Samsung 860 qvo review in Spanish (complete analysis)

Since its beginnings in the SSD era, Samsung has been one of the most outstanding manufacturers, both for innovation and quality. In mid-2019 he presented his new Samsung 860 QVO models. These 2.5-inch SATA SSDs become a slightly cheaper variant of the 860 EVO, but always staying high-end with their QLC-type V-NAND memories.

All this and more is what we will analyze today for all of you, because if we want a SATA SSD taking full advantage of the bus and with quality components, Koreans are always a reference.

Samsung 860 QVO technical characteristics

Unboxing

The Samsung 860 QVO has arrived in a small flexible cardboard box little larger than the product itself. In it we see a quite complete screenprint on black and yellow even with photographs of the SSD and information related to it.

We open this box at one of the narrowest ends and remove what has been a molded and flexible plastic package to safeguard the unit. Along with this, we only have the installation and warranty guide, so without further ado, we will quickly see the external appearance.

Encapsulation design

This Samsung 860 QVO is a new variant of the already well known Samsung 860 EVO with SATA interface. In this case we have QLC type memories and therefore they are somewhat cheaper units. In any case we could consider them mid / high range, with that extra durability and speed of memories of this type. This drive is available in sizes 1, 2, and up to 4TB in 2.5-inch format and under SATA interface, making them large capacity SSDs.

Regarding the encapsulation, it is not different from other units in terms of measurements, being the standardized ones with 100 mm long, 70 mm wide and only 7 mm thick. The most interesting thing is the fact of having it made of metal, specifically aluminum. In this way, the resistance to falls and shocks can be improved, which the manufacturer figures at 1, 500 G and 0.5 ms, that is, a quite forceful blow. Likewise we have a quite premium gray paint finish and completely smooth touch.

The connection interface is obviously SATA for both power and data transport, being compatible with SATA 6 Gb / s, SATA 3 Gb / s and SATA 1.5 Gb / s. The mounting system for this Samsung 860 QVO allows us to fix it both in the lower area or in bays on its two sides. And the 4-bolt mounting kit is not included.

Next we have opened this Samsung 860 QVO, which means losing the warranty by breaking the sticker that covers two of the three torx-type screws that hold the two parts of the package. And in this way we see that the small PCB with the electronic chips does not have any type of thermal pad in the controller, and it is something that we would have liked to take advantage of the transport capacity of this metallic package.

Features and characteristics

We now continue with the characteristics and benefits of this Samsung 860 QVO, which will be no less important than an NVMe unit, since Koreans always introduce quality components.

And starting with the storage memories, they are made by Samsung, being of the V-NAND QLC type, so it will offer us superior storage performance, which is already a first advantage. Also inside we have a single 1 TB chip, so if we bought a 4 TB SSD we would have 4 of these chips. This type of memory has cells with 4-bit capacity and 96 layers, and also with a long useful life. Although in this case the guarantee will be limited to about 360 TBW (Terabytes written). For 2TB drives the lifespan is 720TBW and for 4TB it will be 1, 440TBW. This does not mean that they will break after this volume of writes, but that we would lose the guarantee.

The controller that is responsible for managing the input and output of data is the Samsung MJX Controller that provides maximum sequential write rates of 550 MB / s and 520 MB / s in sequential write. In random work we have In / Out operations (IOPS) figures of 96, 000 in reading and 89, 000 in writing. In this way we have very similar values to those of the 860 EVO, only decreasing the IOPS. Then we will see in our bank if these results differ from what is indicated here.

Along with this controller we have a DDR4 type Low Power cache chip that in the 1 TB Samsung 860 QVO will be 1 GB, while in the 2 TB SSD it will be 2 GB and 4 GB for the 4 TB one, easy and simple. In any case it is an excellent cache that will undoubtedly eliminate part of the bottleneck in communication with RAM.

As other features to mention, we have 256-bit AES, TCG / Opal and IEEE1667 encryption as expected. Along with this, support for SMART, WWN, TRIM and the automatic Garbage Collection algorithm. The average time between failures (MTBF) amounts to 1.5 million hours, while the average consumption will be only 2.2W and a maximum of 4W.

Use software

The software in charge of managing this Samsung 860 QVO is none other than the Magician Software, one of the most complete and best made by the manufacturers of storage units.

