Samsung has unveiled its latest lineup of solid state drives for PCs. The 870 QVO SATA SSD packs capacity options between 1 TB and a beefy 8 TB, making it one of the roomiest consumer-level SSDs out there.
The new devices are Samsung’s second generation of quad-level cell (QLC) flash drives, following the 860 QVO line released in 2018. Four models will be available, with capacity options including 1 TB, 2 TB, 4 TB and 8 TB. The upper end of that list is currently as high as consumer-level SSDs get – drives with dozens of terabytes are currently available for businesses and data centers, but they carry a premium price tag.
All four models of the 870 QVO drives have sequential read speeds of up to 560 MB/s, and write speeds of up to 530 MB/s. To keep write speeds as high and consistent as possible, Samsung says the SSDs use a technology called Intelligent TurboWrite, which can adjust the buffer size based on how much disk space is still usable. This can be up to 42 GB for the 1 TB model, and 78 GB for the other three.
The company also says that the 870 QVO has a 13-percent improvement to its random read speed, as compared to the previous models. The new ones are all packed inside the same 2.5-in box as last time.
As mentioned, the drives are built using QLC technology, which enables more storage space than previous SSDs by cramming in four bits of data per cell (hence, quad-level cell). The potential problem with this is that cells accrue damage as they’re written to, giving them a finite lifetime.
Samsung counters this by giving each SSD a long endurance rating. This is expressed in terms of total bytes written to the drive over its lifetime – so the 8 TB model, for instance, can apparently have up to 2,880 TB written to it before it wears out. A bit of back-of-the-envelope math tells us that for each model, you’d have to write then wipe the entire drive 360 times before hitting that point. So you’re probably safe – at least until the three-year warranty is up.
Samsung’s 870 QVO lineup is available now, except for the 8 TB model which will be released later down the track. Prices start at US$129.99 for the 1 TB model, $249.99 for 2 TB, and $499.99 for the 4 TB. As of yet, the 8 TB hasn’t been priced.
Source: Samsung
