to an increase in their performance. See if you still decide to try it.

Disabling hibernation

The next possible setting is to turn off hibernation, which is also used for the Windows 10 fast startup feature. The hiberfil.sys file, written to disk when you turn off (or put into hibernation mode) a computer or laptop and used for subsequent fast startup, takes up several gigabytes of storage space (approximately equal to the amount of RAM used on the computer).

For laptops, disabling hibernation, especially if it is used (for example, it automatically turns on some time after closing the laptop lid) may not be practical and lead to inconvenience (the need to turn off and on the laptop) and reduce battery life ( quick launch and hibernation save battery power compared to normal power on).

System protection

Restore points automatically created by Windows 10, as well as File History, when the corresponding function is turned on, are, of course, written to disk. In the case of SSDs, some recommend disabling system protection.

Among some is Samsung, which recommends doing so in both its Samsung Magician utility and the official SSD guide. At the same time, it is indicated that backup can cause a large number of background processes to run and slow down performance, although in fact system protection only works when changes are made to the system and when the computer is idle.

Intel does not recommend this for its SSDs. Just like Microsoft does not recommend disabling system protection. And I would not: a significant number of readers of this site could fix computer problems many times faster if they had Windows 10 security enabled.

Read more about enabling, disabling and checking the status of system protection in the article.

Transferring files and folders to other HDDs

Another of the proposed options for optimizing the operation of an SSD is the transfer user folders and files, temporary files and other components to a normal HDD. As in the previous cases, this can reduce the amount of data written, while reducing performance (when moving temporary file storage and cache) or usability (for example, when creating photo thumbnails from user folders transferred to the HDD).

However, if there is a separate high-capacity HDD in the system, it may make sense to store really voluminous media files (movies, music, some resources, archives) that do not need frequent access on it, thereby freeing up space on the SSD and extending the lifespan. services.

Superfetch and Prefetch, disk content indexing, write caching, and clearing the write cache buffer

There are some ambiguities with these functions, different manufacturers give different recommendations, which, I think, should be read on the official websites.

According to Microsoft, Superfetch and Prefetch are also successfully used for SSDs, the functions themselves have changed and work differently in Windows 10 (and Windows 8) when using SSDs. But Samsung believes that this feature is not used by SSD drives. Cm. .

As for the write cache buffer, in general, recommendations boil down to “leave it on”, but it differs in clearing the cache buffer. Even within the same manufacturer: Samsung Magician recommends disabling the write cache buffer, and on their official website it says that it is recommended to keep it enabled.

Well, as for indexing the contents of disks and the search service, I don’t even know what to write. Search in Windows is a very effective and useful thing to work with, however, even in Windows 10, where the search button is in plain sight, almost no one uses it, out of habit looking for the necessary items in the start menu and multi-level folders. In the context of SSD optimization, disabling disk content indexing is not particularly effective - it's more of a read than a write operation.

General principles for optimizing SSD performance in Windows

Up to this point, we have mainly talked about the relative uselessness of manual SSD settings in Windows 10. However, there are some nuances that apply equally to all brands of SSDs and OS versions:


Perhaps that's all for now. The overall result of the article: in general, you don’t need to do anything with a solid state drive in Windows 10 unless it is clearly necessary. If you have just purchased an SSD, then you may be interested and useful instructions. However, in this case, in my opinion, a clean installation of the system would be more appropriate.

Solid state drives are victoriously marching around the world. Flash-based drives have many advantages, and now the availability of large drives up to 1 TB has been added to them. In addition, devices of the middle and highest category are durable, as evidenced by the large warranty indicated by manufacturers. And, it would seem, all that remains is to buy a module, install and transfer the OS. However, not everything is as simple as we would like. Optimum performance and long life can only be achieved with the right settings. In the first part of the article, we talk about the parameters of the most popular types of solid state drives.

Device type non-volatile memory determined by the protocol that provides data transfer. At first glance, the difference may be almost imperceptible. Using the conventional AHCI mechanism, data transfer speeds reach 550 MB / s, and the new NVMe specification - up to 4000, with a shorter response time and improved parallel access. Drives supporting these protocols exist in a variety of form factors. For AHCI, this is a traditional 2.5-inch SATA case and an M.2 module with the so-called B key. For NVMe, the M.2 form factor with an M key is the most popular.

In the second part of the article, we will talk about the capabilities of solid state drives. To do this, we created a RAID 0 array of two high-speed media. However, before you try to set records, it is worth trying to achieve optimal performance on a regular solid state drive.


