Samsung SM961 Price And Availability Outlook

The SM961 is Samsung’s latest high-end client PCIe SSD for OEMs, but as with its SM951 and XP941 predecessors there will be distributors selling the SM961 online to consumers. Unlike retail SSD products like the Samsung 950 Pro, OEM SSDs don’t get an official launch date or MSRP. Instead we bring you RamCity’s expectations for how the SM961 will be making a splash.

The 1TB SM961 has entered the supply chain and retailers like RamCity expect to begin shipments to consumers this week. RamCity is listing it for AUD$703.99 and Overclockers UK is listing it for £429.95. After accounting for taxes and exchange rates, RamCity’s estimate for US pricing is around $521. Overclockers UK has also listed their prices for the 512GB and 256GB models with the same expected ship date as the 1TB, but RamCity was unable to confirm when they will have those capacities. Neither retailer has anything to share with regards to the 128GB capacity.

The SM961 will arrive with prices on par with the best deals currently available for the SM951. This means it will undercut retail competition like the Samsung 950 Pro and Toshiba OCZ RD400 significantly: $15-20 for the 256GB drives and $30-40 for the 512GB drives. The 1TB SM961 will slice a third off the price of the 1TB RD400.

Much of that price difference is due to the differences between OEM and retail products, rather than savings on manufacturing costs. It’s unlikely that Samsung’s new higher-performing Polaris controller is cheaper than the UBX controller used in the 950 Pro and SM951. The 3D NAND used on the SM961 is either the same second generation 32-layer V-NAND used in the 850 Pro and 950 Pro, or the third generation 48-layer V-NAND that is behind schedule in its rollout to existing product lines. So while the SM961 is a big technological improvement over the SM951, it probably isn’t saving Samsung any money.

The 950 Pro comes with a 5 year warranty from Samsung and is supported by their custom NVMe drivers and SSD Magician utility, while the OEM drives don’t get the software support and the only warranty is what the retailer offers. RamCity lists a 3-year warranty for the SM961 while Overclockers UK lists a 2-year warranty. It’s hard to justify paying $40 more at the 512GB level for a better warranty on a slower drive.

It is a safe bet that the new Polaris controller in the SM961 will be released in a proper retail successor to the 950 Pro, but Samsung may be waiting until they can deliver it with newer 3D NAND, just as the 950 Pro’s 3D NAND was a step up from the 16nm planar MLC used on the SM951. Until then, the 950 Pro will be in a tough spot without a significant price cut, particularly with enthusiast buyers who know where to source the SM961. Meanwhile this also calls into question whether Samsung will be adhering to their initial plans for a 1TB 950 Pro. The release of the SM961 means that the Polaris controller will be available before the 950 Pro could adopt Samsung’s 48-layer V-NAND, so it remains to be seen whether Samsung will still want to go ahead and pair up next-generation V-NAND with an older controller.

Corsair Gives Phison PS3110 S10 Another Try: Neutron XTi SSDs Launched

A number of SSD suppliers have released drives based on the Phison PS3110 S10 controllers, with most of these coming in Q4 2014 or Q1 2015 and targeting performance mainstream customers. This year, some of the SSD vendors are not only reconsidering the positioning of such drives, but are actually introducing new models featuring a larger amount of NAND flash or even better performance but still using the same controller. Corsair last week introduced the Neutron XTi family of SSDs with the same Phison PS3110 S10 controller but with improved performance and capacities over the older XT SATA SSD line.

The Corsair Neutron XTi series of SSDs includes models with 240 GB, 480 GB, 960 GB and 1920 GB of NAND flash memory. Just like many other drives featuring the Phison PS3110 S10 controller, the Neutron XTi utilizes MLC NAND made by Toshiba and given the timing, it is highly likely that the SSDs feature MLC produced using the company’s 15 nm fabrication process. Just like the original Neutron XT, the new series also supports end-to-end data protection, static and dynamic wear-leveling and so on.

