Samsung 990 PRO 4TB SSD Review - Too Little, Too Late?

Samsung 990 Pro and 980 Pro SSD Failure Issue – Latest Update
The news of Samsung SSDs reporting declining health that was covered in our previous post HERE continues to roll on and in the two weeks since our initial article and video on this, several new updates have emerged on this, some good, some less good, an official response and increased clarity on some affected SSDs in the Samsung SSD Family.

Video Chapters
00:00 - The Start
00:31 - Better late than never?
02:27 - Unboxing the Samsung 990 Pro SSD
03:21 - Are the Samsung 990 Pro Firmware Issues Resolved?
04:37 - Questions about NAND Placement
08:15 - Better Option than Gen5 SSD Right Now?
11:43 - Temp Test of the Samsung 990 Pro SSD without Heatsink
13:44 - Temp Test of the Samsung 990 Pro SSD WITH Heatsink
15:16 - Samsung 990 Pro SSD Benchmark Setup
16:56 - Samsung 990 Pro SSD Benchmark Results
22:04 - Samsung 990 Pro 4TB Review Verdict and Conclusion

Here are the Recommended M.2 NVMe SSDs to Upgrade Your PS5:

Heatsinks:

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[peterpeter]

My boot drives have always been Samsung. Never had one fail. I feel gen 4 is the sweet spot now. The heat and the size of heats inks on gen 5 don't make them practical for the average person

[robertobokarev]

You may call PRO lineup bad, release of the 4TB version late, but you can't deny the quality and the amount of IOPS provided

[wolfwilkopter]

I'm running the 990Pro 2Tb Model as my OS and workdrive and its just awesome and blazing fast (X570 Aorus Pro & Ryzen 7 5800X3D) and it keeps in the green temps as well with the Acidalie BT01 black cooler. :)

[sterlonb.digital]

I went from a 1TB Samsung 980 Pro to a 4TB Silicon Power XS70 and I'm so happy i did because it's been running PHENOMENAL!

[Lorondos]

Waiting for 4TB SSDs to hit £100 mark personally for NAS use, nabbing 4 x 4TB for £400, is what is reasonable for me, speed I feel is there now.

[MrSunDevil]

Big fan of Samsung SSDs. Great video. Keep it up!!

[meowmixes]

I would LOVE to see how this performs inside a Playstation 5.

[revotuberacer]

Wow, thanks for taking the time…. I’m getting a 2TB SSD for my new PS5 and I’ve been debating between the WD_Black SN850 or the SN850X, the Seagate Firecuda 530 and the Samsung 990 Pro. Which one is the best for my PS5 or would you recommend another SSD instead of these three?

[netiturtle]

Would the high IOPS remain if the slot is run at Gen3 speed? Don't care for the ultra fast sequential speeds because of the associated heat

[zakurajr]

When putting the thermal pad for a heatsink do i remove the sticker ontop or leave it and put the pads over that?

[LoneTiger]

I want to upgrade my storage on my laptop to 2x4tb NVME's, but heat is what worries me since there is no space for heat sinks in there.

[wolfman]

I went for the fanxiang S880 4TB for my systems OS and Game drives when i upgraded last month @ £178.49 for the 4TB model which claims 2400 TBW and they have all exceeded the quoted read/write speeds of 7300mb/s - 6800mb/s. The old drives i stuck in PCI cards or external usb caddies. Use to be a crucial guy but last couple of years the "lower" tier producers have caught them and passed them in value and samsung have priced themselve out of the range i am willing to pay to be blunt especially with the way things are going.

[salarsadri]

Great video! Can't find it in 4TB variation on Amazon US site yet.

[chrisbullock]

The WDX850 4TB has been around for a couple months and has recently come down in price. And its a great all around performer.

[tombouie]

Thks Robbie (1 great video/day no-matter what);
Hmmmm brand-named SSDs/HDDs/etc are constantly getting cheaper/bigger & plus thunderbolt4/USB4/wifi7/etc are all on the way next year.
If Synology don't start supporting these improvements on hardware, the other brands that dos will just take-over their market share.
Oh, I likes your classic gold geek calculator watch much better than the neon pink/red wrist-watch (ex: neon is quite distracting oh boy).

[periloustactic]

I literally have 2 980 Pros and 2 990 pros that I purchased a year± ago. They're still brand new in their original packaging.
I been seeing many posts that state that these SSDs are not good over the long haul. They're breaking and destroying themselves long before the the anticipated life cycle. Do you know of this?

[Behold-A-Man]

I'm on the fence. I was getting Samsung only since my first SSD, 830. Then, I got 840, 850, 860 and then NVME 970 EVO Plus, 980 Pro. However, for some reason, the NVMEs disappointment me, broke extremely fast. For the fist time I jumped to WD, took a cheap one to try it out, the SN770 and thus far proved extremely good SSD, despite the fact it's dram-less. Now, for my main one, I will either go with to 990 Pro or WD850X. I'm a little afraid of the 990 since the problems with the firmware. Should I go with the 850X, having both WDs and be done with it?

[doneit]

Samsung 990 pr 4tb is available already? I thought it will be released on october

[Ravenx]

got 4 of these, topmost m2 slot i have is still unoccupied since it's Gen5 and I don't agree with Gen5 pricing (yet).

[shephusted]

prices will keep droping - they were late but at least they are here - two in a raid0 match up well with 100g/bonded 100g networking which you will only get in diy nas - totally worth it - you can use 40g and have an upgrade path if prices are an issue - 40g mellanox cards are very affordable - run dual nas not just one, use a dual port card - you want to go nvme, no question and samsung generally are bulletproof despite a few firmware issues that were addressed promptly, adding a heatsink was great advice