Indroduction
Several readers commented on the lack of 2.5" SATA drives in our SM951 coverage. Comparing SATA to PCIe-based storage isn't apples-to-apples. I tend to make comparisons based on interface technology or price tag. Samsung's 850 Pro is a very fast 2.5" SATA SSD, but it's not in the same league as the company's SM951.
Don't believe me? In this round-up of Samsung products, I'm pitting the 850 Pro 256GB against Samsung's SM951 AHCI 256GB. I'll also introduce you to the SM951-NVMe 256GB, which should be available in June.
At this time, only the 256GB model is available from Samsung's SM951-NVMe product family. Some sites published reviews of the SM951-NVMe already using drives harvested from Intel NUCs. But we've learned that Intel's samples didn't ship with final releases firmware. As a result, we shelved our early review using one of those SSDs borrowed from a NUC.
Intel wasn't the only company to receive early SM951-NVMe SSDs. At least one distributor had products in-hand, ready to ship before Samsung asked for them back to update the firmware. If that firmware wasn't required, the SM951-NVMe would already be on sale.