Samsung 870 QVO 8TB 2.5in SATA SSD

Excellent SSD from Samsung. Purchased at discount and received a really good deal. Using drive as storage in older laptop (2012) and works well for small file size read and writes.Negative point is not suitable for large (40GB) file sizes read and write operations. Slows to 70 - 80 MB write speeds. Need to clear cache by leaving operating system to idle. Can also clear cache by booting to bios then waiting 10 seconds followed by rebooting. Excellent SSD for the price. Highly recommended.

As an avid gamer I have an endless thirst for storage. I've been following this drive for a long time, probably soon after it was released. Now finally it hit a price point that meant it made sense to me to purchase. All my SSD's and NVMe's are from Samsung and I have total faith in their products (especially when combined with Samsung Magician that looks after the health of their SSD's and NVMe's). This drive doubles my storage in one component so who wouldn't be thrilled with it? If you're reading this review you must be, like me, thirsty for storage so take a leap of faith and make the purchase.

Disappointing Performance and Short Lifetime

I regret to say that my experience with the Samsung - 870 QVO 2TB was extremely disappointing. I purchased this SSD for my computer, and after only eight months of use, it suddenly died. Although the SSD still works and boots windows, it takes an excruciatingly long time, and the computer runs extremely slow.In the task manager, the DISK is always at 100%, which is unacceptable for a product that is supposed to enhance the performance of my computer. I am unsure if my specific purchase was faulty, or if the product is simply not reliable. This was my first time purchasing a 2TB SSD, and I will never make that mistake again.I have used Samsung SSDs for a long time, and until now, I have always been pleased with their performance. However, after this experience, I ... MoreI regret to say that my experience with the Samsung - 870 QVO 2TB was extremely disappointing. I purchased this SSD for my computer, and after only eight months of use, it suddenly died. Although the SSD still works and boots windows, it takes an excruciatingly long time, and the computer runs extremely slow.In the task manager, the DISK is always at 100%, which is unacceptable for a product that is supposed to enhance the performance of my computer. I am unsure if my specific purchase was faulty, or if the product is simply not reliable. This was my first time purchasing a 2TB SSD, and I will never make that mistake again.I have used Samsung SSDs for a long time, and until now, I have always been pleased with their performance. However, after this experience, I cannot recommend the Samsung - 870 QVO 2TB Internal SSD SATA to anyone. It is a waste of money and time.I did not report the issue or file a claim because it was eight months after I had bought the product, and it was easier for me to purchase a new 1TB drive. This SSD has been a complete disappointment, and I would strongly suggest looking elsewhere for a more reliable SSD for your computer. In summary, I would give the Samsung - 870 QVO 2TB a one-star rating, and I cannot recommend it to anyone.

Go for it

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!

Great External Storage Option for PS5

I picked this up on sale wanting a cheaper and more immediate option to expand my PS5's SSD storage (rather than waiting for Sony to allow internal hard drive installations). I hadn't seen any reviewer mention they'd used this product for that purpose, but it's been great!I paired it with a USB 3.1 SATA Hard Drive adapter that I bought elsewhere (be sure to do your research and get one that's up to the task). This thing's been awesome. I use it for my PS4 games on my PS5 and it loads them just as fast as the internal SSD. Couldn't recommend this enough as an option to expand your gaming storage.Of course, the only downside to this is that you can't play PS5 games from an external hard drive. But the space this drive frees up leaves plenty of internal storage to ... MoreI picked this up on sale wanting a cheaper and more immediate option to expand my PS5's SSD storage (rather than waiting for Sony to allow internal hard drive installations). I hadn't seen any reviewer mention they'd used this product for that purpose, but it's been great!I paired it with a USB 3.1 SATA Hard Drive adapter that I bought elsewhere (be sure to do your research and get one that's up to the task). This thing's been awesome. I use it for my PS4 games on my PS5 and it loads them just as fast as the internal SSD. Couldn't recommend this enough as an option to expand your gaming storage.Of course, the only downside to this is that you can't play PS5 games from an external hard drive. But the space this drive frees up leaves plenty of internal storage to store those games. If you're considering this for gaming, I definitely recommend it.

Not for software development.

