Samsung M.2 SM951 NVMe PCIe

Overview

TechSpot Metascore

Based on 6 expert reviews

Excellent:

4
Good:

2
Average:

0
Bad:

0

Pros:

Speed Freaks: Fast; compact; great for laptops
NVMe interface allows for incredible performance, Small form factor, Low power consumption
Much faster than the SATA based drives, Tiny form factor, Multiple interfaces to support different platforms (NVMe and AHCI)

Cons:

Speed Limits: High price per GB; limited capacities; BIOS support for booting; OEMonly
Top capacity is only 512GB

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Last revision on January 6, 2017

Reviewers Liked

Speed Freaks: Fast; compact; great for laptops
NVMe interface allows for incredible performance, Small form factor, Low power consumption
Much faster than the SATA based drives, Tiny form factor, Multiple interfaces to support different platforms (NVMe and AHCI)
Samsung's SM951 is a better value than performance SATA SSDs when you

Reviewers Didn't Like

Speed Limits: High price per GB; limited capacities; BIOS support for booting; OEMonly
Top capacity is only 512GB
No 1TB model yet, Costs a little more than 2.5" SATA drives
Availability is limited, but if you want one you can buy it. Drive ships with a threeyear warranty vs. Intel's fiveyear coverage. Lack of NVMe might be a bummer but a new model is coming soon

Expert reviews and ratings

It's been quite some time since our last SSD roundup and we hadn't seen much need for one until recently. SSD technology grew stale after saturating the SATA 6Gb/s bus, bringing mostly minor improvements in recent memory and making up for it with price...

By TechSpot on May 12, 2015

Had Samsung's SM951 arrived before we reviewed the Intel SSD 750 Series 1.2TB I think our conclusion might have been a little less favorable for the Intel drive. The SSD 750 may tout NVMe support, but Samsung's SM951 is generally faster while being more...

By TechSpot on April 20, 2015

The updated SM951 is a fast M.2 NVMe drive built for laptops, but make sure you meet the system requirements before you...

By PC Gamer on August 17, 2016

Never being satisfied with the latest and greatest solid state drives, a wonder component a few years ago, Hardwareslave have been looking for something a little bit special. Step in PCIe SSD drives and for most the price isn't going to be achievable,...

By hardwareslave.com on February 01, 2016

The NVMe variant of the SM951 delivers faster speeds than its AHCI brother. This increase in performance comes at a cost, which is compatibility. If your system is compatible, however, you will not be disappointed. While it is expected to be available...

By thessdreview.com on May 20, 2015

The Samsung SM951-NVMe is available today from RamCity and currently costs less than the 950 Pro. We hope to see more separation in pricing, which would make the SM951-NVMe a better value. Right now, the prices are too similar to make us choose the...

By Tom's Hardware UK on February 11, 2016

Incredibly fast and surprisingly affordable for the speed, but the cutting edge tech means dicey compatibility and drivers that haven't fully...

By PC Gamer on July 28, 2015

Since the Samsung SM951 NVMe SSD is the first NVMe SSD I've ever had the opportunity to test, I wasn't really sure what kind of performance I'd be seeing. Having tested the Samsung SM951 AHCI, I assumed that there'd be some sort of performance...

By custompcreview.com on July 02, 2015

It's obvious that the SM951-NVMe has been designed for mainstream client workloads. In our Heavy and Light traces it sets new records, but in the most IO intensive The Destroyer trace the SM951-NVMe is outperformed by the SSD 750. While Intel...

By AnandTech on July 01, 2015

Getting the most out of Samsung's SM951 SSD is a little complicated. First, you'll need a motherboard with enough PCIe Gen3 lanes running to its M.2 slot—or a full-sized adapter and equivalent expansion slot. You'll also need to think about cooling....

By The Tech Report on June 17, 2015

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