GEAR MINI TESTS
SAMSUNG 870 EVO SSD 4TB £395.49/$549 samsung.com
As the amount of data that cameras produce continues to increase – owing to escalating resolution and bit depth as well as large Raw formats – so does the issue of finding a hard drive that is suitable. An SSD is essential, because of its reliability and fast speeds. But getting hold of large-capacity versions has been problematic and they have often been very expensive. Samsung’s new 870 EVO ticks all those boxes: it is fast, robust and comes in large sizes. It is also affordable – think £395.49/ $549 for the largest 4TB drive, which puts an all-SSD workflow within reach of most productions. SSDs like this are ideal for use in laptops that use the standard 2.5-inch SATA interface connection, meaning they are fast enough to edit high-res files on location. They can be used in NAS drives and desktop PCs, too. But perhaps of most interest to filmmakers is using an SSD in an external monitor/recorder. We used a 4TB 870 EVO inside an Atomos Caddy, which slots into any of the Aussie brand’s monitor/recorders. We put it in a Shogun 7 and used it to record Raw files from a Sony FS5, which are then converted to ProRes
Raw in the monitor. The Shogun 7 is capable of Raw at high frame rates up to 240p in HD and 5.7K ProRes Raw files in SDR or HDR. So it’s a real test of whether a drive is fast enough to keep up and deliver. The 870 EVO was easily up to the job. The Atomos recognised the drive immediately and it was formatted with no issues, working flawlessly at all settings. There were no issues here with the drive – nor in terms of being able to keep up. And when the drive was transferring footage to a desktop hard drive for editing, it was fast and there were no glitches. The 870 EVO features Samsung’s latest V-NAND and MKX controller, allowing it to reach the maximum SATA sequential read and write speeds of 560 and 530MB/s respectively. According to Samsung, the 870 EVO offers nearly 38% improvement in random read speed
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SPECIFICATIONS Interface: SATA 6GB/s Formfactor: 2.5in Memory: Samsung V-NAND 3-bit MLC DRAM: LPDDR4 Sequential read/write speed: Up to 560/530MB/s Randomread/write speed: 98K/88K IOPS Management software: SamsungMagician, DataMigration Sizes: 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB
Samsung SSD is the 870 EVO, which is fast and affordable
BELOW The Atomos Shogun 7 recognised the 870 EVO
over the previous 860 model, and around 30% improvement when it comes to sustained performance. Random performance really does show up in things like the time it takes to boot up the drive, as well as using applications such as editing programs. It was quick to boot up in our first test, with no waiting. It also has a power-saving sleep mode compatible with devices that support Windows’ Modern Standby function. The drive also supports Samsung Magician and Data Migration software. Magician gives an overview of the drive status and the used volume amount, as well as the availability of updates. The Data Migration software is simple to use and offers an easy upgrade experience for Samsung SSD users. PROMOVIEMAKERRATING: 9/10 It’s fast, affordable and available in large enough capacities for even the most data-hungry camera. Pros: Fast, silent and affordable Cons: Nothing obvious
instantly, so it was ready to format and use
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