I bought this to replace a smaller-capacity 850EVO drive in one of my systems because I ran out of space on it.Samsung offers free downloadable Drive Migration software for Windows (produced by Clonix according to their documentation) to automatically copy an old drive to a new drive, expand the partition sizes and make it bootable, so upgrading from an existing drive to the new drive is pretty easy if you use Windows: connect the drive to the PC (via SATA or USB or any other way), download and run the software, shut the machine down, swap drives and start the machine up again. The time that it takes depends mostly on the speed of your hardware; I copied my old SSD to the new one at about 50MB/s through a USB3-to-SATA dongle. SATA to SATA would have been faster ... MoreI bought this to replace a smaller-capacity 850EVO drive in one of my systems because I ran out of space on it.Samsung offers free downloadable Drive Migration software for Windows (produced by Clonix according to their documentation) to automatically copy an old drive to a new drive, expand the partition sizes and make it bootable, so upgrading from an existing drive to the new drive is pretty easy if you use Windows: connect the drive to the PC (via SATA or USB or any other way), download and run the software, shut the machine down, swap drives and start the machine up again. The time that it takes depends mostly on the speed of your hardware; I copied my old SSD to the new one at about 50MB/s through a USB3-to-SATA dongle. SATA to SATA would have been faster I'm sure.The Drive Magician software, also available online (for Windows, Linux and MacOS) from Samsung, lets you see some useful data such as the total amount of data written (so you can see when your drive is wearing out), temperature, free space etc. It also lets you run a benchmark, and it lets you over-provision the drive (i.e. reserve some space to be used as spare storage for when sectors start to wear out and fail -- it should take many years before that happens).Now the cons:I use this system for Windows software development and I've noticed that since I got this QVO drive, whenever I do a full rebuild of a large project, my Visual Studio sometimes completely stops responding. I've read some information about how these drives work and I think the problem is that the large compile job with many small files that are read and written at pretty much the same time, fills up the cache memory on the drive, and slows the system down. Visual Studio will complete the job, but it's pretty much impossible to do anything else at the same time.I bought this SSD somewhat on a whim because I noticed it was one of the cheapest for its capacity. But I think I'll move this to another system that has less of a need for fast storage, and I'll get another faster SSD (based on different technology and probably unfortunately more expensive) for this system. Write it off as a learning experience.

Samsung MZ-77Q2T0 2.5" 2000 GB Serial ATA III V-NAND MLC

I have purchased several of these Samsung 870EVO drives recently for PC client notebook upgrades. The price was a little higher than what I would usually install but the Samsung name and reliability helps to sell the higher price. Installation is easy and Windows 710 recognizes the drives without a problem. The Samsung website has updated drivers while the Samsung Magician software monitors the TRIM on these SSDs to keep them in reasonable shape If the client wants the software installed. I have not experienced infant mortality for any of the Samsung SSDs I have purchased and no complaints either which is a plus for me. The drives seem to run cool enough in the notebook PCs even with High CPU usage and heavy readwrite activity. Older PCs and ones with poor cooling ... MoreI have purchased several of these Samsung 870EVO drives recently for PC client notebook upgrades. The price was a little higher than what I would usually install but the Samsung name and reliability helps to sell the higher price. Installation is easy and Windows 710 recognizes the drives without a problem. The Samsung website has updated drivers while the Samsung Magician software monitors the TRIM on these SSDs to keep them in reasonable shape If the client wants the software installed. I have not experienced infant mortality for any of the Samsung SSDs I have purchased and no complaints either which is a plus for me. The drives seem to run cool enough in the notebook PCs even with High CPU usage and heavy readwrite activity. Older PCs and ones with poor cooling have been an issue in the past, even with SSDs. My only real concern is the VNAND technology combined with the warranty, stated MTBF, and TWB from Samsung for these VNAND SSDs. In high readwrite applications large video file transfers and Video Processing, the lifespan of these VNAND SSDs is suboptimal. This is especially true when using this drive as a primary OS drive in combination with it being used as a storage drive. The relatively large size of the drive is supposed to mitigate the cells wearing out. I do not necessarily believe that for high writeread cycle applications with very large files but, time will tell. For most applications, these SSDs will work fine IMO. I still prefer TLC technology for SSDs that have high readwrite requirements to give better longevity. The slower speed and higher price for large capacity makes them less desireable for most PC applications gaming so I can recommend these Samsung 870EVO SSDs for them.

Samsung SSD 870 QVO SATA III (2TB, MZ-77Q2T0BW)

