Samsung has achieved a reputation most multi-channel manufacturers can only dream of. Their products span the entertainment, convenience, home appliance fields and many others, and while they are perhaps best known for their line of Home Entertainment products, their computer component line-up is equally impressive.
We were lucky enough to secure Samsung’s new 830 Series SSD in the 256 GB variant, and I am happy to say it lives up to Samsung’s reputation.
The first thing you’ll notice about the 830 Series SSDs is Samsung’s trademark aesthetic. The device is every bit as svelte as we’ve come to expect from every SSD, but the 830 is a gorgeously stylized charcoal with a bold Samsung logo, sure to delight those of us ragingly-proud PC builders with our brightly-lit case windows.
The device is also pleasingly solid, with heavy screw-mounts and a SATA-6 jack that doesn’t feel like it’s going to snap off every time you connect or disconnect – something of a pet-peeve of mine and a factor in any rig that sees regular modifications.
Software installation was delightfully painless with pleasantly-detailed instructions.It took remarkably little time, and the packaged Norton Ghost was one of the easier transfer programs I’ve ever had the pleasure to use.
Once installed, the Samsung 830 256GB is blisteringly fast. The average boot time of the device to a full windows screen averaged between 15 to 25 seconds, dependent on configuration – and that is really a thing that needs to be seen to be understood, especially for those used to a traditional HDD. Load times in titles like ES:V Skyrim and Diablo III were at worst halved, and at best virtually instant.
One of the major criticisms I’ve heard for both Samsung and Intel’s SSDs centers around their price-per-GB compared to other SSD manufacturers,. While that is in some respects a topic for another article, with regards to Samsung’s 830 Series, I can confidently say that build quality and performance more than make up for the relatively paltry price difference.
Verdict: If you’re in the market for a high-end SSD, you can do little better than the Samsung 830 Series SSD. It’s cleanly styled, a breeze to install, and its performance is as good as it gets.
Technical Specifications:
- Sequential Read: Up to 520MB Per Second
- Sequential Write: Up to 400MB Per Second
- Random Read: Up to 80,000 In/Out Per Second
- Random Write: Up to 36,000 In/Out Per Second
- Active Usage: .120 Watts
- Idle Usage: .80 W
- Packed With: 830 Series SSD, a USB Cable, Driver Software with Samsung’s Magician 3.0 and Norton Ghost.
Specifications of Test Rig: Intel i7 with 16 GB RAM and 2x Nvidia GeForce 550TI GTX.