Samsung 970 EVO Plus
Reddit take
AI summary of the Reddit excerpts below — not a quote
The Samsung 970 EVO Plus is widely regarded as a 'legendary' PCIe Gen3 NVMe SSD that remains a reliable choice for boot drives and secondary storage. While it is older technology and has been surpassed by Gen4 and Gen5 models like the 990 series, it is still praised for its performance and the inclusion of DRAM, which some newer non-Pro drives lack.
Pros
- Includes DRAM, which is increasingly rare in non-Pro SSD lines
- Highly reliable reputation for long-term use
- Strong compatibility, often working even on motherboards not officially listed as compatible
- Excellent performance for a Gen3 drive, making it a solid OS boot drive
Cons
- Limited to Gen3 speeds, which are significantly slower than modern Gen4/Gen5 alternatives
- 1TB capacity is increasingly viewed as a minimum requirement rather than a high-capacity option
- Isolated reports of drive failure in older units
Caveats
- If purchasing a used drive, it is recommended to use the Samsung Magician app to verify health and authenticity
- Using this drive as a cache for another NVMe SSD provides no performance benefit as they operate at similar speeds
Best for
- Budget-conscious builds
- Older motherboards that do not support Gen4 or Gen5 speeds
- Reliable OS boot drives and secondary storage
Avoid if
- You require maximum throughput for high-end gaming or professional video editing
- You are building a high-end system where Gen4 or Gen5 slots would be bottlenecked by a Gen3 drive
This summary uses balanced time weighting with about a 6-month half-life. The evidence is based on mentions from early 2026 with a median source age of approximately 205 days.
Sentiment
11 positive (58%) · 2 mixed (11%) · 6 negative (32%)
Trust + time weighted score: +23% · raw score 26%
What redditors said (10 of 19)
My old build (below) was great at 1440p. I've invested in a 240hz 4k OLED screen - the LG 32GS95UV - and it just couldn't quite cut it at that resolution. In games like bf6, cyberpunk, frame consistency was very poor even with very aggressive settings optimisation + DLSS, with the CPU and RAM being the obvious culprits.
-1 TB NVME Samsung 970 Evo Plus(Boot drive)
I was running a 970 EVO plus before that I use as a secondary drive now. I'm pretty sure the normal 990 is much better spec'd than that.
For SSD: Samsung 970 Evo Plus
Samsung 970 Evo Plus drives are awesome despite being 'only' gen 3.
Samsung 970 EVO Plus, legendary Gen3 NVMe if you found one at good health in 2026. Using Samsung Magician app to validate its quality buying used.
I would definitely recommend a larger SSD. 1TB minimum.
while the 970 Evo Plus did have DRAM, only the Pro lines now do.
I found some reddit threads that show people have tried the 970 Evo Plus, and even some drives that are on Asrock's official "not compatible" list and they worked without an issue.
It's quite an old drive. But it's still a good drive.
Compare
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