Ive been using SSDs of various interfaces and form factors 2.5 SATA III, mSATA, M.2 SATA, M.2 NVMe, PCIe expansion card, etc. in DIY rigs and upgrades for myself and my family for nearly 9 years now and regardless of the underlying technology, theres one constant that has always been truegoing from a spinning hard drive to an SSD is about the most noticeable improvement you could EVER make to a PC, all other hardware being equal. This Samsung 870 QVO drive represents Samsungs second generation of higher capacity SSDs based around new, but somewhat controversial, QLC flash memory. Does the QVO make for an equally compelling upgrade as any other styletype of SSDs before it Generally, the answer is yes, I suppose...but the jury is still out on just how good a value ... MoreIve been using SSDs of various interfaces and form factors 2.5 SATA III, mSATA, M.2 SATA, M.2 NVMe, PCIe expansion card, etc. in DIY rigs and upgrades for myself and my family for nearly 9 years now and regardless of the underlying technology, theres one constant that has always been truegoing from a spinning hard drive to an SSD is about the most noticeable improvement you could EVER make to a PC, all other hardware being equal. This Samsung 870 QVO drive represents Samsungs second generation of higher capacity SSDs based around new, but somewhat controversial, QLC flash memory. Does the QVO make for an equally compelling upgrade as any other styletype of SSDs before it Generally, the answer is yes, I suppose...but the jury is still out on just how good a value this drive will be for the long haul.You can read all about the pros and cons of QLC versus other types of memory if you wish, but a simplified elevator pitch is this QLC represents a new storage architecture for SSDs that squeezes more bits onto the same sized chips. Practically speaking, this means larger SSDs can be made for less money...two areas where spinning hard drives ALWAYS held the advantage over faster yet more expensive SSDs. But this potential for higher capacity and lower cost comes with some fine print. First, because the bits are packed more tightly on the flash chips, write speeds may be a bit to a lot slower, especially after youve chewed through the available much faster cache memory the drive sets aside to speed up those write operations. Note, however, that the larger the drive you have like 1TB or more, the less likely you are to consume all the available cache during any one disk operation depending on how youre using your drive. Second, the drives are rated for fewer TBW terabytes written than those leveraging competing storage technology, which implies that QLC drives may give out sooner than a similarly sized SSD with a different type of memory inside.So what would all this mean to you For starters, it SUGGESTS that a QLC drive might not be an ideal choice for something like your Windowsoperating systems drive where large write operations are happening all the time for fear of wearing out the drive sooner. But of course that outcome would depend on how often and how aggressively you use your computer in the first place. For example, if you dont create a lot of 4K videos or massive ISO images every day, you might well outgrow your PC before the drive ever starts to show signs of failure. Moreover, if you dont routinely work with HUGE files i.e. larger than 1GB, you might never hit that point where youre trying to write a file to disk and exceed the available cache memory at which point your write operations would definitely slow to a snails pace. Honestly, then, many of the merits of a drive like the QVO may simply come down to economics...how badly to you need to economize on your purchase while still enjoying the speed boost youll get from using an SSD in the first place, and will you notice any performance differences arising from the purposed weakness of QLC memory anywayI put my own 870 QVO through its paces by matching it headtohead against Samsungs 850 EVO 1TB 2.5 SSD its the exact same capacity drive in the exact same form factor as the new 870 QVO, and Ive been using the 850 EVO as my primary Windows drive for about 5 years now. Now, I dont pretend to understand all the ins and outs of drive benchmarking because frankly I really dont care that muchand for a budget drive with high capacity like the QVO, I wasnt looking for the Nth degree of high performance anyway. But for those of you who care, I ran CrystalDiskMark and Samsung Magicians own benchmark tests on the two drives. The results attached below echo the common sentiments findings floating around the netyes, the QVO was observed to be a little slower than Samsungs older nonQLC drive in some areas of the benchmark testsbut not really by that much, and in terms of any meaningful differences, it certainly didnt feel like Windows was suddenly chugging along on the 870 QVO.Where I think the value proposition for something like the QVO really shines is if you want to have a large SSD data drive for things like games, documents, photos, etc.a drive that gets a lot of read action, but you dont necessarily writechange the contents all that often, and not necessarily in huge chunks, either. In those cases, going with the 870 will save you on space, energy and noise over a similarly sized spinning hard drive but you will DEFINITELY get the readwrite speed bump that SSDs are known for. Unfortunately, for those unfamiliar with SSD migration or working with drives like these, the simplistic picturebook style instruction manual included with the 870 may lead one to believe their package was incomplete. If you intend to migrate your operating system from a spinning hard drive to the 870 QVO using Samsungs Data Migration tool which is a separate download from Samsung Magician BTW, Samsung DOES make the process dead simple with that tool, but the manual suggests that a USBtoSATA adapter cable will be necessary. Its also implied that one should have been in the box for you. In fact, all you get here is the bare drive...not even mounting screws. Of course, you can mount the drive internally in your PC using a regular SATA power connector and cable and still use the Samsung Data Migration tool, but for those of you looking to upgrade a laptop that doesnt have a spare 2.5 bay, you probably will need to obtain some sort of adapter unless you plan to simply reinstall Windows on the bare QVO drive upon powerup.Otherwise, the Samsung Magician companion app is a pretty userfriendly piece of software for drive maintenance and optimization. Magician can check your drives firmware, overprovision the drive to improve longterm performance, enable RAPID mode to improve readwrite performance as I understand it, RAPID actually performs caching to speed up drive access similar to the way the QVO drive does already...it really didnt seen to make any noticeable difference outside of benchmarking, securely erase your drive, and manage encryptiondecryption operations. Magician runs resident in the background, but other than providing a oneclick interface for maintenance or ensuring your firmware is uptodate, there are plenty of people who run Samsung drives without it.In the end, its hard to make an unqualified recommendation for the 870 QVO. Yes, its a slice of the latest and greatest trend in SSD storage, but that doesnt necessarily mean its better than the alternatives and in some cases, meaningfully so or not, it is definitely NOT as strong as the competition. But as a lower cost, higher capacity SSD, the 870 QVO still seems to have a place in todays SSD landscape, especially as capacities of drives with QLC memory start to grow well beyond 12 TB. So long as the economics match with your intended use case, the QVO is a fair to decent performer but if you are concernedparanoid about longterm durability or are seeking topoftheline access speeds, there are definitely betterperforming drives on the market for the same or similar price.

