Samsung sent us a unit of its latest 990 1TB SSD for review. Designed around the PCIe 4.0 interface, it is also an SSD that the brand boasts is fitted with its latest NAND flash package, while also serving as another option in its more premium Pro lineup.

The Samsung 990 1TB is a “budget” PCIe 4.0 SSD, designed to be the cheaper alternative to the brand’s Pro SSD lineup. As a gentle reminder, this SSD shouldn’t be confused with the 990 Pro, which launched almost four years ago. This model is actually built around the QLC-based 990 Evo Plus.

The 1TB model has average sequential read and write speeds of 7.15GB/s and 6.45GB/s, along with random performance of 700K IOPS read and 1,100K IOPS write. Not too shabby then, for the market this SSD is being catered to.

Considering it is a single-sided die design, this is an excellent substitute or addition to your PC and/or laptop. Having a single die on one side means that keeping the SSD cooled isn’t going to be troublesome or complicated.

And despite it being a QLC-based SSD, the 990 1TB is still capable of pushing a heck of a lot of bandwidth. For the 1TB model that I have here, it pushes its advertised average sequential read and write speeds of 7,150MB/s and runs relatively cool, even while under a full load.

One of the downsides to the 990 1TB is that, while it has an SSD controller and a single NAND flash package, there is no DRAM package. Again, not necessarily a bad thing, as it makes it compatible with virtually every system, and again, cooling it isn’t as difficult. However, it does translate to increased or expedited wear-and-tear. But hey, it’s a budget drive, and a direct rival to the Kingston NV3 that came out a couple years ago.

But despite hammering on its supposed “budget” designation, the 990 is – to be fair, it is through no fault of their own and like every other memory maker, Samsung is at the mercy of the market – not cheap. Pricing starts from RM1,070 for the 1TB, and the 2TB model goes for RM2,111.

At this stage, the Samsung 990 1TB is about as good as any other PCIe 4.0 option that is currently out on the market. Having been built using Samsung’s latest NAND technology, it may also lead to fewer drive failures in the future.

However, and hypothetically, assuming that the drive does fail, my only concern is whether Samsung will be able to honour the warranty of the 990, and we all know what happened there.

Updated 11:46 am, Mon, 28 September 26