Legit Storage Reviews
Samsung 470 - Where We Started
Back in January following CES, we had a look at Samsung's 470 Series SSD which performed very well in our tests in comparison to other SATA II drives. Our readers have asked numerous times if we could take a longer term look at an SSD to see how the performance fares over time. We thought the Samsung drive would be as good a guinea pig as any. So, we loaded up the drive with our normal day-to-day OS filled with apps like games, photo editing software, productivity software, etc. and began to use it consistently over the course of three months. Measurements on a few benchmarks were taken at midway point and end to compare against the "virgin state" performance.
All of this angst from users about drive slowdown comes as a result of the early SSD which didn't support TRIM and/or idle garbage collection which was certainly a problem over the long haul. As a refresher, let's have a look at the specifications for the drive.
Samsung 470 Series Specifications:
| Model |
470 Series |
470 Series |
470 Series |
| Capacity |
64GB |
128GB |
256GB |
| Form factor |
2.5-Inch |
2.5-Inch |
2.5-Inch |
| Dimensions (HxWxL) |
9.5x69.85x100 (mm) |
9.5x69.85x100 (mm) |
9.5x69.85x100 (mm) |
| Weight |
Max 64g |
Max 68g |
Max 68g |
| Interface |
Serial ATA 3.0Gbps |
Serial ATA 3.0Gbps |
Serial ATA 3.0Gbps |
| Sequential read |
Up to 250 MB/sec |
Up to 250 MB/sec |
Up to 250 MB/sec |
| Sequential write |
Up to 170 MB/sec |
Up to 220 MB/sec |
Up to 220 MB/sec |
| Random read |
Up to 31,000 IOPS |
Up to 31,000 IOPS |
Up to 31,000 IOPS |
| Random write |
Up to 11,000 IOPS |
Up to 20,000 IOPS |
Up to 21,000 IOPS |
| Active power use |
0.24W |
0.24W |
0.24W |
| Idle power use |
0.14W |
0.14W |
0.14W |
| Allowable voltage |
5V ± 5% |
5V ± 5% |
5V ± 5% |
| TRIM support |
YES |
YES |
YES |
| Reliability (MTBF) |
1.5 million hours |
1.5 million hours |
1.5 million hours |
| Warranty |
3 year (= 21.9TBW, 20GB@day) |
3 year (= 21.9TBW, 20GB@day) |
3 year (= 21.9TBW, 20GB@day) |
| Temperature |
-55℃ to 95℃ (Non-Operating) |
-55℃ to 95℃ (Non-Operating) |
-55℃ to 95℃ (Non-Operating) |
| Humidity |
5% to 95% (Non-Operating) |
5% to 95% (Non-Operating) |
5% to 95% (Non-Operating) |
| Vibration |
Operating: Random 2.17Grms(5~700Hz)
Non-Operating: Random 3.13Grms(5~800Hz)
Swept sine: 20G peak @10~2KHz
|
Operating: Random 2.17Grms(5~700Hz)
Non-Operating: Random 3.13Grms(5~800Hz)
Swept sine: 20G peak @10~2KHz
|
Operating: Random 2.17Grms(5~700Hz)
Non-Operating: Random 3.13Grms(5~800Hz)
Swept sine: 20G peak @10~2KHz
|
| Shock |
1500G, duration 0.5ms, Half Sine Wave |
1500G, duration 0.5ms, Half Sine Wave |
1500G, duration 0.5ms, Half Sine Wave |
The drive is powered by Samsung's own controller with 32nm ToggleDDR NAND and a pair of 64MB DDR2-667 cache chips thrown in. The drive supports TRIM and idle garbage collection which will largely be responsible for the performance levels over time. During use, we did nothing to clean or reset the drive and relied on the aforementioned built-in maintenance mechanisms to take care of things. Overall, I was surprised how well the drive performed and I've been very impressed with its performance as a daily driver. I honestly wasn't expecting Samsung to be so competitive.
Now that we are caught up, let's have a look at what we found.
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