SAMSUNG 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E500B/AM)

I have 2 of the Samsung 850 EVO Series drives. The 500GB and the 250GB. I have them under use in both my laptop and desktop. The performance is fantastic, and I got both on sale for an overall excellent value.They are very easy to install. If you are buying for a desktop or laptop make sure you get either a mounting bracket or spacer. Most laptops seem to need a spacer as the SSD's tend to be thinner in profile than a physical spinning disk. For my desktop I purchased the SABRENT 2.5 to 3.5 Inches Internal Hard Disk Drive Mounting Kit (BK-HDDH) and everything fit as expected, the kit included all the screws. For some the lack of a spacer or mounting bracket being included is a knock down in star, it didn't bother me so no deduction there.The 250GB version was so good it sold me on getting a second one. I bought the 500GB for my desktop.The 250GB boots my Toshiba Satellite S55t up in under 23 seconds from a cold start. At the end of that I am able to login and all the services have been deployed and are running at 100%. So that speed and performance sold me to get the 500GB for my desktop.For the 500GB I installed that to my current desktop and it brought my start-up time down to 45 seconds. The reason for the disparity is in my desktop setup and not the drive itself. I am running 6 devices on my sata controller vs 1 on the laptop so it takes slightly longer to get the desktop up to full song.Now how did it help me in my performance for what I do on my PC. My games load almost instantly, my Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator applications load in seconds now if not instantly and I am deploying them with 3400 fonts installed, that would typically drag performance down, but the SSD chews up that loading and spits out fast responses.Pro's:- Speed (Boots to Win7 64 Pro on my laptop in 23 seconds with no optimization, 45 seconds on my desktop fully optimized)- Cost (I picked up the 500GB for $199, thats the best deal possible for the top performing drive in this category for size and speed)- Easy to install, includes software for disk cloning or data transfer if you choose. I like the Samsung Magician overview software that tells you all you will need to know on how to manage and optimize your drive to get the most from it.- Samsung tech support is great. I called them after purchasing the drive to ask about my Performance test numbers post full reload, see what I could do to better make use of the drives full capability. The technician was friendly and patient with me, didnt talk down to me and we talked back and forth for a few minutes. Definitely impressed with the support I received.Con's:- No mounting hardware or spacer for a laptop. If you look at Crucial MX series drives you will see they include a thin line spacer to help secure the drive in place by filling that difference of depth that occurs when shifting from a physical spinning platter drive (HDD) to a SSD. Samsung does not include a spacer, or mounting hardware. Again it didn't bother me as I planned to buy a bracket to mount it to my case anyway and already did my research and knew about the lack of mounting hardware. But for some this is a con. So be aware that you will need mounting hardware for a desktop application, and possibly a spacer for your laptop of choice.I have had both the 850 EVO by Samsung and the Crucial MX100 series. If you can get one or the other at the same price get the Samsung, its faster, by only a little but it is the standard setter for its class in SSD technology. If the price goes back up to the $240 mark, then I suggest you look at the Crucial MX series. They are very close in performance and more cost friendly on average.------------------------------------------------Update 10/2/2015In addition to my previous two 850 EVO drives. I have purchased two more 250GB for updates. I used one on my wife's WIN7 college notebook and the other on my mother-in-laws WIN8 desktop. Both run flawless as expected and increase performance and extend the life of the machines they are in. As the price continues to drop on these drives and SSD's in general as in IT technician I can not stress enough how important it is for you to make the leap from standard HDD to a SSD. You will never look back.

My best yet computer InvestmentI have been a fan of Solid State Drives since they first became available some years ago, installing a 32 GB SanDisk as a program drive in a Lenovo R61 (the SSD is long gone but the Lenovo refuses to die and I am on a mission to see how long it will continue to run).My favorite Laptop is a Lenovo X220 that originally came with a Samsung 128 GB SSD and my intention was primarily to increase storage capacity. From day one the Lenovo has been exceptionally fast with iron-clad stability and reliability. I considered one of the Crucial SSDs as I used several through the years to replace the original SanDisk in the R61, but given the unfailing speed and reliability of the Samsung I thought I would give the new 850 EVO a try.The start of the journey was troublesome, and it has been a long time since I have encountered such frustration in the installation of a new drive. I couldn’t get it to work. I tried Samsung’s migration program numerous times and then resorted to an old stand-by, True Image. I tried almost every trick I have learned over the last 20 years. The migrations would report out as successful, but the drive would not boot. I finally called Samsung Technical Support expecting a 2-week delay but was surprised when I spoke to a very friendly and knowledgeable person after a wait of only several minutes. What he suggested was something I intrinsically knew, but was in territory I wasn’t especially anxious to enter. The problem was with this installation of Windows 8.1, not with the drive.To start with, I am a fan of Windows 8.1. When Microsoft offered version 8 at a ridiculously low introductory price I tried it on an old Laptop – figuring I would get my money’s worth of entertainment from the investment. The old laptop didn’t meet the minimum requirements for Windows 7 and after getting bored looking up migration information I proceeded with an installation on blind faith. It worked, and it worked well. I was astonished. I then proceeded to convert 5 of my 6 PCs to Windows 8 (the R61 still runs XP as it drives an old set of midi-hardware, and it took way too long to figure out all the hierarchies). As a free upgrade, Windows 8.1 was yet another successful step for Microsoft. I have also come to prefer downloads vs. a collection of installation discs that end cluttering up the house. But then I made my first realization – I could not use my Windows 8 product IDs to get the updated 8.1 files that I needed. But once I figured out a work around, the repair to my corrupted files only took a few seconds and I got the new drive to boot.To say I am impressed with the new drive is an understatement. My computer was fast before – capable of thoroughly embarrassing my heavily armored Mac Pro that runs Avid’s ProTools and Media Composer. I love to push computers - see how far ahead of them I can get before they crash. Numbers and test results are fun to read but when the time comes I make my decision and hope that what I select provides real-world performance for my investment dollar. The Samsung exceeds my expectations. I paid almost $500 for my first 40 MB full-height hard drive. When you turned on the computer it sounded like the engines starting on a 777: a low pitched whine that grew in intensity – also providing additional warmth on cold winter nights. Move ahead 20 years and you can buy a 500 GB drive that doesn’t weigh much more than a pack of cigarettes (no I don’t smoke) and is a third the size. And I could drop it without cracking the tile floor.So in conclusion, I would say the Samsung 850 EVO is probably one of the best computer investments I have ever made. And how many people would say that a new SSD can genuinely be ‘fun’? For me, it certainly is. Now I will see how hard I can push it.