The Samsung SSD 9100 Pro is the logical choice if you want an SSD capable of PCIe Gen 5 speeds of 14,800/13,400 MBps in 1, 2 and 4TB capacities. An 8TB is coming soon.
Before we start the review, a caveat or two:
Unless your computer or laptop supports PCIe 5.0 x4 NVMe 2.0, you will get maximum speeds commensurate with your PCIe generation.
When you look at an SSD, you need to know its PCIe rating, as it cannot perform any higher than the PCIe interface allows.
| PCIe Gen | Date | Gbps per lane | x2 lane | x4 lane |
| 1 | 2003 | .25 | 0.5 | 1 |
| 2 | 2007 | .5 | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | 2010 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 4 | 2020 | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| 5 | 2019 | 4 | 8 | 16 |
| 6.0 | 2022 | 8 | 16 | 32 |
As this is a x4, it means a 16 GB/s maximum rate.
And you need a motherboard, CPU, DDR5-6400 RAM and 2 x PCIe 5.0 x4 slots that support this. Typically, it will have:
Intel (all LGA 1700 socket Intel 14th Generation Core)
- B660
- B860
- Z790
- Z890
- W790
AMD (All AM5 Socket and Ryzen 7000 series CPU)
- B650E
- B850E
- X670E
- X870E
Please note that it’s important to find a motherboard and CPU combination that allows for at least 2 x PCIe Gen 5.0 x4 M.2 slots.
Australian Review: Samsung SSD 9100 Pro Model MZ-VAP4T0 4TB as tested
| Website | Product Page – non-heatsink (2.38mm thick) Product Page – heatsink (8.8mm thick) |
| RRP 26/6/25 | No-heatsink model (ex Scorptec) 1TB $299 2TB $459 4TB $839 Heatsink model 1TB $329 2TB $489 4TB $869 Shop around for these – seen for about 10-15% less |
| From | Samsung Australia and authorised PC component resellers. |
| Warranty | 5 Years Limited Warranty (based on Terabytes written) 1TB 600 TWB 2TB 1200 TBW 4TB 2400 TBW |
| Made in | South Korea |
| Samsung is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. Samsung Electronics (the world’s largest information technology company, consumer electronics maker and chipmaker. | |
| More | CyberShack storage news and reviews Samsung announcement |
We use Fail (below expectations), Pass (meets expectations), and Exceed (surpasses expectations or is the class leader) against many of the items below. We occasionally give a Pass(able) rating that is not as good as it should be, and a Pass ‘+’ rating to show that it is good but does not quite make it to Exceed. You can click on most images for an enlargement.
First Impression – Pass+
Let’s face it: most standard M.2 SSDs are boring, but Samsung has done an excellent job with a low-profile single-sided 4TB and an optional heatsink model. And its 8TB double-sided is not far away.
We have already covered the need for PCIe 5.0 x4 M2-capable motherboards, so let’s get on with the review.
Theoretical Performance – Exceed
- Sequential read: Up to 14,800 MBps
- Sequential Write: Up to 13,400 MBps
- Random Read: Up to 2,200,000 IOPS
- Random Write: Up to 2,600,000 IOPS
All our tests were well within expected limits – these may be ‘up to’, but they are achievable.
NAND (4TB) – Exceed
It uses single-sided, Samsung 236-layer V8 TLC NAND flash memory. V-NAND stacks are 10 times higher than they were when Samsung first entered the market in 2013, jumping from 24 to 236 layers. Samsung will be moving to 286-layer for its next generation and has announced 1Tb capacity 400-layer triple-level cell (TLC) NAND after that. Its aim is a 1,000-layer stack technology by 2030.
Controller – Exceed
The 5nm Samsung Presto (S4LY027) controller features a 5-core Arm Cortex-R8 architecture. It has eight flash channels and supports PCI-Express 5.0 x4 and NVMe 2.0.