We connect correctly
The first M.2 port (highlighted in yellow) shares bandwidth resources with SATA ports 5-6. If the second M.2 port (highlighted in red) is used for AHCI storage, it uses the bandwidth of the SATA ports 1-2 - along with the NVMe drive in the M.2 connector

Optimal use of M.2 SSDs

M.2 drives are fast and compact (22x80mm) and are ideal for mobile computing. True, M.2 modules do not fit in all computers, in addition, NVMe and AHCI are two different protocol. If you consistently follow the recommendations, you will quickly find a drive that is best suited for your PC.

in the user manual or technical specifications On the website of the manufacturer of the desktop motherboard, you will find information about the possibility and conditions for installing an M.2 form factor drive.


Setting
NVMe drives work best with manufacturer drivers. In addition, you need to check this box in the drive settings (in the device manager)

The M.2 slot is provided on boards for Haswell/Broadwell processors (LGA 1150 socket) and higher, but, as a rule, data transfer on older boards is carried out only over two PCIe 2.0 lanes, which is why the speed cannot exceed one gigabyte per second. In addition, it is not uncommon to find that UEFI does not support NVMe devices or does not have drivers for them, so you will most likely need to purchase an M.2 module with AHCI or a regular SATA drive.

Starting with Skylake, the motherboard chipset supports four PCIe 3.0 lanes, which in total provide speeds up to 4 GB / s. If at the same time Windows 10 is installed on the computer, nothing prevents you from placing an M.2 module with NVMe support. Windows 7 and 8 are missing from the installer and OS USB drivers for the Skylake platform, as well as for NVMe drives, which makes installation doubly difficult. Before mounting the module, pay attention to which interfaces the M.2 slot shares bandwidth resources with: SATA connectors may not be available when an M.2 AHCI drive is connected, and an M.2 NVMe drive may use the bandwidth of one of the PCIe slots. Check the user manual and, if necessary, connect other drives or video cards to free slots.


Windows 10 only reaches optimal boot speed when the computer boots in UEFI mode and the Fast Boot option is enabled

With a laptop, it can be more difficult to determine compatibility with an M.2 drive and its protocol, since manufacturers do not publish such data. Therefore, you often have to scour the Internet, scoring the computer label and “M.2” into the search. If you find a laptop in the same line with an M.2 drive, it can be considered a sign of compatibility. But still, the M.2 module is worth buying only after you disassemble the laptop and examine the M.2 slot. It can be used to determine the length of a suitable module (42, 60, 80 or 110 mm - form factors are designated "M.2 2242", "M.2 2260", etc.). When in doubt, get an AHCI M.2 module for your laptop. Such memory can be identified by the fact that it is also available in a 2.5-inch form factor with SATA, for example, Samsung 850 Evo, Crucial MX300 or SanDisk X400.

OS optimization for NVMe

Disable auto-loading of unnecessary software
Despite the use of a fast drive, unnecessary programs that start with the system slow down the boot process. In the Task Manager (Windows 10) or from the System Configuration application, disable all unnecessary startup programs

For new drives that run on NVMe, in any case, you need the appropriate driver. Windows 10 has it by default, so installing and configuring an SSD shouldn't be a problem. For the best boot speed and maximum performance, install Windows 10 in pure UEFI mode. From the boot menu, select the installation media in UEFI mode (instead of "USB" or "SATA"). During logical partitioning of the system drive, ensure that the installer creates a GUID partition table. So in the UEFI Boot settings, the Fast Boot or Ultra Boot options will be available, allowing you to reduce the startup time to the welcome screen to a few seconds.

NVMe drives work with Windows drivers 10, but they only really overclock with drivers from their manufacturer, so it is better to choose such a drive from a large manufacturer with good software support (Samsung, Intel, Toshiba, OCZ) and install their latest drivers. For Windows 7 and 8, install the manufacturer's drivers during the reinstallation.

SSDs and motherboards with SATA 3Gb/s ports

A SATA SSD can significantly speed up a PC even if it only has legacy SATA 3Gb/s ports. You only need to take into account the following points:

> Speeds over 300 MB/s no drive connected via SATA 3 Gb / s will reach. Newer SATA 6Gb/s drives are backwards compatible with older ports, but speeds will be limited to 3Gb/s minus overhead.

> You need to enable AHCI mode in BIOS Setup. Often pre-installed on older computers, IDE mode robs a solid state drive of a lot of speed. During system startup, open BIOS Setup and look for the desired setting, for example, in the "Peripherals ... SATA Controller" section.

> Very old SSDs(e.g. Intel X25-E and earlier, Samsung up to 470) do not support the TRIM command, so the disk cannot physically delete unnecessary data, resulting in a significant loss of performance as a result of heavy use. To bring such a drive to life, you can back up the data, then use a Live Linux distribution to roll it back to the factory settings and transfer the backup back.

Moving to an NVMe drive


If the AS SSD Benchmark in the upper left corner for "1024K" does not show "OK", you need to adjust the partition alignment

If you want to migrate your Windows 7 or 8 system to new computer with an NVMe drive, first connect the old hard drive as system disk SATA to a new computer, boot from it and install the missing drivers (for the chipset, network adapters, USB controllers, etc.). If Windows asks you to reactivate, don't do it yet.

