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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott. This is the place
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where the magic happens. This is the
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workstation that I do not only the
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editing of my own photos, but also where
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I put together my videos, where I go
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through and do my image quality
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examinations, all of those things. So,
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because of the ever higher resolution of
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not only cameras, but also of video
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footage, I have to really keep on top of
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keeping my workstation up to date and
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with components that are going to make
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sure that I'm not wasting time uh trying
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to wait for the computer to do its job.
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So, as a byproduct, I'm continually
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invested in upgrading this workstation.
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It just so happened that a few years ago
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when my computer guy Chance whom we'll
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meet in a moment, uh when he built this
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workstation for me, he determined that
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because it could take M.2 SSD drives
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that uh he recommended that I put a
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Samsung drive in it. So I did. I had
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good success with it. That was a 1 TBTE
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drive. A few years later, I decided that
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I wanted to upgrade that uh to a two
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terbyte drive, which I did about a year
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ago. So, when Samsung reached out to me
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about reviewing their most recent uh
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9100 Pro M.2 SSD drive with heat sink, I
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said sure because it was another way to
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upgrade my system, maybe get a little
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bit more speed, and then also as there's
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always a use for additional drives in
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your computer. And so, I said yes. I
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took it to my computer guy and we did
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the installation. You'll meet him in
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just a moment. And then afterward, I've
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been actually using the workstation and
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running some benchmarks to see if there
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is any kind of noticeable improvement
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when it comes to access and write
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speeds. And so today, we're going to
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dive into that review and to see whether
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or not this latest Samsung drive is
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worth your investment and so that you
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can keep up to pace with all of the high
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demands of AI, video editing, photo
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editing, all of those things. Let's jump
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into it and let's go meet Chance.
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Installation was generally
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straightforward if you have an open PCI
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slot. There were two relatively minor
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problems that we solved during
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installation due to the integrated heat
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sink. It's thicker than a standard
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model. So, at first, we didn't have
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enough depth to still use the shield
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that normally covers that slot and the
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screws weren't long enough. We
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eliminated the redundant shield since
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the heat sink is built into the SSD. And
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then the drive fit fine. This was
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necessary because it has to sit somewhat
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under my graphics card on this
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motherboard and we needed the room. I
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think Samsung should include some screws
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of a few links with the integrated heat
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sink model to accommodate the extra
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depth of the drive. After installation,
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Chance cloned my existing main operating
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system drive over to the new drive and
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so that I could run programs off of it
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and take advantage of the speed
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So, we'll run a few benchmarks here.
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First, we're going to start with a
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standard SSD drive. This is attached via
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USBC. So, let's take a look at what
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specs we get off of that.
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So, I won't bore you with watching that
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whole process, but it took nearly 6
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minutes to run on that. So, now we're
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going to move to a second drive. And so,
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this is my older uh this is the 990 EVO
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two terbte uh M.2 drive from Samsung.
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So, let's take a look at how it does
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running the same benchmark test.
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So right off the bat, you can see that
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there is a huge huge advantage here for
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its right speed and read speed compared
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to the older drive. And so what took
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nearly 6 minutes takes just a few
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seconds here. So finally, we're going to
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move to the most recent drive to see if
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we can actually get an improvement based
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off of this. And so now we're going to
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go to the 9100 Pro with heat sink. Let's
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take a look. So, right off the bat, we
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do see that while it's not as massive of
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an improvement over the other drive,
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there is certainly an improvement when
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it comes to the right speed, though the
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read speed comes out to the same. Now
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clearly I'm not getting anywhere the
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maximum potential of either one of these
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drives and that is because the
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limitation now is actually my version of
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uh PCIe which obviously I need to the
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next upgrade I need to do is to my
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actual motherboard itself and so that I
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can maximize the speeds available from
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this. So my experience shows what is the
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challenge when you're doing computer
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upgrades namely that your performance is
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going to be limited by the weakest link
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in the chain. So, in this case, I have
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massive amounts of memory in this
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system. I've got 64 gig of memory in it.
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Obviously, I've got a very, very fast
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M.2 drive here. I've got an amazing
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graphics card in the system. I've got a
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lot of great components. However, I'm
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still limited when it comes to the speed
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by the basic bus speed that I am dealing
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with there. And so, that shows the
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challenge that is there. Now, that
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doesn't mean that this drive isn't going
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to perform even better as I continue to
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upgrade my computer because clearly the
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speed advantage is there. And I am
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seeing in real world, real time, I am
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seeing some improvement based on that. I
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can see it in the access time and the
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time that programs open and how smoothly
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that they run. There certainly is an
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improvement there. However, I'm not
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really achieving the full potential yet.
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And so, that's something to bear in mind
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if you are considering an upgrade. It's
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just not so simple with computers as
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buying one component, dropping it into a
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system, and immediately seeing across
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the board improvements. The other thing
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to consider here is price. Because these
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drives, because they represent the
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latest in technology, they are more
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expensive than what you're going to see
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with some, you know, other less modern,
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less new drives. So, in this case, right
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now on B&H Photo, this drive is
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Um, it's currently discounted, however,
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from an MSRP of $549.
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Here in Canada, the price is running
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closer to $800. So, a significant
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investment. And so, you're going to have
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to determine for yourself. By the way,
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that's for the 4 TBTE, which is the
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largest size version. Obviously, the
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price is going to scale down accordingly
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if you don't need that much storage. In
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this case, I think the best way to use
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these drives is not to use them as your
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main storage drive, but rather to use it
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as a drive that you run your programs
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off of. And then you can use a different
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kind of cheaper and larger storage
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medium to just house files. Um, you
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know, be it your photos, be it your
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video files. And that's the way that I
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try to handle things. In this system,
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I've got for uh for video and for
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photos. I have individually I have 16
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TBTE drives for each one of those for
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storing what I have on the system
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itself. and then backups that are
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backing up those. The other thing that I
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will uh that I wasn't really thinking
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about for myself because I'm not
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necessarily a gamer, but I noticed in
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looking through the user reviews that a
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secondary application for these is a lot
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of people have looked at them for
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installing into something like a PS5 uh
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because it significantly upgrades the
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amount of storage that's available there
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and obviously doing so with very very
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fast readr speeds which is going to be
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great for gaming. So maybe a secondary
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consideration there if you're looking
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for a drive like this. At the end of the
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day, my review in some ways is still
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incomplete. I think that from what I've
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seen, there is a definite improvement
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there. I don't doubt because Samsung has
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a great name in this space that those
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kinds of speeds are probably achievable.
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They're just not under the constraints
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of my current system at this time. And I
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hope that that helps you to give you
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some perspective as to what should be
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your upgrade path as you move ahead in
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upgrading your own workstation or your
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PlayStation. As always, thanks for
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watching. I hope that this has helped.
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Have a great day and let the light in.
