Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2000GB

The Samsung 970 EVO Plus represents the mature peak of PCIe 3.0 NVMe architecture, serving as a refresh to the original 970 EVO by incorporating higher density 9x-layer V-NAND (TLC) memory. The drive is anchored by Samsung’s proprietary Phoenix controller (S4LR020), a 5-core ARM-based processor that utilizes a nickel-coated heat spreader to manage thermal output, paired with discrete LPDDR4 DRAM for address mapping. This vertical integration of controller, firmware, and NAND allows the drive to saturate the PCIe 3.0 x4 interface, delivering random I/O performance that rivals early PCIe 4.0 implementations. The Phoenix controller is historically characterized by high operating temperatures; consequently, under sustained heavy write workloads, the drive may engage thermal throttling sooner than competing drives unless adequate airflow or a heatsink is applied. A hardware revision in late 2021 (part number MZ-V7S2T0B/AM) swapped the original Phoenix controller for the Elpis controller (S4LV003), which maintains advertised sequential speeds but features a significantly smaller SLC TurboWrite cache, altering the drive's sustained write behavior compared to the original release.

Key Specifications

• Interface: PCIe 3.0 x4 / NVMe 1.3
• Max Sequential Speed: 3,500 MB/s Read / 3,300 MB/s Write
• Controller: Samsung Phoenix (S4LR020) or Samsung Elpis (S4LV003) in later revisions
• NAND Type: Samsung V-NAND 3-bit MLC (TLC)
• DRAM Cache: 2GB LPDDR4
• Endurance (TBW): 1,200 TBW
• Security: AES 256-bit Encryption, TCG Opal 2.0, IEEE1667
• Physical: Single-sided PCB (improves compatibility with thin laptops)

Hardware Alternatives

• Western Digital WD Black SN750: The primary historical competitor, offering nearly identical sequential throughput and endurance ratings but using SanDisk/Toshiba BiCS NAND and an in-house WD controller.
• SK Hynix Gold P31: A key technical alternative focusing on power efficiency, using 128-layer NAND to achieve similar performance metrics with significantly lower thermal output and power draw.
• Crucial P5: Another direct competitor in the high-performance PCIe 3.0 segment, utilizing Micron’s in-house controller and 3D TLC NAND, often noted for running hotter than the Samsung equivalent.