Samsung 845DC EVO 480GB review

We liked

The 845DC EVO's sequential read speeds are excellent, and right up there with the best SSDs on the market. Random read IOPS are great as well.

The endurance is excellent too. Samsung is right on the money by pushing hard to improve this area of SSD manufacturing. The sheer volume of data that can be written to the 845DC EVO per day is staggering.

We disliked

The prices seem slightly out of proportion with the technology. The 840 EVO was well-priced, so it seems the 845DC EVO is moving in the wrong direction.

The write speed is not bad, but it's not the best around. These two factors lead me to conclude the 845DC EVO is best for its stated purpose – server deployment with read-heavy workloads – rather than being a suitable SSD for a home PC.

Final verdict

As an SSD for home use, the 845DC EVO is not great overall value for money, even compared with Samsung's other faster drives, such as the 850 Pro, but especially compared with drives like Crucial's MX100. The 512GB model of the latter costs about the same as the 240GB version of the 845DC EVO (the larger Crucial drive is even a bit less at some online retailers).

This drive does have an extraordinary level of longevity in its favour, though. Samsung is truly making the most of its advantages in NAND production, taking TLC endurance to new heights with the 845DC EVO. The technology is moving forward at breakneck speed, and the Samsung 845DC EVO should silence any criticism of endurance issues with TLC NAND.

This longevity, along with the high sequential read speeds, could make the 845DC EVO a good choice as an SSD for server use, depending on the workload.