Cache – Exceed
LPDDR4-4266 DRAM chip – 1/2/4GB for 1/2/4TB.
The TurboWrite 2.0 cache is 114GB/1TB, 226GB/2TB, and 442GB/4TB, which explains the large file read-write capability.
We were unable to fill the cache – see Windows copy test below.
Power – Pass+
It is rated at 3.3V/2.9A/9.57W. The tech spec shows 9W read, 8.2W write, and 6.5W idle, so it runs ‘relatively’ cool. There is a model with an integrated heatsink. The 1 and 2TB models are 7.6 and 8.1W on read.
Samsung magician – Exceed
There is a desktop app for Windows, macOS, and Android that allows you to manage the SSD, perform diagnostics, overprovision, erase, encrypt, and migrate data.
Warranty and MTBF – Pass+
- 5-year Limited Warranty or 1/2/4TB 600/1200/2400TBW Limited Warranty
- 1.5 million hours Mean Time Between Failure
Tests (4TB)
Tested on an ASUS motherboard with X870E chipset, AMD Ryzen 9 9900X, 32GB Kingston DDR5-6400 and Windows 11. After formatting, you get 3.63 as a system drive and 3.9GB as a D drive.
Crystal Disk Mark (CDM) and Crystal Disk Info (CDI)
CDI reports firmware OB2QNXH7, PCIe 5.0 X4 and NVM Express 2.0. Temperature ranged from 30° (idle) to 80° (100% load). We could not detect any throttling.
CDM is often used as it shows the peak speeds, not the sustained data transfer speeds. In any case, this is the fastest drive I have seen. More importantly, it handles larger reads/writes at speeds well over maximum PCIe 4.0 speeds.
ATTO
AS SSD
Windows 11 boot and copy
Cold boot time on a clean install with all defaults was 11.5 seconds, the fastest we have seen.
60GB was written in about 20 seconds (read from a PCIe 4.0 x4 boot drive), but we were unable to fill the cache.
CyberShack’s view: The Samsung SSD 9100 Pro is fast, very fast
This is the first PCIe 5.0 x4 we have reviewed, and finding a host computer was not easy. Most of the current Intel motherboards only support 1 x PCIe 5.0 x4 and 1 x PCIe 4.0 x4. Later AMD chipsets support 2 x PCIe 5.0 x4, and that was important so that we did not want to upset the boot drive.
But this all begs the question: Is PCIe 4.0 x4 good enough? Our review of the Samsung 990 Pro SSD with heatsink—PCIe 4.0 x4 massive speed in 1, 2, and 4TB showed speeds of up to 7450/6900MBps sequential read/write, and popular game consoles only support PCIe 4.0 x4.
So, to a PC gamer, the performance improvement will be infinitesimal and certainly not reason enough to upgrade the motherboard, CPU, and RAM. But who cares when you are spending Dad’s money on a ‘must-have or I will throw a tantrum like you have never seen!’
However, this will enhance on-device AI and video editing/rendering, where disk speed is the main limiting factor. Blackmagic’s DaVinci Resolve 2.0 disk test (installed in 12 seconds!) read over 10,000 MBps in both read and write for video render. If the 990 can do 8K@30fps, then this will easily do 8K@60fps.
Samsung SSD 9100 rating
As this is our first PCIe 5.0 x4, we will not give it a numerical rating until we have a few more review benchmarks. But based on what we have seen, it’s pretty close to a 10/10.
From my reading, Samsung exceeds their speeds of other PCIe 5.0 x4, including Corsair MP700/Phison E26, Crucial T705, and Kingston Fury Renegade,
Pro
The fastest tested to date – if not the fastest PCIe 5.0 x4 today
1, 2, 4TB and 8TB soon
Great Software Magician app
Good warranty
Backwards compatible with PCIe 4 x4, so could be an upgrade investment.
Con
Prices are at the premium end, but shop around
No need to rush to upgrade the PC
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