Few names command the respect that Samsung does within the realms of solid state storage. The manufacturer has taken its time bringing PCIe Gen 5 x4 SSDs to market, continuing the use of in-house controllers and NAND. Finally, though, the brand is ready to debut efforts in the form of 9100 Pro.
Samsung 9100 Pro 4TB
£468 / $550
Pros
- Speedy fast
- Up to 8TB capacities
- Cool under load
- Lean power draw
- Five-year warranty
Cons
- Relatively small TLC cache
- Falls slightly short of advertised speeds
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How we test and review products.
On paper, 9100 Pro has all the qualities necessary to take the market by storm. It promises to marry class-leading speeds with a surprisingly low price point, relative to alternative drives. At £468 for 4TB of storage, it doesn’t remedy the high cost of picking up a Gen 5 SSD but it is surprisingly value-oriented given its specs. Its US MSRP of $550 is less-so but it commands an understandable premium given its higher speed.
A few stumbles keep it from being a slam-dunk of an SSD for Samsung, but 9100 Pro nonetheless proves an impressive drive that pushes storage boundaries.
Specifications
9100 Pro is Samsung’s first PCIe Gen 5 x4 effort, promising to deliver near-double the performance of its prior generation flagship, 990 Pro. Of course, there’s more to this SSD than just the interface, as it’s kitted out with other specifications befitting of its station.
| Samsung 9100 Pro | 1TB | 2TB | 4TB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Controller | In-house (5nm) | In-house (5nm) | In-house (5nm) |
| NAND | Samsung V8 TLC | Samsung V8 TLC | Samsung V8 TLC |
| DRAM | 1GB | 2GB | 4GB |
| Interface | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4 |
| Seq. Read Speed (MB/s) | 14,700 | 14,700 | 14,800 |
| Seq. Write Speed (MB/s) | 13,300 | 13,400 | 13,400 |
| Random Read IOPS (K) | 1,850 | 1,850 | 2,200 |
| Random Write IOPS (K) | 2,600 | 2,600 | 2,600 |
| Maximum power (watts) | 7.6 | 8.1 | 9.0 |
| Form Factor | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 |
| Endurance (TBW) | 600 | 1,200 | 2,400 |
| Hardware encryption | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Heatsink version | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Warranty | Five years | Five years | Five years |
| Price | £155.59 / $199.99 | £250.49 / $319.99 | £467.49 / $569.99 |
Samsung offers 9100 Pro in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB flavours and plans to launch an even-larger 8TB model later this year. For all the performance this SSD offers, you’ll want to grab for the 4TB option, boasting 14,800MB/s sequential reads and 13,400MB/s sequential writes. Smaller capacities don’t cut back much on speed, though, dropping 100MB/s in both categories at most.
All capacities also boast the brand’s new V8 TLC NAND, sporting 1GB of LPDDR4X per TB. This is on the smaller side relative to other Gen 5 SSDs which usually rock 2GB per TB but this is business as usual for Samsung.
Each variant of 9100 Pro uses Samsung’s new 5nm controller, which aims to improve efficiency through lower power consumption compared to earlier designs. Topping out at 9W, it seemingly does just that and emerges a frugal option relative to its competitors.
With so few watts running through it, temperatures shouldn’t be any more of a concern than they are on Gen 4 drives. In light of this, Samsung packages 9100 Pro with an optional passive cooler that isn’t a notable departure from its prior generation offerings.
Pricing for 9100 Pro begins at £155.59 / $199.99 for the 1TB model, rising to £250.49 / $319.99 for 2TB, and £467.49 / $569.99 for 4TB. Note that these are MSRPs sans cooler, which carries an additional premium of $20. Samsung hasn’t announced how much it plans to charge for 8TB of space, but don’t expect it to be cheap.
I’m glad that Samsung maintains the same five-year warranty period for 9100 Pro as it offered with its 990 Pro. This is the more important metric than the drive’s endurance rating, as few will pass the TBW threshold within that time period. Still, if you plan on slamming the drive, expect 600TBW per TB.
