These diagrams show that NAND technology is headed in a smaller and higher density direction. This direction is an effort to reduce costs and increase capacity at the same time making solid state storage a more viable solution for corporations and consumers. Samsung is just the first of many that will be utilizing TLC NAND Flash Memory in their SSD’s.

Endurance is really the question when it comes to assessing the viability of TLC NAND so; let’s talk about endurance for a minute. The 500GB Samsung 840 we are looking at today is rated for 20GB a day writes for about 6 years. This is being conservative so, for most users endurance should be a non-issue. I doubt that hardly anyone still uses 6 year old hardware for anything that matters; I know I don’t.

The Samsung 840 can provide the performance of a whole stack of spinners in a convenient 2.5” package. If you are moving from a spinner to an SSD the difference will be unlike anything you have ever experienced and you will wonder how you ever got by without one. Samsung’s 840 series looks to be the performance to value leader so let’s get into this review and see what TLC performance looks like on RWL’s bench. Here’s what Samsung has to say about their 840 Series (not to be confused with the 840 Pro series):

The Single Best Upgrade for Your PC

With its simple 3-Step migration solution and industry-leading IOPS performance, the Samsung SSD 840 Series is the single best upgrade you can make for your PC. Samsung’s new SmartMigration software takes the guesswork and headache out of moving your operating system and precious data to your new SSD. Once you’re up and running, the 840 Series’ amazing IOPS speeds empower you to multitask like never before.

Upgrading to an SSD is the easiest and most economical way to breathe new life into an aging PC. Today, most PC performance woes are the result of slow read and write speeds on behalf of the main storage device, not a lack of CPU performance. Upgrading to a Samsung SSD 840 Series can breathe new life into your old PC by enhancing boot-up speed, application loading, and multi-tasking performance.

Superior Reliability

As the world’s #1 DRAM, NAND Flash, and SSD supplier; Samsung SSDs are designed and built completely in-house. The Samsung SSD 840 Series is optimized for exceptional, sustained performance and unrivaled reliability through its specially-engineered wear-leveling and garbage collection algorithms backed by a 3-year limited warranty.

Magician Software

Samsung’s Magician software has been completely redesigned with an extreme focus on usability. Magician makes it simple for users to maximize the performance and lifetime of their Samsung SSD. In addition, SSD Magician also provides system information and facilitates performance benchmarking, performance optimization, OS optimization, firmware updates, secure erasing, and over provisioning. Newly introduced Drive Health Status, Total Bytes Written (TBW), and Disk Scan & Error Reporting functionality make Magician one of the most useful storage utilities available.