Samsung announces 960 PRO, 960 EVO, SM961, and PM961 NVMe M.2 SSDs in up to 1TB capacity

If you've followed TinkerTry for a while, you'll know that I'm kind of a speed freak. I strive to squeeze every last bit of performance out of my careful investments. I tinker with settings to get the best speeds because I enjoy being productive and creating content without having to wait for my system to catch up. I save my pennies for years, shop very carefully, then I pounce.

It really appears the long wait for a Samsung 950 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD is finally nearly over. Turns out it won't be arriving in the promised early 2016 time frame. It won't be arriving at all.

Yesterday, news of the OEM Samsung SM961 arrived:

• Samsung SM961 Price And Availability Outlook
  Jun 21 2016 by Billy Tallis at AnandTech

For me, I'd rather have a full warranty, and the ability to run Samsung Magician, combined with the new Polaris controller, thank you. So I waited...

Didn't take long. Late yesterday and today, news of the Samsung 960 PRO and Samsung 960 EVO arrived.

Read these 2 articles

They're must reads, if:

1. you care about getting a >5X speed boost over your 2.5" SATA3 SSDs,
   at something less than twice the cost-per-gigabyte
2. you realize how easy boot-from-NVMe can be
3. you realize how easy using NVMe for VMware or Hyper-V VMs can be

Enjoy!

• Brace Yourselves, Samsung SM961, PM961, 960 PRO and 960 EVO SSDs Are Coming!
  Jun 21 2016 by Allyn Malventano at PC Perspective:

  The SM961 has already been spotted for pre-order over at Ram City. Note that they currently list the 1TB, 512GB, and 256GB models, but at the time of this writing, all three product titles (incorrectly) state 1TB. That said, pricing appears to be well below the current 950 PRO retail for equivalent capacities.

• Samsung Ready to Reassert SSD Leadership With Soon-to-be-released SM961, PM961, 960 PRO and EVO SSDs
  June 22 2016 by Scot Strong at The SSD Review:

  Also reportedly in the upcoming product pipeline are 960 PRO and 960 EVO models. While many awaited a 1TB version of the 950 PRO series, it would appear that Samsung has chosen to instead utilize the new 48-layer V-NAND to make a 1TB version as the 960 PRO. A logical extension of this would be a 960 EVO, which would represent Samsung’s first retail M.2 PCIe 3.0 X 4 SSD utilizing TLC NAND. One would expect a price point similar to that of the 850 EVO, yet with a significant performance boost via the faster PCIe interface.

Watch the video

Allyn is actually about to talk about these Samsung SSD updates on the Live Stream tonight, June 22nd, around 11:15pm EDT.

Jun 22 2016 Update 11:14pm EDT

Allyn mentioned on air that the Samsung 960 PRO's Polaris controller might be more efficient, and theorized that the increased efficiency might be enough to avoid thermal throttling.

Jun 23 2016 Update

If you're looking for early mentions of the SM961/960 PRO, check this article out:

• Wicked-Fast Samsung SM961 And PM961 NVMe SSDs Utilize Next Gen Polaris Controller
  Mar 24 2016 by Brandon Hill at HotHardware

The PC Perspective podcast episode #405 is also available in audio form here:

• Podcast #405 - AMD RX 480 Hands-on, 32-core Zen rumors, VBIOS scandal and more!

As for when we can get a 960 PRO or EVO into our PCIe 3.0 x 4 systems, the more recent articles give a vague 2H2016 estimate. RamCity seems to already have some pre-orders on the SM961:

Jun 27 2016 Update

Oct 17 2016 Update

New article to check out:

• Anandtech - Samsung Announces 960 PRO And 960 EVO M.2 PCIe SSDs (Updated)
  featuring order details, and pricing, and hands-on reviews.

Oct 26 2016 Update

Again, pricing and ordering info updated in the newer article at:

• Anandtech - Samsung Announces 960 PRO And 960 EVO M.2 PCIe SSDs (Updated)

See also at TinkerTry

• How to boot Windows 10 from NVMe based PCIe storage, featuring Samsung 950 PRO M.2 SSD in a Supermicro SYS-5028D-TN4T
  Nov 05 2015

• Order a TinkerTry'd Supermicro SuperServer Bundle - powerful and efficient home virtualization lab solutions
  Oct 30 2015

• TinkerTry SuperServer home virtualization lab's storage tiers, platinum through bronze, guess how many efficient drives fit inside this tiny chassis?
  Sep 25 2015

• First look - Intel 750 Series NVMe PCIe SSD in a Supermicro SuperServer 5028D-TN4T
  Sep 25 2015

• First look - Samsung SM951 M.2 SSD in a Supermicro SuperServer 5028D-TN4T
  Sep 23 2015

• AOMEI Backupper Professional sector-by-sector cloning of a failing SSD
  Aug 12 2015

• My experience with the Samsung 850 EVO 2TB SSD, and how it fits into my hybrid home lab strategy
  Jul 28 2015

• NVMe uses PCI Express to finally unleash the true power of NAND flash memory
  Apr 22 2015

• Intel 750 Series SSDs combine PCIe with NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express), blowing SATA speeds away
  Apr 04 2015

• My 1TB mSATA Samsung 840 EVO SSD read speed slowdown, no regrets, there's a fix
  Oct 15 2015

• Superguide: Timeline of USB, SATA, and Thunderbolt speeds

  

See also

• Future of Samsung’s V-NAND Detailed – 4TB 850 Pro SSD, 850 EVO TLC and 950 Pro M.2 NVMe Incoming in 2016
  Sep 23 2015 by Jeff Williams at WCCF TECH

• Samsung Announces 950 Pro SSD, Their First Consumer V-NAND + NVMe SSD.
  Sep 22 2015 by Ryan Smith and Billy Tallis at AnandTech

• Samsung SSD 950 PRO
  Sep 22 2015 by Samsung

• Samsung Launches 950 PRO - 300,000 IOPS and 2.5 GB/sec from a M.2 V-NAND SSD!
  Sep 22 2015 by Allyn Malventano at PC Perspective

• Samsung Announces New Branding and Future SSD Capacity Expansion with their New 48-Layer V-NAND
  Sep 22 2015 by Allyn Malventano at PC Perspective