Test System
While Samsung 9100 Pro SSDs are readily available to buy on their lonesome, you’ll find plenty of system integrators offering them part and parcel with suitably complimentary specs. Case in point is PCSpecialist Pulse Pro R.
| PCSpecialist Pulse Pro R | Specs |
|---|---|
| CPU | AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D |
| Motherboard | Asus TUF Gaming X870-Plus WiFi |
| Cooler | Corsair Nautilus 240 RS ARGB |
| GPU | Asus TUF GeForce RTX 5070 Ti OC |
| Memory | 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB DDR5-6000 CL36 |
| Storage | 4TB Samsung 9100 Pro SSD |
| PSU | Corsair RM850x (850W) |
| Chassis | Corsair Frame 4000D RS ARGB Modular |
PCSpecialist Pulse Pro R provides a comfortable home for 9100 Pro, as well as the other drives I’ll be comparing it against. Asus TUF Gaming X870-Plus WiFi provides two PCIe 5.0 x4 slots capable of running the SSD at full throttle, with the topmost of the pair serving as my preferred choice for ease of access.
As a reminder, this review covers the SSD sans its optional heatsink. Much as the motherboard’s M.2 heatsinks and thermal pads add another variable into testing, I’ve no doubt that the results here are broadly comparable to other boards.
9100 Pro has plenty of processing power to rely on, courtesy of Ryzen 7 9800X3D paired with 32GB of DDR5-6000 RAM running in dual-channel. Rounding off core specs, GeForce RTX 5070 Ti has plenty of graphical grunt to support the SSD in workstation tasks concerning video.
All of this rests inside Corsair’s Frame 4000D RS ARGB modular chassis, complete with seven RS120 ARGB fans spread across the case and another two handling AIO water cooler duties. Typical of PCSpecialist, fantastic cable management ensures there are no unsightly wires impeding aesthetic or airflow ensuring the system stays nice and cool under load, SSD included.
Performance
To give 9100 Pro some competitors on equal footing, I’ve ran Crucial T700 Pro 2TB and Samsung 990 Pro 2TB through the same benchmarks in PCSpecialist Pulse Pro R.
Turning in respective read and write speeds of 14,604MB/s and 13,325MB/s, 9100 Pro 4TB tops the charts. Impressive as these results are, though, they fall slightly short of its advertised capabilities.
The SSD shows no signs of thermal throttling so it’s unclear why it’s not achieving its maximum speed. Still, it’s no more than 200MB/s off at most, to the point that you’d struggle to notice the shortfall.
9100 Pro maintains prime position switching from sequential to random read speeds, but stumbles once the race shifts to random writes. It’s likely that the larger size of the SSD puts it at a disadvantage to its 2TB competitors.
Faster speeds net greater average bandwidth in 3DMark. 990 Pro falls behind its PCIe Gen 5 peers in this race, but the competition between T700 and 9100 Pro is fierce with a mere 39.91MB/s separating the two.
While the shift from HDD to SSD prompts a dramatic reduction in loading times in all games, the differences between solid state storage of various speed is difficult to distinguish. Just 0.5s separates 9100 Pro and T700 Pro from 990 Pro.
These results highlight the relatively low value PCIe Gen 5 SSDs offer gamers, at least for now. Gen 4 alternatives remain the more cost-effective purchase.
The battle between the three drives turns bloody as they face off against Iometer. 9100 Pro takes home one gold, a silver, and two bronze medals.
The surprise overall winner in these proceedings is 990 Pro, as the Gen 4 SSD beats out both its Gen 5 competitors.
Putting all three drives through the gauntlet that is PCMark 10’s Full System Drive benchmark mirrors results of 3DMark, both in terms of average bandwidth and podium positions. Once again, 9100 Pro takes the top spot.
Blink and you’ll miss the difference between the average access times of these three drives. However, 9100 Pro emerges the most-responsive of the bunch with a lead of 6μs.
9100 Pro expectedly sandwiches itself in between 990 Pro and T700 Pro with an operating peak temperature of 61°C. It’s no surprise that it runs hotter than its forebear due to its increased power draw, but it’s far cooler than its similarly speedy competitor.
Conclusion
Much as I’d like to see 9100 Pro achieve its advertised speeds, it still emerges as a class-leading SSD. There are no drives out there that can compete with its capabilities except perhaps for MSI Spatium M580, but it’s difficult to find that competitor at the time of writing.
While its speediness is impressive, it’s all the more awesome considering the power consumption and operating temperatures of 9100 Pro. Never did I think I’d see the day where PCIe 5.0 x4 SSDs didn’t need an enormous heatsink to deliver the power of its interface. Thanks to Samsung, here we are.
The usual caveats regarding PCIe 5.0 x4 SSDs apply here. 9100 Pro is an excellent drive but it’s one whose speeds and specifications are most noticeable in workstation environments. Still, if you’re someone in search of speedy storage in a compact package, look no further.
