The Samsung 970 Evo is already one of the best SSDs you can get for a desktop PC. It is fast with a relatively aggressive price-per-gigabyte. But now, Samsung is improving on this product with the 970 Evo Plus.
This new SSD features a 96-layer 3D NAND compared to the 970 Evo’s 64 layers. What that means is that Samsung can cram more capacity into a smaller footprint while also improving performance. Like the previous generation, the 970 Evo Plus is an M.2 form factor that connects to your motherboards NVMe port for faster speeds.
“Since introducing the first NVMe SSDs to the consumer market in 2015, Samsung has continued to challenge technical barriers in SSD design and performance,” Samsung memory marketing boss Dr. Mike Mang said. “The new 970 Evo Plus powered by Samsung’s latest fifth-generation V-NAND technology will now offer unrivaled performance in its class when taking on demanding tasks like 4K content editing, 3D modeling, and simulation as well as heavy gaming.”
Storage prices are going to continue to fall
In 2018, storage pricing began to collapse. SSDs are more affordable than ever. And now, with advancements like this, that’s going to continue.
The 970 Evo Plus is debuting at $130 for a 500GB drive and $250 for the 1TB option. That keeps it right in line with the 970 Evo, which retails at the same prices for the same storage capacities. But what you end up getting for that money is something much closer to the premium Samsung 970 Pro drives that go for $170 for 500GB and $400 for 1TB.
So this is the latest SSD to help drive down the cost of storage. And considering that 96-layer NAND is more cost efficient to produce, Samsung should have room to drop the price even further.
This is great news for anyone upgrading or building a new gaming rig. The 970 Evo Plus is going blaze as a game drive on a modern desktop. It’s probably still a bit too power hungry to use as the replacement drive in a laptop, but I would keep an eye on it especially as the price comes down. It’s sitting at 25 cents per gigabyte right now at the 1TB configuration. If it can get closer to 20 cent like the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro, then it is probably the SSD to beat.
Source: VentureBeat
