The Solid State Drive (SSD) took another step towards becoming the only storage medium you need, with Samsung launching a new budget SSD with a capacity of up to 4TB.
The Samsung 860 QVO SSD may be focused on consumers but looks to be a great affordable option for those looking to upgrade an entry-level workstation.
It’s based on the commonly used SATA interface and 2.5-inch form factor, which is supported in virtually all desktop and mobile workstations except the latest slimline mobile workstations. Samsung says it eliminates the need to use a combination of an SSD and an HDD for booting and storage.
The new SSD features sequential read and write speeds of up to 550 megabytes per second (MB/s) and 520 MB/s, respectively. This may be significantly slower than new generation NVMe drives but, for CAD- and BIM-centric workflows it should not make too much of a difference.
In terms of reliability, Samsung provides a three-year limited warranty or up to 1,440 terabytes written (TBW) for the 4TB version, and 720 TBW and 360 TBW for the 2TB and 1TB versions, respectively.
The TBW rating, a measure of how much data you can write cumulatively onto a drive over its lifetime, is lower than the Samsung SSD 860 PRO, which offers 4,800 TBW for 4 TB drive, but it promises to be significantly cheaper.
The 860 QVO will be available globally from December 2018, with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price starting at $149.99 / £136.99 for the 1TB model. Pricing for the 2TB and 4TB models will be released soon.
