Samsung 9100 PRO with Heatsink internal SSD 4 TB MZ-VAP4T0CW, PCIe 5.0, 14800 MB/s

The 9100 PRO uses four PCIe 5.0 lanes and the NVMe 2.0 protocol. Reads of up to 14,800 MB/s and writes of up to 13,400 MB/s mean a game folder or video project of several tens of gigabytes moves in seconds. According to Samsung, sequential performance is roughly twice that of the previous 990 PRO. Full speed needs an M.2 slot with PCIe 5.0 support; in a PCIe 4.0 slot the drive still works, but the slot sets the limit.

In everyday use random performance matters more than sequential figures: booting, opening programs and game loading screens are made of thousands of small files. The 4 TB model reaches up to 2,200,000 IOPS for 4 KB random reads and 2,600,000 IOPS for random writes. The memory chips are Samsung V-NAND TLC. High random speed pays off most when several apps run at once, for example a game, a stream and a browser.

The drive comes with a factory-fitted heatsink that spreads heat from the controller and memory and helps prevent speed drops under long loads. Samsung says the 5 nm controller improves power efficiency by up to 49% compared with the 990 PRO. Average power draw is 9 W when reading and 8.2 W when writing, and the operating range is 0–70 °C. With the heatsink the drive is 8.88 mm thick and weighs 30 g.

The form factor is standard M.2 2280, or 22 × 80 mm, used on most current motherboards. Samsung states compatibility with PCs and PlayStation 5. In a PS5 the heatsink is already in place, so no separate cooling plate is needed. In a desktop the drive also works well when the motherboard has no M.2 cooling of its own. In a laptop, check first that there is room above the slot for a drive with a heatsink.

The drive supports hardware 256-bit AES encryption, TRIM, S.M.A.R.T. monitoring and the DevSlp power-saving state. Samsung quotes a mean time between failures (MTBF) of 1,500,000 hours and operating shock resistance of 1500 G. The Samsung Magician software helps migrate data from an old drive, monitor drive health and install firmware updates.

PlayStation 5 owners whose internal storage has run short and who want an expansion with a heatsink included; desktop builders whose motherboard has no M.2 cooling of its own; and creators who edit video or work with large photo libraries and need speed even during long copies. 4 TB holds the system, programs and dozens of large games at once.