What is it?
The MZ-77Q8T0 is cheapest 8TB SSD drive in the market. And from none other than Samsung, the world's largest SSD vendor. For Prime Big Deal Day October 2023, Amazon has cut the price of the the 870 QVO to its cheapest yet at $319.99, down from $369.58.
What makes it so special?
At less than $40 per TB, it is the cheapest large capacity drive on the market, albeit on a dying form factor and interface (2.5-inch, SATA). 2TB and 4TB models are still cheaper on a per TB basis but just. (the T-Force Vulcan 4TB costs $138 - $34.50/TB - while the 2TB model retails for $63 - $31.50/TB). The 870 QVO 8TB launched back in June 2020 costing nearly $900 back then.
What else should I know?
Samsung opted for QLC 3D V-NAND technology, which usually means lower endurance (write wear) and performance, especially as the SSD reaches full capacity. For this reason, QLC-based SSDs also usually have a shorter warranty compared to similar products. For what it’s worth, the Samsung 870 QVO's warranty is three years (or up to 2.88 Petabytes written). Samsung mitigates some of the issues associated with QLC using a feature called Intelligent TurboWrite, which accelerates write speeds and maintains long-term performance with a larger variable buffer, delivering speeds of up to 530MB/s and 560MB/s in read/write.
Any cons?
The 3-year warranty pops to mind and the fact that it uses SATA drive. Tomshardware also mentioned the slow write performance after the 1GB cache fills but that's expected. It's worth noting that Samsung didn't release any 8TB SSD after the 870 QVO. The current upper limit is 4TB.
What have others said about it?
Tomshardware (4/5, September 2020) Samsung’s 8TB 870 QVO is a quality-built SATA SSD that answers the call of those in need of high capacity and security. At $900, it’s still quite an expensive investment for a product based on QLC flash, and it only has a three-year warranty.
PCWorld (4/5, June 2020) The Samsung 870 QVO SATA SSD offers great everyday performance combined with up to 8TB of capacity. However, while it’s faster than its predecessor, its write performance after running out of cache is extremely weak.
Storagereview (n/a, September 2020) The second-generation of QLC gives Samsung a way to pack more density in the same footprint. This is best highlighted by the Samsung 870 QVO 8TB SSD. Using the SATA interface, the drive can hit up to 560MB/s read and up to 530MB/s write. Users can use this massive capacity to replace aging HDD’s for a good performance boost without sacrificing capacity.
PCMag (4/5, September 2020) If you're looking for one of the best 2.5-inch SATA SSDs in terms of value and performance for the money, search no further than Samsung's SSD 870 QVO, a stellar follow-up to its first QLC-based outing.
More SSD deals
If you’re after a new storage drive that’s equally pacey, but won’t break the bank, check out these alternative SSD deals available in your region:
