Two Samsung SSD Questions

[lunker]

Two (hopefully) quick questions ...

I was just about set to order these Samsung SSD drives for the new Windows 10 DAW PC I am building:

a) One Samsung 860 EVO 500GB M.2 SATA Internal SSD (MZ-N6E500BW) for the OS/boot drive

b) Two Samsung 860 EVO 1TB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-76E1T0B/AM) for sample libraries and Reaper projects


Q1) ... but then I noticed that neither of these drives include Windows 10 in their hardware/software compatibility list:

"Hardware/Software Compatibility: Windows 8/Windows 7/Windows Server 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit), Vista (SP1 and above), XP (SP2 and above), MAC OSX, and Linux"

I Googled it, and found some people saying that these drives work with Windows 10, but I'd feel better hearing it from someone on this forum, rather than just some random links I found with Google.


Q2) While I was browsing I saw the Samsung 500GB 970 EVO NVMe M2 Solid State Drive. Is there any realistic reason to purchase this over the EVO 860 M.2?

It's faster (and also more expensive), but will I really see that much improvement using it as the OS drive for my DAW PC?


Thanks!

[karbomusic]

I have the 500 and 1TB 860 EVOs in my machine - actually several of them and there are no issues - even the Samsung disk utility works fine.

As far as M.2, seems like I remember it being fantastic for OS but possibly a caveat when dealing with audio/busses etc. Don't quote me, just seems like I remember a comment somewhere about it potentially losing some speed depending on setup due to it and something else potentially sharing the same buss. Totally ignorant on that part, it's a faint memory.

[vdubreeze]

Hi lunker,

Not a Windows guy/gal but while waiting for one to chime in I'll mention that when I was window shopping and spending far too much time reading tiny comparison charts I did notice that most of the testers I landed on were using Windows 10 for the testing and none mentioned an issue in that dept with the 860 Evo. I also saw that most of those having problems only had to change something in their BIOS to make the problem go away. Did find a few folks wondering if the 860 Evo 4T drives were not fully compatible or if they may have received faulty drives. But aside from 4Ts I'm pretty convinced on the anecdotal evidence that they're good with 10.

(I ended up getting both 850s and 860s for my Macs, both internals and externals, and nary a hiccup with any. Great drives)

(Doh! I knew if I typed too slowly karbo or someone on Windows would post before my post about waiting for a reply! )

[Stews]

Firstly, the drives 100% definitely support Windows 10. The fact Windows 10 had already been out for 3 years when the drives were released would make it absurd if they didn't support them

Just out of curiosity, where did you read the blurb where it mentions the older Windows versions? I Googled it because it seemed so odd that a drive from this year would say that and I couldn't find that line anywhere.

[lunker]

Thanks for the fast replies!

Originally Posted by Stews

Firstly, the drives 100% definitely support Windows 10. The fact Windows 10 had already been out for 3 years when the drives were released would make it absurd if they didn't support them

Just out of curiosity, where did you read the blurb where it mentions the older Windows versions? I Googled it because it seemed so odd that a drive from this year would say that and I couldn't find that line anywhere.

That's what I thought, too.

I found the hardware/software compatibility information on several distribution sites. For example, here are the links on Amazon (no mention of Windows 10 in the product description, but it was mentioned as compatible in a few of the reviews):

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-500GB.../dp/B078218TWQ

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Inch-.../dp/B078DPCY3T

I went to the Samsung site itself, but couldn't find any hardware/software compatibility information for these drives (lots of other info, though, and is also where I saw the 970 EVO NVMe M2 SSD).

Like I said, I did a general Google search, and found people saying the drives work with Windows 10 (and there were the comments in the Amazon reviews). But I wasn't about to shell out $$$ without better confirmation than that.

[karbomusic]

Originally Posted by lunker

I found the hardware/software compatibility information on several distribution sites.

I'm just super-impressed you did that, most would show up here in tears after they bought them and nothing seemed to work - hats off to ya'.

[lunker]

Originally Posted by karbomusic

I'm just super-impressed you did that, most would show up here in tears after they bought them and nothing seemed to work - hats off to ya'.

Let's just say I've made that kind of mistake before.

Actually, as Stews suggested, the thought wouldn't have even crossed my mind if Amazon hadn't so specifically said "Hardware/Software Compatibility: Windows 8/Windows 7/Windows Server 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit), Vista (SP1 and above), XP (SP2 and above), MAC OSX, and Linux" with no mention of Windows 10.

[vdubreeze]

Windows 10 may have been out for three years when these were released but Samsung seems to think it should be a secret. Googling it brings up the answer only, that I could find, in response to someone asking the question for the same reason, that the info doesn't appear on any (outdated) official Samsung page.

[Bill_T]

On some motherboards, and with certain lower end CPUs, and with certain multiple video card configurations, there may not be enough "PCI Lanes" to support the most blazing fast possible configuration of m.2 drives. But with any fairly recent mobo and CPU build those SSDs will work up to at least about 500 megabytes per second and around 90,000 IOPs per second which is more than fast enough for demanding sample based VSTs, and way the heck faster than hard drives.

I have both those drives in my new Win10 system and they worked perfectly right out of the box with no setup. You don't even need to install the Samsung Magician software, although you should, it doesn't get in the way and is very informative.

[serr]

I think the big question that comes up for SSD's is what trim support does the drive need from your OS. Your OS might have only certain brands of drives white listed to enable trim support. It might allow you to enable trim support for other brands (and you'll get a long winded CYA type statement to agree to that enabling trim support is NOT their problem if something goes wrong). Some drives claim to do this internally. Now we have claims that the newer APFS disk format takes over for this and makes it transparent (I have no idea of the specifics of how). Looks like more research is needed that I'm not very hungry to do right now!

My past experience with Samsung is they very much require trim support from your OS. It's like night and day throwing a switch for performance! Samsungs will slow down to 10MB/s without trim enabled. They're not white listed by OSX but manually enabling is supported. Crucial on the other hand do not seem to need this at all and some of their models will even ignore your OS trying to enable it.

I haven't had the need (or the logic board) to try M.2 drives yet.
As far as speeds:
SATA2 bus connected drives will top out at just under 250MB/s from the bus.
SATA3 supports up to just under 600MB/s
I believe the M.2 pci connected drives go up to 4GB/s (that's GB with a G!)

Your old 7200rpm HDD's were more like 50MB/s for comparison.
Even a SSD on a SATA2 bus eliminates any bottleneck for most uses with 5x the increase from the old HDD. I think unless you are editing raw 4k video, M.2 drives will not be a lot of bang for the buck.

[EvilDragon]

I have two 860 Evos and they work on W10 just fine.

[EvilDragon]

Please stop regurgitating that info. It's perfectly fine for audio and it will outlive any HDD (which are a LOT more fragile, by design).

https://www.compuram.de/blog/en/the-...-to-take-care/

[Retro Audio Enthusiast]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

Please stop regurgitating that info. It's perfectly fine for audio and it will outlive any HDD (which are a LOT more fragile, by design).

https://www.compuram.de/blog/en/the-...-to-take-care/

Wow, I didn't know this. Thanks!

[fetidus]

Yep, just buy and enjoy. I've got many SSDs from various vendors (incl. Samsung) and they all work great with Windows 10 under heavy video and audio production load. Having said that, always keep backups of everything, because sh!t happens no matter what.