Samsung SSD XP941 Review: The PCIe Era Is Here
by Kristian Vättö on May 15, 2014 12:00 PM ESTFinal Words
I don't think there is any other way to say this other than to state that the XP941 is without a doubt the fastest consumer SSD in the market. It set records in almost all of our benchmarks and beat SATA 6Gbps drives by a substantial margin. It's not only faster than the SATA 6Gbps drives but it surpasses all other PCIe drives we have tested in the past, including OCZ's Z-Drive R4 with eight controllers in RAID 0. Given that we are dealing with a single PCIe 2.0 x4 controller, that is just awesome.
The only major problem in the XP941 is that it doesn't support booting in most Windows systems. If you are a Mac Pro owner, this issue doesn't concern you but for everyone else it's definitely a major drawback. Using an SSD as a secondary drive can make sense for e.g. a video professional where the performance can be utilized as a scratch disk, but otherwise the only real use case for an SSD is as a boot drive. There is hope that 9-series motherboards will bring better support for native PCIe booting but that remains to be seen.
The lack of proper TRIM support is also a minor concern but I'm willing to overlook that because the performance is just so great. I would also like to see hardware encryption support (TCG Opal 2.0 & IEEE-1667) and power loss protection but I understand that for an OEM product, these aren't necessary. Hopefully there will be retail versions of XP941 that address these items.
| 120/128GB | 240/256GB | 480/512GB | |
| Samsung SSD XP941 | ~$229 | ~$310 | ~$569 |
| Plextor M6e | $180 | $300 | - |
| OCZ RevoDrive 350 | - | $530 | $830 |
Note that the XP941 prices in the table above do not include the adapter or shipping. The adapter comes in at around $25 and RamCity charges $29 for shipping overseas, so you are looking at about $55 in addition to the drive itself. However, you don't have to pay the 10% Goods and Services Tax (GST) when purchasing from overseas and I've already subtracted the GST from the listed prices in the table above. To summarize, the total cost with the adapter and shipping included ends up being about $283 for 128GB, $364 for 256GB and $623 for 512GB. In the end the exact pricing depends on the AUD to USD ratio and banks may also charge a bit if paying with foreign currencies.
In terms of pricing, the XP941 is a steal compared to the competition. The M6e is cheaper but it's also only PCIe 2.0 x2 design and can't offer the same level of performance as the XP941 can. Of course, ultimately two or three SATA 6Gbps SSDs in RAID 0 would be the cheapest route but with RAID 0 you run into other issues (such as increased risk of disk failure). For the average user, I'd still recommend a drive like Samsung SSD 840 EVO or Crucial M500/M550 but I can certainly see the enthusiast and professional crowd paying the premium for the XP941.
All in all, I can't wait for Samsung to release a retail version of the XP941. Right now the only problems are the limited availability and lack of boot support but once these are sorted out, the XP941 will be the king of the market. I'm guessing that we'll probably see something from Samsung at this year's Global SSD Summit, or at least I deeply hope so. We'd also like to see more competition from other SSD manufacturers, but until SandForce's SF3700 is ready to hit the market in the second half of 2014, there isn't a drive that can challenge the XP941.
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nathanddrews - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
They weren't trying to squelch his speech or impugn his rights, rather give him advice as to where he could take those opinions so they would be better appreciated. "Free speech" isn't some magical phrase that suddenly allows you to say whatever you want whenever and wherever you want. Valuing free speech doesn't mean you have to value dumb comments on websites, even this comment that I just made! :-PBabar Javied - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
This site needs a "thumbs up" or "like" button because I'd like to "like" your comment good sir.Sabresiberian - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
Hmm yeah it's a matter of etiquette, not "free speech". Those topics tend to derail discussions, turn them into heated arguments which add nothing to a discussion unless they are pertinent. It is bad internet manners to bring them up in any form when the topic has nothing to do with them.As far as not reading the post - well. that would make sense in an ongoing discussion, where it could easily be seen that the comments were not going to be interesting to the reader before he had read them. This kind of post though - it is impossible to know the poster will go too far for you until he has. :)
yaedon - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
@critical: I would love to go on a long and well-thought-out diatribe on common misconceptions of the First Amendment in response to your comment, but the comment section of a tech blog is simply not the appropriate place for that and would continue to distract me, you, and everyone who reads the comment from our common interest in computer tech. I fail to understand how entreating someone to observe good manners so that all people can enjoy this fine tech blog is inflammatory.Travisryno - Thursday, October 18, 2018 - link
..has nothing to do with free speech-private citizens/private forum.This is about respect-specifically not bringing heated/emotional topics into a professional and/or h.obbyist's forum.
Hell I could say you are imposing on their right to tell people to leave that stuff at the door.. but i'd just be abusing it too
vFunct - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
lol he totally didn't know that businesses have fixed costs and not just variable costs.vgray35@hotmail.com - Friday, May 16, 2014 - link
Well I do not concur. Both the PCIe and SATA interfaces are not new by any means. And as for the SSD technology, well that too is not new. The development costs are much lower that one would think. Pretty much a new PCB with layout testing. That's it. It's just old tech on a new PCB, since SSD on PCIe has also been around quite a while now too.Opportunistic behavior dictates price first and foremost, and I do not believe the device is peppered with Samsung blessed gold which could justify such an expensive PCB.
nafhan - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
In general:Price = cost where they will sell the number of units that maximizes profits.
If they priced it lower, they'd be doing that out of greed, too.
MrSpadge - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
"If they priced it lower, they'd be doing that out of greed, too."Brilliant!
RobElk - Thursday, May 15, 2014 - link
This uses multiple controllers to reach that speed, so it is means more parts, not less.