Samsung has just announced the 8TB version of its 9100 Pro series of SSDs, which utilize PCIe 5.0 to achieve the highest speeds possible. The 9100 Pro series initially launched in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB variants in February of this year, but the company is releasing the largest variant this coming September 2, according to German publication ComputerBase.de [machine translated].
The company claims that the drive can achieve sequential read speeds of 14,800 MB/s and write speeds of 13,400 MB/s, making it the fastest and largest drive Samsung has to offer. By comparison, the 8TB Samsung 990 Pro, which is only PCIe 4.0, only hits 7,540 MB/s sequential read speeds. Tom’s Hardware’s testing of the Samsung 9100 Pro shows that this series is great for all-around use with solid power efficiency. So, if you’re building a high-end PC and you want something that will perform in both gaming and productivity tasks, then this is the SSD for you.
You can also get the Samsung 9100 Pro with a heatsink, allowing it to perform at high speeds for much longer without suffering from thermal throttling. And even with the additional height, Samsung specially designed this SSD to fit in the PlayStation 5. So, both PC and console gamers will be able to store about 80 games on this drive, if each title averages around 90.6 GB.
Of course, having this large a capacity comes at a price. The 8TB Samsung 9100 Pro has an MSRP of EUR 964.99 (around USD 1,050 at the current exchange rate), while the variant with the included heatsink will cost EUR 983.99 (around USD 1,150). These are the expected prices if you purchase directly from Samsung, but other retailers will likely carry these drives at a lower cost.
Although there’s already a plethora of PCIe 5.0 SSDs on the market, only two companies offer 8TB variants at the moment — TeamGroup’s T-Force GE Pro M.2 and, now, Samsung. SanDisk plans to release an 8TB version of its WD Black SN8100, but it still hasn’t announced an official release date (although it plans to deliver it later this year).
