Samsung 980 Pro 2TB with Heatsink Review

Conclusion

The Samsung 1TB 980 Pro we reviewed previously was a star showing. Now, all these months later we've got the 2TB model on hand with it's new, more affordable, heatsink, and the results are almost identical to those before. It's still as fast and reliable as you would expect a Samsung drive to be.

What has happened in the intervening months though is that the competition has greatly improved. Once Samsung stood head and shoulders above everyone else, whereas now they are in the Peloton. Still very close to the front runners, but no longer so far ahead they can look behind them in triumph. This shift in the market is partly a result of Samsung getting things so right out of the PCI Express 4.0 gate that they were already damn close to saturating the available bandwidth, so there isn't much further to go without investing resources into a 990 Pro or whatever the next one is called. But it's also partly because Samsung is a massive company and new products take time to reach fruition. Others, such as Sabrent, can react much faster to any slight technological advances because they work in much smaller quantities with smaller factories.

The benefits this does bring though is that Samsung isn't run by idiots. They know that the have been some models overtaking them in the performance stakes, and thus the pricing of the 980 Pro has been reduced to better reflect it's positioning in the global marketplace. The benefits of being a massive corporation is also being able to tweak your pricing without crippling the company. Plus, and this cannot be underestimated, the brand value of Samsung is exceptional. They know that they're a gigantic company with heavy brand recognition. This gives you the knowledge that if anything did go wrong they'd still be there tomorrow, and still have enough stock on hand to replace your purchase without a quibble. That too has a value, even if it's one that cannot be seen in graphs.

The Samsung 980 Pro 2TB is still a very fast M.2 drive, albeit one that isn't as dominatingly quick as it was when it first launched. The addition of a heatsink for barely any increase in price over the plain drive makes it an attractive proposition and one that wins the 980 Pro our OC3D Gamers Choice Award.

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