In the main interface we will have the information related to the units installed on our PC, at least those that have been detected, because in our case the ADATA SSD that we have for the system does not appear anywhere (obvious). But if we want to focus on this unit we have to go to Drive Details, giving us the status of the unit, the GB written, its temperature and working mode, as well as the firmware version that has been installed among other things.

In the rest of the sections we have other functions such as secure deletion, the activation of options such as SMART or TRIM, the possibility of making a diagnosis of the SSD and other somewhat less useful procedures. We definitely recommend it for better control of the unit.

Test equipment and benchmarks

We now turn to the battery of tests corresponding to this Samsung 860 QVO. To do this, we have used the following test bench:

TESTING BENCH
Processor:	Intel i9-9900K
Base plate:	Asus Maximus Formula XI
Memory:	16GB DDR4 T-Force
Heatsink	Corsair H100i Platinum SE
HDD	Samsung 860 QVO 1TB
Graphic card	Gigabyte RTX 2080 Super
Power supply	Cooler Master V850 Gold

The tests to which we have submitted this SSD are as follows:

Crystal Disk MarkAS SSD BenchmarkATTO Disk BenchmarkAnvil´s Storage

All of these programs are in current versions. Remember not to abuse these tests in your units, since the life time is reduced.

In the first program, CristalDisk, we see that it not only matches the promised benefits, but slightly exceeds them in sequential reading and writing with blocks of different sizes as we see in the first two tests, with similar results. For the other cases the manufacturer does not provide details of MB / s, but we see excellent results, being better than in other tested drivers.

The good feelings also extend in AS SSD, where we see slightly lower but very close results. Furthermore, the latencies in writing and reading are very small and always less than 0.05 ms. Also, the IOPS results shown are very close to the specs, with 91000 for sequential reading and almost 87000 for writing. Also in 4K random blocks we have a little more than 8500 IOPS in reading (7200 specs) and 24000 for writing (42000 specs).

We continue with ATTO Disk, whose best transfer results are shown from blocks of 32 KB being identical up to 64 MB, always exceeding 500 MB / s in writing and 530 MB / S in reading. Likewise, the IOPS in blocks of 4K e have remained at 72500 for writing and almost 78800 for reading.

Finally Anvil´s shows similar results to this one, both in MB / S and in IOPS. Here we do have a greater number of latencies, being slightly higher than AS SSD but almost always below 0.05 except for blocks of significant sizes.

Final words and conclusion about Samsung 860 QVO

Samsung is one of the best manufacturers and developers of storage units. A slightly lower SSD in benefits to its 860 EVO siblings but only in IOPS, and also available in 3 storages of 1, 2 and 4 TB no less.

Its encapsulation has not liked enough both in aesthetics and in the use of materials, since it is entirely made of aluminum and finished in satin gray. This gives us extra resistance against falls and handling. Temperatures shouldn't be a problem, but we miss thermal pads on the important chips inside. We would also have liked a longer warranty time and more TBW as there are QLC SSDs with higher numbers.

As for performance, it has left us excellent results, in most programs meeting the specifications, exceeding in some cases, such as CristalDisk, those 550 MB / s in reading and 520 MB / s in writing. Likewise, the Samsung MJX controller has behaved spectacularly for both sequential and random operations.

We recommend our guide to the best SSDs of the moment.

In addition to the pure performance on this SATA 6 Gbps interface, we have 96-layer QLC memories that will ensure good durability and performance, certainly inferior in durability to the TLC that other SSDs mount. The software has seemed quite interesting to us, so we recommend it.

Finally, the price of this Samsung 860 QVO in the official store is 149.99 euros for 1TB, 289.99 euros for 2TB and 609.99 euros for the 4TB. In stores like PC Componentes we find it for 128.59 euros for the 1 TB, a much more attractive value. Certainly not cheap if we consider that there is a 1 TB NVMe SSD from 180-190 euros, many of them being TLC. But it is still a great SSD for both data and operating system.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ GOOD QUALITY / PRICE	- CHIPS DO NOT BRING THERMAL PADS
+ GOOD CAPSULE	- SOMETHING LIMITED WARRANTY
+ GREAT PERFORMANCE ON THE INTERFACE	- QLC MEMORIES, INSTEAD OF TLC OR MLC
+ 1, 2 AND 4 GB CACHE FOR 1, 2 AND 4 TB VERSIONS