Samsung 970 EVO
Reddit take
AI summary of the Reddit excerpts below — not a quote
The Samsung 970 EVO is widely regarded as a reliable and high-performing Gen3 NVMe SSD. While it is an older model, users frequently recommend it over newer budget Gen4 drives because its TLC NAND maintains significantly faster sustained write speeds once the cache is exhausted. It is commonly cited as a dependable choice for boot drives and general storage in PC builds.
Pros
- Excellent long-term reliability with few reported technical issues
- Superior sustained write speeds compared to budget QLC-based Gen4 drives
- Strong performance as a primary boot drive
- Consistent performance even as the drive fills up
Cons
- Older Gen3 technology lacks the peak sequential speeds of modern Gen4 or Gen5 drives
- Diminishing returns for gaming-only builds where cheaper drives perform similarly
Caveats
- Performance differences between this and slower, cheaper SSDs are often negligible in everyday gaming scenarios
- Users often compare it against modern budget drives like the Crucial P3 or Kingston NV2, noting it is technically superior despite being older
Best for
- Reliable OS boot drives
- Workloads requiring sustained write speeds
- Users who prefer proven TLC NAND over newer, cheaper QLC alternatives
Avoid if
- You require the highest possible sequential speeds offered by Gen4 or Gen5 interfaces
- You are on a strict budget and only need a drive for basic gaming storage
This summary uses balanced time weighting with about a 6-month half-life. The evidence is older, with a median source age of approximately 197 days, which is appropriate for evaluating the long-term reliability of a mature hardware product.
Sentiment
7 positive (70%) · 3 mixed (30%) · 0 negative (0%)
Trust + time weighted score: +71% · raw score 70%
What redditors said (10 of 10)
Storage: 1tb Samsung 970 Evo
I used to install my games on a Samsung 970 Evo, and I now install them on a Kioxia Exceria G2. The Kioxia is slower, but I don't feel it much when gaming. I think you should be fine with a cheaper SSD.
OWC Accelsior with 1TB Samsung 970 Evo (Windows 10 boot drive) and 3x 240gb NVME drives
SSD: Samsung 970 EVO
SSD: Samsung 970 EVO
I'd take any day an old Samsung 970 Evo (TLC Gen3) vs a modern day crucial P3+ or Kingston NV2 (gen4, QLC) or similar drives. Once the SLC cache of QLC drives is gone, you'll see write speeds tank sub 200mb/s (often much less) while the Samsung will keep writing stuff 4/5/6 times faster.
I was looking at some Samsung models (I have the 970 evo and it’s been great so far)
My disks are pretty new (NVME is Samsung 970 EVO and the SATA it’s a Kingston)
Crucial p3 or samsung 970 evo are good choices in your price range.
my last build had a Samsung 970 Evo which had no problems at all and ran well.
Compare
Samsung 970 EVO vs Patriot P400 LiteSamsung 970 EVO vs Crucial T710Samsung 970 EVO vs WD Blue SN5000
Related
- 9070 XT · related · 3,144 mentions
- 9060 XT · related · 2,850 mentions
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 · related · 2,136 mentions
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti · related · 2,039 mentions
- AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D · related · 1,628 mentions
- AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D · related · 1,602 mentions