Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB

The Samsung 990 EVO Plus is a PCIe 4.0 x4/5.0 x2 NVMe M.2 SSD, is essentially the latest form of digital storage that can be used within a computer or portable SSD. When it comes to photography and video, the speed of transfer that these drives enable makes them a great choice for applications such as Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere, and DaVinci Resolve.

These faster transfer rates enable the applications to access the data quickly, at speeds far in excess of older technologies such as HDDs, which are decidedly sluggish in comparisso. This means that editing high-resolution images and video becomes a smooth process, with less waiting around for files to load and render, so you can focus on the work.

In many situations, you’ll also find that the speed of your computer also improves, as a common bottleneck occurs with data processing caused by slow drives. While the 990 EVO Plus can push speeds in excess of 7,250MB/s, you’ll need a specialist motherboard that features the latest PCIe 4.0 M.2 slot. For most of us, however, a simple USB4 enclosure will give access to this ultra-fast storage through a USB4 port, often providing speeds that exceed those of our computer’s SSD.

Like any piece of computer hardware, the 990 EVO Plus conforms to certain specifications that enable it to fit into a variety of machines and enclosures. The technical aspect is that it meets the standard PCIe 4.0 x4 and PCIe 5.0 specifications and is of the M.2 SSD type, size 2280, which essentially details the form factor, as there are several other lengths of M.2 drives with the same connector.

Aside from the standard specifications, the drive features Samsung branding and labels but comes without a heat sink. Therefore, it’s important that if you’re installing it within a machine, a heat sink is installed, and if you’re using an enclosure, ensure it features a built-in heat sink or a decent fan system. The UGREEN USB4 enclosure is one of the best I’ve come across, and at its price, it offers excellent value, even if it does get a little noisy.

As this is essentially a hard drive designed for storing data, the actual features are pretty limited, but here we go. First up is the form factor: this is an M.2 2280, which means that if you have a slot in your machine or portable enclosure of this size, it will fit. In all likelihood, you will, as this is the most common size. However, if you’re running a Mini PC, you may find that the form factor for the secondary storage drive, while still an M.2, is slightly smaller.

Next up is the technology. The latest NAND is used, which enables sequential read speeds of up to 7,250MB/s and write speeds of 6,300MB/s—both perfect for video and image editing and production.

One of the issues with these ultra-fast solid-state drives is the amount of heat they produce when under load. Ordinarily, some type of heat sink or fan is added to aid with the cooling process. Here, to further assist with cooling, a nickel-coated controller helps to increase the MB/s per watt by 73%, enabling the same power as conventional drives but using less power and therefore generating less heat.

When it comes to storage capacity, the drive is available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB versions, all of which feature rapid intelligent TurboWrite 2.0 with an enlarged TurboWrite region. This is designed to enable graphic or processing-intensive applications to access data faster.

One of the SSD’s features that is rarely looked at is the software support. Here, Samsung has designed the Samsung Magician software with a range of optimisation tools that help ensure SSD performance.

As the drive conforms to the usual specifications on form factor, fitting it into an Intel NUC Ghost Canyon or UGREEN SSD enclosure is simple, with either device’s drive bay being easily accessed and the drive bolted into place.

Starting out with the UGREEN portable SSD USB4 enclosure, the results are instantly impressive, with transfer rates, when tested on macOS, resulting in the following:

Blackmagic Disk Speed Test
Read: 3043.4MB/s
Write: 3209.6MB/s

AJA System Test Lite
Read: 3156MB/s
Write: 3120MB/s

AmorphousDiskMark
Read: 3425.29MB/s
Write: 2450.68MB/s

The next test was to cross the SSD over to a PC system and again test the speed.

Crystal Disk Mark:
Read: 6553.85MB/s
Write: 5771.93MB/s

AJA System Test Lite:
Read: 5217MB/s
Write: 5066MB/s

AS SSD:
Read: 5391.04MB/s
Write: 4211.59MB/s

ATTO
Read: 6130MB/s
Write: 5270MB/s

After extensive testing of the Samsung 990 EVO Plus, several points stood out. Firstly, the drive is incredibly fast, whether placed into an external enclosure or within the confines of a machine. The transfer rates will suit any photographer or videographer, be that in a computer or used in an external enclosure.

However, as with all SSDs, heat can be an issue, and the drive will throttle—essentially slow down—if there isn’t enough cooling. Within the UGREEN enclosure, the small fans did their best to keep things cool, but after an hour of sustained reads and writes, the write speed did dip by about 1,000MB/s, though the read speed remained consistent.

Another point to note is that when the drive was used within a PC, the heat of the SSD increased. As always, it’s important that sufficient cooling is in place to balance performance with heat. In both the Intel NUC 9 and the Mini PC, there was enough room to easily add a heat sink if needed, and through this test, the SSD was run to the point where performance started to dip due to thermal throttling.

Overall, the drive delivered superb performance, with speeds that demonstrate the Samsung 990 EVO Plus is an excellent choice for both portable and internal storage solutions. However, it’s worth noting that to achieve the best performance, some type of cooling—either from fans or a heat sink—is definitely advised.