Tom's Hardware's AMA With Samsung, In Its Entirety

SATA Express And Less Expensive SSDs

Q. I noticed in an earlier response that Pci-e based SSDs were mentioned for the laptop and data center/server based solutions. Is anything being planned for the desktop as other manufacturers have done, and what kind of added features will there be? One company just released a Pci-e based SSD and one of the included features was the ability to create a ramdisk from up to 80% of available system ram.

A. In general, a notebook SSD could be used in a desktop as well. You would need to ensure you have the right form factor and interface type, etc. As you are likely aware, SSDs are based on Flash NAND technology which is a non-volatile memory; when you turn off power to the SSD, the data will still persist. However, with RAM it is volatile in nature, meaning when you power off RAM, the data is lost. However, there could be battery back-up or capacitor-based solutions to mitigate this but this is less commonly seen in the PC space. SSDs and RAM currently tackle two different aspects of a given system. In general, RAM disks would be suited for temporary or scratch files where if they were lost, it would not be a major issue. Employing other technologies such as RAM disks may be something you can take advantage of, but recommend that any interested party be familiar with when and how it should be utilized.

Q. I am glad to hear that Samsung will be offering affordable consumer oriented PCI-e based solid state drives. What is the approximate release date for consumers who want to purchase a PCI-e based ssd's for their desktop computers? This year or next year?

A. The Samsung XP941 (PCIe SATAe-based SSD) has already started shipping to PC OEMs. We can’t comment on when PC's based on these solutions will hit the market. More info about the announcement of Samsung's PCIe SSD: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/Samsung-XP941-SSD-Ultrabook-PCIe,23107.html

Q. The adoption of the new SATA Express standard signals the start of the migration to affordable consumer oriented PCI-e based ssd's. Does Samsung plan to manufacture consumer oriented ssd's based on the new SATA Express standard? New connectors or motherboard headers?

A. The Samsung XP941 is a SATA Express (SATAe) based SSD. The form factor we decided to launch SATAe with is the M.2 (80x22mm) to be optimized for thin & light notebook platforms. You can see pictures of this form factor here: https://www.tomshardware.com/news/Samsung-XP941-SSD-Ultrabook-PCIe,23107.html  You can also find numerous pictures of the XP941 on Google Images: https://www.google.com/search?q=xp941&tbm=isch

Q. The Samsung 840 Evo is a sweet SSD, and with the 1TB configuration of it out, will that lead to lower SSD prices in the long run?

A. The Samsung 840 EVO is an excellent advancement that was needed to further propel SSDs into more consumer PC's. We are very excited about the success thus far and the projected growth due to this technology. The sweet spot for SSDs today is still around the ~250GB capacity point. However, some users were waiting for higher capacities to become available before moving completely over to SSDs. With a 1TB option now being available, this should allow even more to make the switch. Each generation of SSDs that comes out, the more cost effective they become.