Performance-wise, the new Neutron XTi are as fast as the aging Neutron XT. The manufacturer declares transfer speeds of up to 560 MB/s for sequential read and up to 540 MB/s for sequential write. Random performance is up to 100K read IOPS and up to 90K write IOPS. When asked about differences between the Neutron XT and the Neutron XTI, Corsair revealed that the newer drives feature improved caches as well as different firmware, which should make them generally better than the predecessors. However, exact specifications for each capacity were unavailable at the time going to press. If we get new information, we’ll update the table below.

Between the Neutron XT and the Neutron XTi lines are the newer NAND and the addition of a 1920 GB model to the lineup. Last week we already discussed the reason why SSD makers collaborating with Phison are adding 2 TB or sub-2 TB models to their families: as the price of NAND has declined significantly over the past few quarters it is now economically feasible to offer drives with such capacities to users who require a lot of solid-state storage but still use PCs that only support the SATA interface.

The new Corsair XTi SSDs should be available shortly. The MSRPs for 240 GB, 480 GB and 960 GB models are $89.99, $159.99, $329.99, respectively. The price of the 1920 GB model is unknown. All Corsair Neutron XTi SSDs are backed by a five-year warranty.

Gallery: Corsair Gives Phison PS3110 S10 Another Try: Neutron XTi SSDs Launched

ADATA Introduces Premier SP580 SSD: TLC NAND, LDPC and Marvell Controller

Last week, ADATA announced its new inexpensive lineup of SATA SSDs: the new Premier SP580 drives use Marvell’s ‘Artemis’ controller aimed at value storage, as well as TLC NAND flash from SanDisk.

The new ADATA Premier SP580 family consists of two models, with 120 GB and 240 GB of TLC NAND produced using 15 nm process technology by SanDisk. The new drives are based on the Marvell 88NV1120 controller and do not use DRAM cache, which lowers their cost and puts them further into the cheap SSD category: DRAM-less controllers are expected to populate the low-cost segment over the next year. The manufacturer declares 560 MB/s / 410 MB/s maximum sequential speed for the 120 GB version of the SP580 SSD. ADATA notes that the 120 GB version is slower than the higher-capacity model, but does not elaborate as to the 240GB specification. Keeping in mind SATA performance limitations and how these drives work, read performance of both Premier SP580 SSDs should be similar, but expect the 240 GB model to offer slightly better write performance.

The Marvell 88NV1120 controller was specifically designed for entry-level SATA drives. It enables SSD makers to build DRAM-less solid-state storage devices and supports pseudo-SLC caching to speed up writing performance of TLC NAND-based drives, a near-must feature on low capacity hardware. One of the most important capabilities of the Artemis controllers is support for Marvell’s third-generation NANDEdge error correction control and management technology. This is based on low-density parity-check (LDPC) code and reduces data errors, improves data integrity and thus should increase the endurance of NAND from constant rewrites.

Formally, the Adata Premier SP580 is positioned above the Adata Premier SP550, which was introduced in August 2015, and should be one of the most affordable SSDs available. The SP550 is based on the Silicon Motion SM2246EN controller as well as TLC NAND from SK Hynix. Performance specifications declared by the manufacturer are similar for both drives, hence, it is impossible to even make guesses regarding their real-world performance because of different controllers and different memory.

What should be kept in mind is that the SP580 is DRAM-less and could be $1.5 – $2 cheaper (the average spot price of one 4Gb DDR3-1600 memory chip at press time was $1.454) to make than the SP550, assuming that other costs (NAND flash, controller, etc.) are the same. If ADATA managed to make a DRAM-less SSD faster than a drive with DRAM cache, this could be an important achievement. In particular, it could enable manufacturers to improve the performance of inexpensive SSDs while making them even more affordable.

The manufacturer plans to release the 120 GB model first and then follow up with higher-performance 240 GB configuration. The more affordable model carries a $49.99 price tag, whereas the 240 GB version will have MSRP of around $79.99. 

Gallery: ADATA Introduces Premier SP580 SSD: TLC NAND, LDPC and Marvell Controller