Ars Technica High-end SATA SSD shootout: Samsung 860 Pro vs. Kingston DC500M

Computer components sit on a woodgrain desk.

Enlarge / The Samsung 860 Pro and Kingston DC500M are loaded up in the Storage Hot Rod's hot-swap trays and ready for battle. (credit: Jim Salter)


Today, we're going to put to good use some of what we covered last year in our Storage Fundamentals series—specifically, we'll use fio to test two competing high-end SATA SSDs.

Each disk has its high points and its low points, and we'll cover both in detail as well as giving you some handy charts to compare the two directly.

Samsung 860 Pro 1TB

The Samsung 860 Pro is a well-respected prosumer drive, tending to lead charts in both performance and endurance.
The Samsung 860 Pro is a well-respected prosumer drive, tending to lead charts in both performance and endurance.
(credit: Samsung)


Samsung's 860 Pro is a staple of the prosumer industry. The 860 Pro marries raw, screaming performance to solid firmware and high write endurance, while remaining accessible for consumers and small businesses. I've personally deployed hundreds of the 840 Pro, 850 Pro, and 860 Pro series of drives to good effect and with no complaints—which is more than I can say for quite a few of Samsung's competitors.


Read 24 remaining paragraphs | Comments