Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB M.2 Internal SSD

Upgrading from a smaller Samsung SSD to the 2TB was super simple. Basically physically installed the new SSD in the open M.2 slot, downloaded the free Samsung Data Migration tool and used that to clone the Primary drive to the blank new SSD. Selected the clone to fill all the free space on the new SSD and the volume was expanded automatically. As the new SSD was in the #1 slot on my motherboard, on reboot Windows came up running on the new 2TB SSD. Windows Drive Manager had taken the older SSD offline due to a conflict in Drive IDs. Simple right click and made older SSD online and now there are two SSDs in the system. Samsung Magician...view more Upgrading from a smaller Samsung SSD to the 2TB was super simple. Basically physically installed the new SSD in the open M.2 slot, downloaded the free Samsung Data Migration tool and used that to clone the Primary drive to the blank new SSD. Selected the clone to fill all the free space on the new SSD and the volume was expanded automatically. As the new SSD was in the #1 slot on my motherboard, on reboot Windows came up running on the new 2TB SSD. Windows Drive Manager had taken the older SSD offline due to a conflict in Drive IDs. Simple right click and made older SSD online and now there are two SSDs in the system. Samsung Magician software verified the new SSD is performing to the high speeds expected of these fast SSDs.

Highly recommend Samsung SSDs as they work reliably, are high performance and 5 year warranty and are supported with the software tools to make them easy to install.

I already have a PC with a Samsung 950 Pro SSD, so I knew what to expect when I chose the 970 EVO Plus from Samsung's current offerings. It was replacing an existing NVMe SSD (Kingston HyperX Predator 240 GByte) as that drive was now too small to allow me to do the necessary upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10. The 970 EVO Pro is faster than the Kingston, but not hugely so, probably because the PC is an older one that only has PCI Express v2.0 instead of v3.0 which would run the SSD at full speed. Unlike the Kingston SSD, the Samsung does not interfere with how my older BIOS boots - I can boot from any drive on the motherboard or...view more I already have a PC with a Samsung 950 Pro SSD, so I knew what to expect when I chose the 970 EVO Plus from Samsung's current offerings. It was replacing an existing NVMe SSD (Kingston HyperX Predator 240 GByte) as that drive was now too small to allow me to do the necessary upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10. The 970 EVO Pro is faster than the Kingston, but not hugely so, probably because the PC is an older one that only has PCI Express v2.0 instead of v3.0 which would run the SSD at full speed. Unlike the Kingston SSD, the Samsung does not interfere with how my older BIOS boots - I can boot from any drive on the motherboard or connected to my PCIe SATA card. The Kingston messed up the BIOS so that boot from other drives (including my Blu-Ray writer) was only possible if they were on the PCIe card. I do have one gripe about the Samsung software - unless a Samsung SSD is installed in the PC, it is impossible to get the Samsung SSD drivers to install. That meant I could not do my intended upgrade in place by backing up Windows 7 from the old SSD, swapping the SSDs and then restoring to the new SSD. Windows 7 on the new SSD would not boot without the Samsung drivers already installed. So I had to get a second PCIe M.2 card so that I could mount both SSDs in the PC at the same time, boot from the old SSD, and install the Samsung SSD drivers on Windows 7 before I copied it to the new SSD and removed the old one. After that, and doing the usual Windows boot repairs, Windows 7 booted on the new SSD and I was able to upgrade to Windows 10 in place. I have now been running Windows 10 on the new SSD for a week and the SSD is, as expected, very fast and causes no problems.

Extremely fast! Bought this drive to put into an external enclosure. The first enclosure that I bought was for devices that use the B-Key interface and this drive uses the M-Key interface, so it didn't work. Be aware of this difference if you are wanting to put this into an external enclosure. Extremely fast! Bought this drive to put into an external enclosure. The first enclosure that I bought was for devices that use the B-Key interface and this drive uses the M-Key interface, so it didn't work. Be aware of this difference if you are wanting to put this into an external enclosure.

Bought this as a boot drive for my new 9900K build.
Was a bit concerned at first about the speed as my last NVMe boot drive was a Samsung Pro 960 and I wanted to have similar performance.
I shouldn't have worried. This little guy is lightning fast and it seems by the time my finger has lifted off the power button my PC is already at the login screen.
Would recommend this to anyone looking for a relatively cheap NVMe boot drive for their next build.
With the 500gb model you also have enough room for your main software to take advantage of the extra speed. Bought this as a boot drive for my new 9900K build.
Was a bit concerned at first about the speed as my last NVMe boot drive was a Samsung Pro 960 and I wanted to have similar performance.
I shouldn't have worried. This little guy is lightning fast and it seems by the time my finger has lifted off the power button my PC is already at the login screen.
Would recommend this to anyone looking for a relatively cheap NVMe boot drive for their next build.
With the 500gb model you also have enough room for your main software to take advantage of the extra speed.

Met the specs on the box when benchmarked. I just wish it came with a heatsink. Met the specs on the box when benchmarked. I just wish it came with a heatsink.

This is the first M.2 drive I have purchased, this had made a huge performance increase in my PC. Even after a month, I am still extremely happy and have no regrets with this. Highly recommend this to anyone looking for an M.2 drive This is the first M.2 drive I have purchased, this had made a huge performance increase in my PC. Even after a month, I am still extremely happy and have no regrets with this. Highly recommend this to anyone looking for an M.2 drive

By: GregO49 18/02/21

Verified Owner

System: Ryzen 2700X, B450 MoBo, 32GB 3200mhz. GTX770 and GTX 760 (Yeah yeah old GPU's)

Got the drive and migrated from an old 840 PRO Samsung Sata SSD. Bench before 553 Read, 457 write. Bench after 3504 Read, 3170 Write.

Pros: NVMe over SATA is just win, SATA has reached its peak, NVMe is the next step.

Cons: Under B450 chipset, I loose 2 ASATA ports, but make up for it with the 1TB of space. System: Ryzen 2700X, B450 MoBo, 32GB 3200mhz. GTX770 and GTX 760 (Yeah yeah old GPU's)

Got the drive and migrated from an old 840 PRO Samsung Sata SSD. Bench before 553 Read, 457 write. Bench after 3504 Read, 3170 Write.

Pros: NVMe over SATA is just win, SATA has reached its peak, NVMe is the next step.

Cons: Under B450 chipset, I loose 2 ASATA ports, but make up for it with the 1TB of space.

Easy to install and included software made cloning of C drive very easy. Easy to install and included software made cloning of C drive very easy.

This is so fast it makes your eyes water. It's changed my life! Seriously.
From opening documents to the resource heavy Battlefield 1 the Samsung 970 EVO Plus opens before I have my headset on. This is so fast it makes your eyes water. It's changed my life! Seriously.
From opening documents to the resource heavy Battlefield 1 the Samsung 970 EVO Plus opens before I have my headset on.

Its only being 2 or so weeks but I am delighted at the performance and easy install also at PB Tech great service Its only being 2 or so weeks but I am delighted at the performance and easy install also at PB Tech great service

The best drive for your laptop The best drive for your laptop

I purchased an older version around 18 months ago and had it due on me just recently. As I needed a replacement and couldn’t wait for warranty to replace it I had to buy this. At first I was dreading it as my last one cost twice the price. But the increase speeds better firmware and cheaper price shows is great.

Back up and running in no time at all. I purchased an older version around 18 months ago and had it due on me just recently. As I needed a replacement and couldn’t wait for warranty to replace it I had to buy this. At first I was dreading it as my last one cost twice the price. But the increase speeds better firmware and cheaper price shows is great.

Back up and running in no time at all.