Samsung 870 QVO SATA III 2.5" SSD - 4TB

It’s said that when trying to increase the speed of your pc, the first and easiest thing to replace is the hard drive. And I agree.The 870 QVO SATA SSD is Samsung's budget level SSD with storage capacities up to 8 terabytes. It is a SATA interface drive which is limited to 600 MB/second transfer rates, unlike NVMe drives which can reach speeds of 3500 MB/second. While these numbers look good on paper, there are lots of variables and real-life scenarios to take into consideration. A quick google search will show many review sites with all the big test results and comparisons. In my opinion, from a consumer standpoint, the only thing that matters is how much faster the drive makes your computing experience.As with most SSD’s, the drive arrived with a ... MoreIt’s said that when trying to increase the speed of your pc, the first and easiest thing to replace is the hard drive. And I agree.The 870 QVO SATA SSD is Samsung's budget level SSD with storage capacities up to 8 terabytes. It is a SATA interface drive which is limited to 600 MB/second transfer rates, unlike NVMe drives which can reach speeds of 3500 MB/second. While these numbers look good on paper, there are lots of variables and real-life scenarios to take into consideration. A quick google search will show many review sites with all the big test results and comparisons. In my opinion, from a consumer standpoint, the only thing that matters is how much faster the drive makes your computing experience.As with most SSD’s, the drive arrived with a multi-language manual that says to go to Samsung’s website for their drive magician and cloning software and some general installation pictures. You have to browse their site to find the software. Since I already had the drive and didn’t need to shop for one, I would have preferred a link that took me directly to the software page and download links.If you are replacing an existing drive you will need either a 2nd drive bay, data transfer cable such as https://www.bestbuy.com/site/apricorn-data-transfer-cable-gray/3459621.p?skuId=3459621 or external drive dock.Samsung’s cloning software worked well. Like most companies, it requires their brand drive to be present. Cloning my laptop hybrid drive to the new SSD took just over 20 minutes. Swapping the new SSD into my older Dell laptop was simple and only took about 10 minutes and the difference is amazing.If you are not planning on cloning your existing drive and want to install a fresh version of your OS, know that this drive comes completely blank and will need to be partitioned and formatted prior to using. Trying this, a clean install of Windows 10 home from a USB 3.0 thumb drive took less than 10 minutes in my I7 laptop with 16 GB of ram.My laptop now boots to Windows 10 home in about a minute compared to several minutes or more with the old hybrid drive. Programs launch almost immediately. I also have a similarly spec’d desktop PC that has an NVMe PCIe drive and in my use, the speeds and load times are too close to notice any significant difference.The Samsung Magician software shows drive information, details and benchmarks. It is also used to diagnose any issues your new SSD may have as well as secure erase and drive encryption if that’s something you need.My only negatives for this SSD are the warranty which is only three years vs the usual five years that most other manufactures offer and not having a direct link to the Samsung Magician and cloning software.I highly recommend the new Samsung QVO SATA SSD to anyone who is looking to speed up their computer and is limited by a SATA interface.

ProsFastCheapIncludes cloning toolsRAPID Mode increases performance substantiallyMagician software includes a lot of featuresConsDoesn’t include any adapter for cloningDoesn’t include screws if adding a new driveNot user friendly for first time installersIt is becoming harder every day to justify buying a traditional hard drive. With drives such as the 870 EVO topping out at 8GB the argument of low capacity is no longer a barrier for most. SSDs also take up less space, are lighter, are faster, use less power, aren’t bothered by bumps, don’t make noise, and generate far less heat.Initial Impressions and InstallationIf you have already used Samsung SSD’s before things won’t look much different. It’s just a deceivingly light metal 2.5” drive and ... MoreProsFastCheapIncludes cloning toolsRAPID Mode increases performance substantiallyMagician software includes a lot of featuresConsDoesn’t include any adapter for cloningDoesn’t include screws if adding a new driveNot user friendly for first time installersIt is becoming harder every day to justify buying a traditional hard drive. With drives such as the 870 EVO topping out at 8GB the argument of low capacity is no longer a barrier for most. SSDs also take up less space, are lighter, are faster, use less power, aren’t bothered by bumps, don’t make noise, and generate far less heat.Initial Impressions and InstallationIf you have already used Samsung SSD’s before things won’t look much different. It’s just a deceivingly light metal 2.5” drive and a pamphlet in the box. No cables, adapters, screws, or software included in the box. The instructions do point you to Samsung’s website for their Data Migration Wizard and Samsung Magician. If this is your first time installing a hard drive, be sure to do some research first on how to install. This is even more important if this is to be your OS drive. The reason is, even though it’s a retail kit, there is no adapter included for cloning or any screws for that matter. It does include Samsung’s own cloning software that you must download from their website. None of this is a big deal for an experienced system builder but might a little confusing for first timers. If you have a spare bay to install it, the process is overall pretty straightforward. Just install the drive and the Data Migration Assistant will, in most cases, recognize which drive is the old. You select the new drive and click one button.Usage and PerformanceFor Samsung fans, the drive performs just as you would expect. In testing and usage the speed was very consistent. Without RAPID Mode disabled, sequential reads consistently stayed above 500MB/s with 4KB speeds being a more modest 33 to 35MB/s. Writes clocked in at 480MB/s or greater with 4KB write speeds hovering around 75MB/s. CrystalDiskMark turned in a 550MB/s read and 520MB/s write coming much closer to the stated 560 Mb/s read and 530 MB/s write.Samsung Magician offers a lot of extra features compared to other SSD makers, including integrated performance testing, diagnostics, encryption, and secure erase but the most useful utility for daily use is RAPID Mode. When turned on, Magician uses a portion of your RAM as a cache which in testing consistently returned speed results over 2000MB/s. Of course you can do the same thing with any third party caching system to boost performance and Windows already does this to some extend but what is nice is how Samsung includes it right within their software and doesn’t require any more than turning it on. Keep it on makes a noticeable difference during times, such as starting the computer, or repetitive tasks and overall makes the drive feel a lot faster than competitors that don’t offer such a feature out of the box.Samsung claims the TBW rating has been doubled compared to the 860 QVO series. Looking back at old articles, the 1TB 860 QVO was rated at 360TBW. According to Samsung’s website, the 870 QVO maintains the exact same 360TBW how they can claim it has been doubled is unclear. Similarly, both the old and the new drive have the same 3-year warranty. That said, overall SSD reliability seems to be better than that of a traditional hard drive and Samsung has a reputation of making reliable SSDs. There is no reason to believe the 870 QVO would be any different.Final thoughtsIt’s really hard to squeeze any more performance out of the SATA III interface, which is why the 870 QVO performance is nearly indistinguishable from the previous generation. What is nice to see is Samsung increasing storage capacity over the previous generation offering up to double the maximum storage of the 860 series. It seems thedays of traditional hard drives is rapidly coming to an end. If you are need of a SATA hard drive or a high capacity affordable SSD, the 870 QVO could server you well and likely for a very long time.

This is the first refurb 2.5 ssd I’ve purchased from Best Buy, but I’ve purchased 3 refurbished nvme ssd’s prior to grabbing this one and there hasn’t been a lemon yet among them. I almost don’t want to oversell the refurb items at Best Buy, because it feels like this lucky money saving secret that if it caught on, could make the chances of getting one harder, or make them not as available , but that’s I know silly. If you’re at all considering an ssd and want more quality or quantity than the price of a new drive, I’d 100% recommend grabbing a refurb. Each of the many I’ve bought have been basically new. Great deal. Don’t spread the word!