M.2 PCIe SSDs may be all the rage today due to their incredibly fast read/write speeds - usually in excess of one gigabyte per second - and enthusiasts love to use them as a way to speed up game installation and loading, as well as transfer large files in a snap - however not everyone affords such a beast, not to mention that most people can be served very well by a traditional SATA III SSD.
That's where drives like the Samsung 750 series SSD comes in. After a limited initial release earlier this year, the company has decided to make the effort to bring it worldwide. Not only that, but there's now a new member in the family with a capacity of 500 GB, whereas previous options were limited to 120 GB and 250 GB.
The 750 series SSDs are not the fastest you can buy, but they still offer a substantial increase in performance for most consumers and PC builders, especially as a system drive where the OS and all the apps reside. Advertised speeds are over 500 MB/s for sequential reads and writes, and while random speeds may not impress enthusiasts, they're the best among SSDs that use TLC NAND.
The speeds are possible due to a firmware trick that simulates faster SLC NAND using a portion of the drive as a write buffer, which Samsung calls TurboWrite. The drives also support encryption, and the Samsung Magician software allows the use of a portion of your RAM for even faster perceived speeds.
Endurance is also a place where Samsung SSD drives excel, and the 750 EVO is rated for a total of 35 TBW (terabytes written) on the 120 GB model, and 100 TBW on the new 500 GB model - this is much more than most consumers will ever use during the lifetime of their PCs.
The 750 EVO comes with a three-year limited warranty, and the 500 GB model will become available worldwide starting early next month, with a MSRP of $150. The 120 GB version is currently $55 on Amazon, and the 250 GB model can be had for $84.
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