Samsung-870 QVO 2TB INTERNAL SSD

I use this for game storage/play on my gaming pc. I have two other M.2 drives installed also, which house my OS and favorite games. This one is used for storage and/or games that I don't play so often. It's a good budget SSD. I can't tell any difference once the game is running. It does take slightly longer to load the games, as is to be expected given the form factor. I've had it installed about a month or so and it functions flawlessly. I remember the days of 5400 rpm HDD's, and then making sure whatever I bought had a 7200 rpm HDD. I was out of M.2 slots and had 3 available slots for standard 2.5 SSD's, so it was the clear winner here. I mean, who doesn't need more storage, right? Really the price vs the amount of storage I was getting was the deciding factor in ... MoreI use this for game storage/play on my gaming pc. I have two other M.2 drives installed also, which house my OS and favorite games. This one is used for storage and/or games that I don't play so often. It's a good budget SSD. I can't tell any difference once the game is running. It does take slightly longer to load the games, as is to be expected given the form factor. I've had it installed about a month or so and it functions flawlessly. I remember the days of 5400 rpm HDD's, and then making sure whatever I bought had a 7200 rpm HDD. I was out of M.2 slots and had 3 available slots for standard 2.5 SSD's, so it was the clear winner here. I mean, who doesn't need more storage, right? Really the price vs the amount of storage I was getting was the deciding factor in this case. M.2's are a little pricey once you get above 1TB, otherwise I would have replaced one of those with a larger capacity. And it was simple to install in my Corsair case. Hook up cables, place it in the tray, and slide it in the case. Format the drive and done. The EVO is basically the next step up, but again, for the price, it works for me. If you're looking for a budget SSD, I recommend this one. Just keep in mind you will have to buy the SATA cable to hook it up to the motherboard unless you have an extra laying around (cable NOT included).

Sustained write speeds slower than HDD

I found out after purchasing that these QVO SSDs apparently write to a fast cache section which is then buffered out to the actual flash. The end result is that you'll see the rated >500 MB/sec write speeds for on the order of 2.5 minutes (75 GB) and then the speeds will plummet to around 160 MB/sec, which is slower than a 5 TB 7200 RPM HDD like the Toshiba HDWE150.It would take on the order of 7 hours to write this drive's full capacity, compared to around 2.2 hours for a typical SATA SSD.Sustained read speeds are the usual >500 MB/sec for SATA SSDs.Even if your use case is something like a steam drive where you'll never see this bottleneck since you'll never hit peak write speeds, this drive is probably a mediocre value at best; a better value would be e.g. ... MoreI found out after purchasing that these QVO SSDs apparently write to a fast cache section which is then buffered out to the actual flash. The end result is that you'll see the rated >500 MB/sec write speeds for on the order of 2.5 minutes (75 GB) and then the speeds will plummet to around 160 MB/sec, which is slower than a 5 TB 7200 RPM HDD like the Toshiba HDWE150.It would take on the order of 7 hours to write this drive's full capacity, compared to around 2.2 hours for a typical SATA SSD.Sustained read speeds are the usual >500 MB/sec for SATA SSDs.Even if your use case is something like a steam drive where you'll never see this bottleneck since you'll never hit peak write speeds, this drive is probably a mediocre value at best; a better value would be e.g. the Crucial MX500 line, which is cheaper per GB and doesn't have the sustained write speed limitation.Physical quality is good, as is typical from Samsung. The drive is a little thinner than a typical 2.5" HDD or SSD which seems like a plus but doesn't really provide any value; if you're upgrading an old laptop, it probably already has space for a typical 2.5" HDD, while any new thin-and-light is almost certainly using an M.2 form factor drive and not 2.5".