Samsung 980 PRO with Heatsink PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD 1TB Review

How Much Does it Cost?

The Samsung 980 PRO with Heatsink PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD 1TB is available now in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB variants. The model I reviewed today is available directly from Samsung too, which I think is awesome as they have command of every part of this drives life from the components, the design and manufacturing, and the selling. It’s passed fewer hands and journeys before it gets to you, which can only be a good thing. It’s currently priced at £193.00, which isn’t particularly cheap, but for the premium build quality and performance you’re getting, it’s certainly competitive.

Overview

Samsung has had nothing but praise in recent years for its memory products. There’s a reason why SSDs and memory products in general that contain Samsung components are favoured by the enthusiast market. That’s not to say their rivals haven’t got products that aren’t just as good, but Samsung has generally set the bar pretty high with each generation. While their latest SSD doesn’t push the limits of extreme performance, it’s certainly sitting right on the limit for consumer SSDs. It’s just as fast as the best drives from their rivals, and that is certainly praise enough. We won’t really see things pushed much beyond this now until we get drives on PCIe 5.0.

What Samsung does have over its rivals is respect. Their components are very highly regarded as some of the best. They use their own in-house designed and manufactured controllers and memory chips. Not having to rely on 3rd party manufacturing to set their standards, they can ensure their drives are very well optimised. It’s a Samsung drive in every sense of the word, which most rivals are a combination of other brands chips and controllers.

The quality speaks for itself though, it’s a very nice looking drive, and it even feels like a quality product in your hand. It’s certainly going to appeal to the enthusiast, where often aesthetics are just as important as performance. Of course, the performance is there too, which the 980 PRO with Heatsink PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD 1TB hitting some truly spectacular performance figures throughout my benchmarks today. So while the drive looks nice, clearly, its design is very much functional too, with no performance issues whatsoever.

Should I Buy One?

It’s not a particularly cheap drive, but when you’re looking for a PCIe Gen 4 drive with a larger capacity and premium quality construction, you have to expect to be paying a premium. Its price is still competitive with other brands though, and when it comes to performance, the 980 PRO with Heatsink PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD 1TB does not disappoint. It’s one of the best made and fastest drives I’ve ever tested, and I highly recommend it!