Blazing fast. That’s the best way to describe Samsung’s latest Solid-State Drive. The Samsung 990 EVO Plus is just fast, and it’s the perfect way to reduce loading times on a PC. If you don’t use an SSD, stop what you are doing right now and get one. They are a huge difference maker whether on PC or console. The Samsung 990 EVO Plus is super easy to install, benchmarks well, and offers a fantastic upgrade to your PC or Playstation 5.
Installation
The evolution in PC installation over the past 30 years is severely lacking for the most part. I didn’t upgrade my PC for about 20 of those years, and to my surprise there really isn’t much change. One thing that did change? Installing a Hard Drive. It is almost like installing a memory stick, except it’s much easier. The Samsung 990 EVO Plus SSD is a breeze to install, and its Magician software makes it easy to benchmark as well.
I hope that the next 20 years changes things for PC installation. Way too many people are scared to try it even though it’s overall a bit simplistic. I do understand the fear of screwing something up though. Spending a lot of money adds some natural anxiety when doing things yourself. Recently, I was terrified to install bathroom tile near my tub simply because I’d never done it. Now, that I have, I’m less concerned. So if you are feeling some fear around installing a Samsung’s new 990 EVO plus, just know it’s an M.2 SSD. This means installation is as easy as putting it in place and screwing it down. Just make sure you aren’t loaded with static electricity when handling it.
Here’s a great video on how to install an older M.2 Samsung SSD just in case: How To Install an M.2 SSD: Installation Tutorial with Samsung 960 Pro M2 SSD Drive.
How fast?
Alright, so how fast are we talking here? If you know anything about SSDs, you know they are a massive speed upgrade to an old school HDD. PC users just need to keep in mind that this SSD supports The Samsung 990 EVO Plus SSD boasts some really good transfer speeds making it a great steady choice for PC or PS5 gamers. After installing, I decide it’s time to find out just how good this device can be. The 990 EVO Plus supports the latest PCIe 4.0 and 5.0. Depending on which your Motherboard supports can influence it’s read and write speeds. As you might guess, PCIe 5.0 slots offer greater speeds.
One of the most notable differences I see between the 990 Plus and my older Samsung drives is the read/write speeds. Check out these screenshots to see the difference in speed yourself:
First off, the sequential read speeds aren’t that different between the two drives, however the Samsung 990 EVO Plus crushes the 980’s Sequential Write speeds. The Random Read speed doubles on the 990 and the Random Write basically tripled in speed. Yes, this is an upgrade even for those of us still on PCIe 4.0 systems!
The potential for speed is much greater than what we tested above. Given the right components, the Samsung 990 EVO Plus achieves Sequential Read Speeds of up to 7,250 MB/s and Sequential Write Speeds of up to 6300 MB/s.
This means transferring files and gaming loading times can be dramatically improved with a simple SSD upgrade. PS5 owners should definitely take note of this one as the Samsung 990 EVO Plus is a phenomenal option to upgrade speeds and storage space on the system. I test loading times on God of War Ragnarok. Sure enough, compared to a different Samsung Drive (870 EVO) loading times are cut nearly in half. Granted, they were already pretty short to load in (4s or so). Now, the game loads in about 2.5 to 3 seconds.
I’ll take faster every time.
That’s a wrap
Whether copying data or loading up heavy games or software, an upgrade to the Samsung 990 EVO Plus SSD is a good idea. Speeds are great, and they get even better depending on your motherboard and size of SSD you choose to purchase. In our test of the 1TB option, we see a noticeable difference in read/write times. This Holiday, perhaps it is time to give Samsung a try. They make some stellar Solid-State Drives that will give you exactly what you want in your system. Reduced wait time.