First, insert the NVMe drive and install the drivers for it from the manufacturer's website. Then transfer your operating system to the NVMe drive using the manufacturer's dedicated migration tools or imaging software. Carefully check partition alignment with block sizes (see left screenshot) to ensure maximum drive performance and lifespan. And only when the computer starts without problems from the NVMe drive, activate Windows.

Increasing the speed


Bundle of two high-speed solid-state drives
The Gigabyte Z270X-Gaming 7 motherboard has two M.2 slots where we created a RAID 0 array consisting of two Samsung 960 Pro drives: no faster speeds can be achieved at this time

After moving Windows to an SSD, everything should run faster, unless the system has been used for a long time or too many programs are installed. If the system performance did not increase even on a solid state drive, it is possible that some programs got into startup and system services and slow down the OS.

To clean them, open windows application"System configuration". On the "Services" tab, activate the "Do not display Microsoft services" option, then uncheck the checkboxes of all services that are not related to your antivirus or devices that you cannot work without. Do the same on the "Startup" tab. In Windows 10, startup redirects to the task manager, where programs are disabled from the right-click context menu.


Drive diagnostics using manufacturer's utilities helps determine its condition

Owners of SATA drives, especially not new ones, are advised to check the status of the device using the manufacturer's tools (for example, Samsung Magician, Crucial Storage Executive, Intel SSD Toolbox) or using the Tool SSD Life utility. Programs not only evaluate the state of the disk, but also predict the time of its failure, displaying the SMART value on the screen. Of particular importance is an attribute called Reallocated Sector Count (or similar), which reflects the number of failed sector remapping operations.

The results are calculated based on the increase in wear on a scale from the maximum value (100 or 255) to the threshold (for example, 10 or 0) at which the drive stops working. But these are only predictions and theory, because in reality even drives whose SMART values ​​were within the normal range can unexpectedly fail, and vice versa - drives with critical values ​​​​(more than 20-30% wear against the original values) can work for a very long time.

However, you should be aware of the possibility of disk failures and regularly create backups. It is also useful to test (for example, using AS SSD Benchmark) and compare the results with data from the same drives, looking for reviews on the Internet: if your drive is significantly slower or the system as a whole is unstable, the drive may need to be replaced.

In pursuit of speed records


Setting up a RAID array
To be able to boot from a RAID array, you need to configure it at the hardware level in UEFI

A two-drive RAID 0 array is faster than an NVMe SSD when the system writes and reads information from two drives at the same time. If you take the hardware RAID configuration in BIOS/UEFI and go through the Windows installation, you can get the same data transfer speed on the two available SATA drives as on the NVMe drive entry level. We want to combine two high-speed NVMe drives in this way and break speed records.

Creating a RAID array


For Windows, the Intel RAID drivers and proprietary Intel Rapid Storage software must be installed

The first barrier to NVMe RAID is hardware. On the motherboard there should be two NVMe slots, as well as the ability to combine them using the Intel chipset's RAID function. In addition, the system after this procedure should also boot. In principle, top motherboards with Intel Z170 chipsets and the latest Z270 (for Kaby Lake processors) can cope with this task.

On the maternal Gigabyte board Z270X Gaming 7 we installed two Samsung 960 Pro SSDs. We then needed to set up hardware RAID in UEFI. In the early version of the motherboard firmware, we also had to perform a small task along the way: we had to first activate the RAID mode of the SATA controller, and only then in the menu item “Peripheral | EZ Raid, we were able to combine both NVMe drives into a RAID 0 array, which received twice the capacity of a single drive.

The RAID array was ready in a few clicks. For Windows installation 10 we copied Intel program Rapid Storage from the disk included with the motherboard to a USB flash drive. When it was necessary to select a system drive during installation, we loaded the driver by clicking the appropriate button, after which the array associated with the Intel controller was identified as the destination drive.

During the UEFI installation process we launched, the system automatically boots from the RAID array, which is used even in the current mode of operation as the most common drive. But due to the fact that the operating system now only communicates with the Intel RAID controller and not directly with the drives, we were unable to use the Samsung NVMe driver, which would allow the full potential of the 960 Pro, and this slightly affected speed.

RAID 0 Benefits and Benchmarks

On the correct UEFI settings, our test system loads in less than ten seconds. The full installation of LibreOffice, along with writing 7000 files, took 21 seconds. Benchmarks (see above) reflect in numbers the speed of the RAID array, as well as its limit. The limit is because instead of a theoretical 100% increase in speed compared to a single drive, we only got a 20% increase in read speed and 32% in write speed.

