Samsung 980 1TB

Specifications

Capacity

1TB

Interface

NVMe PCIe 3.0

Form Factor

M.2 2280

Read Speed

3.5 GB/s

Write Speed

3.0 GB/s

Endurance

600 TBW

Warranty

5 years

Brand

Samsung

Price / TB

$139.99/TB

Value Score Breakdown

Our Verdict

The Samsung 980 1TB is the PCIe 3.0 DRAM-less NVMe option from Samsung for budget-to-mid-range builds, offering 3,500 MB/s sequential reads through Samsung's Intelligent TurboWrite algorithm that uses part of the NAND as a dynamic SLC cache. In light workloads — game installs, OS boot, application launching — it's indistinguishable from more expensive DRAM-equipped drives. The trade-off appears during sustained writes: once the SLC cache is exhausted, speeds drop to around 1,200 MB/s. For users on PCIe 3.0 systems who want Samsung quality at a lower price than the 980 Pro or 990 Pro, the 980 represents a practical middle ground. An ideal choice for secondary NVMe storage in gaming rigs where large file transfers are infrequent.