Although the Samsung 990 Pro has replaced it, the Samsung 980 Pro used to be one of the best SSDs around. Now, it may be close to three years old, but it's still a popular PCIe 4.0 drive that's much more affordable than its successor, so it doesn't come as a shock that there are many knockoffs on the market.
One Chinese user from the Baidu Tieba (via Harukaze5719) forums recently encountered an imitation posing as the Samsung 980 Pro. The phony drive had everything that suggested that it was legit: the Samsung 980 Pro 2TB sticker and the firmware, which later turned out to be fake. Samsung’s Magician Software confirms that it's a counterfeit drive. The software always validates whether a drive is fake or not. In the case of a fake drive, the software will refuse to manage it. When a consumer registers his Samsung SSD, the Samsung Magician software will put the "Genuine" label to the right of the drive's serial number to show that it's a real Samsung SSD.
Once the sticker was removed from the fake drive, it had all the signs of a counterfeit SSD. The SSD utilizes the Maxio MAP1602A PCIe 4.0 SSD controller, the same one that powers the Acer Predator GM7. The SSD controller comes from TSMC's 12nm process node and features a DRAM-less design. More experienced consumers know that Samsung produces and uses its SSD controllers and NAND chips in the brand's SSDs.
In the case of the Samsung 980 Pro, the SSD employs the 8nm Elpis controller with a DRAM design. Additionally, Samsung's SSD controllers are typically larger than the competition. Regarding the NAND selection, the Samsung 980 Pro sports 128-layer TLC 3D V-NAND. The fraudulent Samsung 980 Pro drive uses YMTC's 128-layer TLC 3D NAND (X2-9060) built with the Chinese chipmaker's Xtacking 2.0 technology.
With a different SSD controller and NAND, the bogus drive obviously won't perform similarly to a real Samsung 980 Pro. According to the user-provided benchmarks, the SSD delivered sequential read and write speeds of around 4.8 GBps and 4.5 GBps, respectively, in CrystalDiskMark and up to 4.2 GBps and 3.9 GBps in AS SSD. On the contrary, the Samsung 980 Pro offers sequential read and writes up to 7 GBps and 5 Gbps, respectively, depending on the capacity. So the performance numbers on the false drive are way off.
The merchant sold fake Samsung 980 Pro 2TB SSDs on Xianyu, Taobao's second-hand market, for 880 yuan or $127.77. The drives even come in official Samsung packaging. The price alone makes it easy to see that the SSD is a sham. The actual drive currently retails for $169.99 on the U.S. market. The scammed user claims he had been out of the PC game for a while, so he wasn't up to speed on the latest technology. Furthermore, he reportedly didn't have a PC at hand, so ten days had passed before he could test the drive.
There's always an imminent risk to buying computer hardware on the second-hand market, especially in China. But even distinguished online shopping platforms, such as AliExpress or Taobao, are filled with malicious merchants ready to take advantage of less-knowledgeable consumers. These same actors have infiltrated U.S. retailers as third-party sellers. We've seen our fair shares of scam cases, like the $39 30TB portable SSD on Walmart or the $100 16TB SSD on Amazon. If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
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Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
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USAFRet
Oh please....PlaneInTheSky said:Probably more reliable than the crap SSD Samsung produces. -
drivinfast247
Buy one and find out.PlaneInTheSky said:Probably more reliable than the crap SSD Samsung produces. -
punkncat I have been a fan of Samsung for years. I use them in my personal builds and have had no issue suggesting them to friends or clients (as it were). The recent goings on with the 900 series have me a bit reluctant to continue doing so. I hope they can get this issue rectified on both fronts, and soon.Reply -
USAFRet
The deal is, every manufacturer has a model that comes along that is sub-par.punkncat said:I have been a fan of Samsung for years. I use them in my personal builds and have had no issue suggesting them to friends or clients (as it were). The recent goings on with the 900 series have me a bit reluctant to continue doing so. I hope they can get this issue rectified on both fronts, and soon.
All of them.
If we were to avoid every manufacturer that ever had an issue with some singular model of their drives, we'd be using pen and paper.
The question is, what does that manufacturer do in response to these issues? -
punkncat USAFRet said:If we were to avoid every manufacturer that ever had an issue with some singular model of their drives, we'd be using pen and paper.
I snorted a bit at that comment. Well said. -
Sluggotg Counterfeit products coming from Communist China?? "Say it ain't So Joe!, Say it ain't So". Many product you buy on Amazon are Fakes. The sellers on Amazon can get away with a lot, for a while. I have been taken for a ride on fake products, (especially overseas in the 80s when I was in the Navy).Reply
I do like Samsung. -
RedBear87
After what happened with the 990 Pro, who knows? Maybe some outlet should grab a few and test them... fakes are deplorable, but being fake doesn't necessarily make them bad. Samsung has certainly squandered a lot of trustiness and reputation, especially considering the premium price that one has to pay for their SSDs.USAFRet said:Oh please.... -
UWguy Word to the wise, never buy disposable items like this or razor blades/foils etc from third party sellers. You have no idea if it is counterfeit or used. Counterfeiters love to sell bogus Braun electric shaving foils for $60 that cost a few cents to make. SSDs are a bit more complicated but obviously they can make a decent profit by slapping a Samsung label on it.Reply -
SyCoREAPER UWguy said:Word to the wise, never buy disposable items like this or razor blades/foils etc from third party sellers. You have no idea if it is counterfeit or used. Counterfeiters love to sell bogus Braun electric shaving foils for $60 that cost a few cents to make. SSDs are a bit more complicated but obviously they can make a decent profit by slapping a Samsung label on it.
Unfortunately fakes make their way into official channels SOMEHOW. So generally yes that's best advice, better yet is go to a local store.
Drives of any kind are one thing I will not by online from any source. Either Best Buy or Microcenter for me for things like that. I want to be able to see the seal and packaging.