Samsung 9100 Pro SSD hits all-time low price on Amazon

Samsung 9100 Pro SSD Hits All-Time Low Price on Amazon

The Samsung 9100 Pro NVMe SSD has reached its lowest price in months on Amazon, with several capacity variants seeing significant discounts. The price drops follow the launch of the competing WD Black SN8100, a drive that has since superseded the Samsung model in terms of peak performance.

The 4TB model has seen the most substantial price volatility. According to PCWorld, the 4TB version is available for $385 (30 percent off from $550). Tom's Hardware reports the 4TB drive falling to an all-time low of $372,42, a price verified by the Camelizer and PCPartpicker tools. Other reports cite different figures for the 4TB model; Notebookcheck reports a price of $463, down from $549, and PCGamesN notes a drop to $449.99 from $549.99.

Savings extend across the entire product line. The 2TB model, which launched at $299.99, is now listed at $190 via PCWorld, representing a 37 percent discount. PCGamesN reports the 2TB version at $239.99, a 20% drop in just two months. The 1TB model has also decreased, with PCWorld listing it at $142.49 and PCGamesN citing a drop from $199.99 to $169.99.

Hardware and Performance Specifications

The 9100 Pro is a PCIe Gen 5.0 M.2 SSD utilizing Samsung's proprietary Presto controller. This design competes with the Phison E26 controller and employs 236-layer Samsung TLC flash memory. The drive is capable of sequential read speeds up to 14,800 MB/s and sequential write speeds of 13,400 MB/s. Random read/write is 2,200K/2,600K, respectively.

For long-term durability, the 4TB model features an official endurance rating of 2,400 TBW and is covered by a five-year manufacturer warranty.

While the speed increases will be hardly perceptible in gaming, they are more noticeable in workloads such as video editing and rendering. In the 3DMark Storage Benchmark, which is a great test of SSDs intended for gaming use, measures real-world gaming performance. The results below show the Samsung 9100 Pro second in the charts, only being beaten by the same model with the included heatsink.

Installation and Thermal Considerations

Because the drive can run hot, users are advised to buy the heatsink version, or use a chunky PCIe 5.0 SSD heatsink if you got one with your motherboard. The heatsink model currently sells for a reasonable $20 premium on Amazon.

Full performance requires a PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot. While the drive remains compatible with a PCIe 4.0 M.2 slot, it will operate at half the speed.

Critical Reception

Reviews of the 9100 Pro are mixed regarding its market entry. PCWorld granted the drive a 4.5-star rating and an Editors' Choice award, calling it the fastest NVMe SSD they've ever tested in our benchmarks. Conversely, Tom's Hardware gave the drive 3.5 out of 5 stars. While they praised its power efficiency and good all-around performance of the drive, they described the drive as slightly underwhelming because it entered the Gen 5.0 market after other high-performance SSDs were already available.

Despite these varying takes, the current price cuts make the drive a more attractive option for storage enthusiasts and workstation users who require rapid data retrieval for high-resolution media.