Samsung Announces TLC-Based 840 EVO SSD
Samsung has a hot new SSD in its stable.
Samsung is taking the wraps off of a new desktop-oriented SSD. Dubbed the 840 EVO, it joins the 840 Pro and vanilla 840 in Samsung's SATA-based retail family. According to the company, the EVO will slot in under its 840 Pro as a mainstream offering, but will eventually replace the TLC-based 840. Samsung intends to keep the 840 EVO's pricing the same as its predecessor's for bare drive packaging. Desktop and laptop installation kits will be available as well, including a SATA-to-USB 3.0 adapter.
Samsung is claiming huge performance advantages over the existing 840, including serious write speed enhancements courtesy of what company representatives refer to as Turbo Write. This feature uses some of the drive's three-bit-per-cell NAND in a simulated SLC mode for caching. Single-level cell flash can read and write much quicker than memory cells storing multiple bits. Samsung claims the new model's write speed tops out at 520 MB/s and 90,000 4 KB write IOPS, compared to the 500 GB 840's more pedestrian 330 MB/s sequential writes and 44,000 4 KB write IOPS.
Read speeds are slightly improved over the original 840, now rated at 500+ MB/s sequentials and up to 98,000 IOPS.
The EVO employs Samsung's new NAND process technology. Its latest flash is a 10 nm-class (geometry somewhere between 10 and 20 nm) design, with each die storing 128 Gb (16 GB), enabling the Korean company to double current flash density for higher-capacity drives. The EVO will ship in capacities ranging from 120 GB up to nearly 1 TB when it launches in August. That includes a 750 GB model, alongside more common 120, 240, and 500 GB capacity points.
Samsung claims to have sold over 2.5 million 840s in the aftermarket. It says that number puts it in control of 20% of aftermarket SSD sales with a single model that was launched late last year.

Something needs to change.
The most important part of this is that Samsung is not raising the price; the 840 in its EVO version will remain one of the least expensive modern SSDs on the market, driving prices down for all of us, while making a drive that is overall no slouch even better. It isn't changing the performance level today for those interested only in the top end, but the technology applied to the higher-end devices could mean even better performance in the devices we are more likely to use. It also may boost performance consistency, which is the weak point of the 840 Pro and most other top-end consumer SSDs today (and can still be much improved even in the best of them).
The life span of MLC drives hasn't been proven, but even its comparatively low numbers on paper means most consumers will have no problems with the drive losing capability in a build's lifetime.
PS: Those claiming TLC isn't reliable need to read that article where they tested the life span of MLC specifically the 840 MLC.. and it lasted at minimum 10+ years with heavy usage.
The life span of MLC drives hasn't been proven, but even its comparatively low numbers on paper means most consumers will have no problems with the drive losing capability in a build's lifetime.
Actually it has been proven. At least 34nm and 25nm class MLC SSDs.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?271063-SSD-Write-Endurance-25nm-Vs-34nm/page169
If it was low-grade TLC, with a poor controller and bad firmware, by a company that doesn't know what they're doing, that would be a different story. But the Samsung 840 series (and older 830) are good across the board. The Pro is much better for really demanding workloads, but for your typical consumer (content consumption, including gaming) PC? Even the TLC 840 models are fantastic.
Thanks smeezekitty. I didn't realize that TLC was 3-bit MLC.