Samsung 870 EVO 1TB SATA III 2.5"

The Samsung 870 EVO is a reliable SATA SSD with great endurance and a solid warranty, but it's slow and overpriced compared to NVMe alternatives. It's only worth buying if your system is limited to SATA ports. At USD 350 to USD 395, you're paying a premium for the Samsung name.

The 870 EVO hits 560 MB/s sequential reads and 530 MB/s writes, which is basically the ceiling for SATA III. Random performance is 98K read IOPS and 88K write IOPS, which puts it at the 44th percentile. That's middle of the pack, even among SATA drives. The DRAM-less design doesn't help here. For booting an OS or loading older games, it'll feel snappy compared to a spinning hard drive. But compared to any half-decent NVMe drive, it's like bringing a bicycle to a motorcycle race. The endurance story is better: 600 TBW is well above average for this class, and the MLC NAND should hold up nicely over time.

Stacked against the Western Digital Black SN850X, Kingston FURY Renegade G5, or Crucial T500, the 870 EVO looks ancient. Those are all NVMe drives with read speeds in the 7,000 MB/s range. The 870 EVO's 560 MB/s reads are over 10 times slower. The only reason to pick the 870 EVO over any of those is if your system physically cannot accept an M.2 drive. The Seagate FireCuda 530R and Lexar NM1090 PRO are in the same boat as the other NVMe competitors. They're faster, cheaper, and more future-proof. The 870 EVO wins on endurance and warranty, but that's about it.

Here's the thing. This drive costs between USD 350 and USD 395 depending on where you look. That's a lot of money for a 1TB SATA SSD. You can get a 1TB NVMe drive for half that price, and it'll be three to five times faster. The 870 EVO's value score sits at the 25th percentile, which means it's more expensive than 75% of comparable drives. If you absolutely need SATA and want the endurance and warranty, the lower end of that USD 350 to USD 395 range is the way to go. But even then, you're paying a premium for the Samsung name.

The Samsung 870 EVO is a 1TB SATA SSD that feels like a time capsule from 2016. 560 MB/s reads and 530 MB/s writes are fine for a SATA drive, but we're living in an NVMe world now. If you're upgrading an older laptop or desktop that only has SATA ports, this is a solid pick. If you have an M.2 slot available, keep scrolling.

Samsung packed MLC NAND in here, which is nice for endurance, but then skipped the DRAM cache. That's a weird combo. The 600 TBW rating and 5-year warranty are genuinely good. The feature set lands in the 86th percentile, which is impressive for a SATA drive. But the speed sits at the 38th percentile, and that's the number that matters most for daily use.

Skip this if you have an M.2 slot on your motherboard. You'll get dramatically better performance from a budget NVMe drive for less money. Also skip it if you're building a new PC from scratch. There's no reason to saddle a new system with SATA speeds when NVMe drives are cheaper and faster. And if you're on a tight budget, the 25th percentile affordability score means there are plenty of cheaper SATA options that'll do the job just fine.

Buy this if you have an older laptop or desktop with only SATA ports and you want a reliable, long-lasting upgrade. The 600 TBW endurance and 5-year warranty mean this drive will probably outlive the computer it's installed in. But if you have an M.2 slot available, or you're building a new system, skip the 870 EVO entirely. You'll get way more speed for way less money with an NVMe drive.