We were able to achieve faster speeds by using a rather useless method in practice: using an adapter, we connected a second SSD to the PCIe slot for video cards, then booted from a third SATA SSD and combined both NVMe drives with Samsung drivers on Windows into one software


M.2/PCIe adapter
If necessary, an M.2 form factor SSD can be connected to a PCIe x4 slot via an adapter

RAID array. Such an array (which, however, is not suitable for use as a disk to boot the system) outperformed a single drive by 43% in reading and as much as 82% in writing.

The results of a simple but rather fast ATTO Disk Benchmark test showed that the speed of even this combination will not exceed 4 GB / s. This is the maximum bandwidth of the DMI bus connecting the processor and chipset. Intel must make urgent decisions to redesign the platform to support the massive transfer rates of NVMe-compatible drives.

A year ago, Samsung launched the first NVMe-enabled M.2 SSDs for end users, the 950 Pro. The next device - 960 Pro - has significantly increased speed compared to the first. In terms of price per gigabyte, the 960 Evo is of interest, which is almost on par with the Pro model.

PHOTO: CHIP Studios; manufacturing companies

tags RAID arrays

I'll show you how to change the HDD hard drive to a high-speed SSD drive. I bought a Samsung 850 Evo 250 GB SSD drive. and installed it on my laptop. Then I installed Windows and all programs on a new SSD drive.

I bought my Samsung 850 SSD EVO 120 GB SATA III SSD on AliExpress . At first I wanted to order such a Samsung 750 SSD EVO 120 GB SATA III (it is 120 GB and cheaper), but in the end I ordered 250 GB, although I could have done with 120 GB. The Samsung 850 EVO SSD arrived after about 12 days (the fastest product that came from AliExpress).

The parcel is well packed and sealed with styrofoam. Inside the box is plastic, and in it is an SSD drive.

Here are the specifications for this SSD drive. My reading speed tests, write at the bottom of the page.


1. Copy all the information you need from your disk

If you, like me, have only one place for a hard drive in a laptop, then first copy all the information from your hard drive yourself on external drive or on another computer. Or buy. So that you can then connect your removed HDD via USB and download everything you need from it to your new SSD drive.


Here is a visual video of this adapter.

2. Remove the hard drive and install the SSD

Turn off the laptop, disconnect the laptop from all wires, turn it over and remove the laptop battery. Now on the back cover of the laptop, find the inscription HDD - this is the place where your hard drive is installed. On my Samsung NP-R560 laptop, it is on the bottom left. The hard drive is covered with a cover with two screws.

We unscrew these two screws covering the laptop hard drive.

Remove the cover covering the hard drive. There should be arrows on it showing in which direction you need to pull to move the cover.

Here is my laptop hard drive. It has an aluminum cover to better dissipate heat and has a pull tab to make it easier to take it off. Simply grasp this tab and pull to the left to disconnect the hard drive from the connector.

Done, the hard drive is disconnected from the laptop and connectors. Pick it up and set it aside.

This is what a laptop looks like without a disk.

Now insert the SSD drive in place of the HDD drive.

Carefully insert it in place of the old HDD. I also put the aluminum plate from the old HDD onto the new SSD.

Close the hard drive cover.

Tighten the cover screws.

Ready. Now we turn the laptop over, insert all the wires into it, put the battery back and turn on the laptop.

3. Install Windows on a new SSD

On the new SSD drive there is nothing and there is no OS (Windows), so now you need to install Windows on it. You will get this error when trying to boot from a new SSD that does not already have operating system Windows.

Partition table invalid or corrupted. Press any key to continue…

You need to insert your bootable flash drive and boot from it.

If you don't have a bootable flash drive yet, it's time to make one.

Here is a video on how to set up the BIOS to install Windows from a bootable flash drive.

Now when there is a bootable flash drive and the boot occurs from it, we install Windows on the new SSD. We select our SSD, it will be marked as "Unallocated space on disk 0" and click "Next" and install Windows.

Copy will start Windows files, then prepare for installation, install components, install updates, finish. The computer will restart several times. After the first reboot, you can remove the bootable USB flash drive.

If you have never installed Windows through the BIOS, then you will see a video on this topic.

After installing Windows on a new SSD drive, change the boot priority in the BIOS so that the Windows bootloader is looked for on the SSD drive first. Although if everything is loaded and working, then you can not change anything already. I will go into the BIOS, Boot - Boot Device priority.

And with the F5 or F6 key, I will move the SSD drive to the very top, so that the boot sector on the SSD drive is first searched, and then on the other drives, if it was not found on the SSD.


4. Comparing the speed of SSD with HDD and USB disks

Using CrystalDiskMark 3, I measured the write and read speed of my HDD before removing it and replacing it with an SSD. The read speed from it was about 100 MB / sec. for sequential reading and writing.