SAMSUNG 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E500B/AM)

Dont question this purchase. From the moment I press the power button and the moment I can start clicking the desk icons is 12 seconds. 12! It reads incredibly quick. I play a ton of games and I use this to load the larger game files. Massive difference from the traditional HD

Ive owned Samsung SSDs for years, but this was my first Self Encrypting Drive that I got from them. So Im not going to say that upgrading from a spinning HDD to this SSD makes everything load so much better -- for that read other reviews. They are correct. That is true! I will base my review on the claim that this drive supports hardware based encryption, or this line from the Amazon description page, AES 256-bit hardware-based, encryption... I dont know if people realize that by enabling full disc encryption on their laptops, and by setting up pre-boot authentication and a user account password they can greatly secure their laptop against theft, which, lets face it, is quite prevalent with laptops. I always employed full disk encryption on my computers, which unfortunately always came at a price of a slightly slower drives because of the need for a CPU to encrypt/decrypt all disk operations. But it was worth it!!! So I was very excited to read that this somewhat inexpensive SSD supported AES 256-bit hardware-based encryption. That basically meant no loss in drive speed! So I purchased it... Unfortunately, it turns out that one needs some very specific hardware (besides the SSD itself) to be able to use their mentioned hardware based encryption with Windows, and my (somewhat) older laptop did not quality for such. So Im going to name the requirements here, which are omitted from their main sales pitch: - You will need an Enterprise, Ultimate or Pro version of Windows 10, 8.1 or 7. Just a Home version will not work. For some (dumb) reason Microsoft doesnt put BitLocker on those systems. (BitLocker is the Microsofts built-in full disk encryption service.) So if you have an OS that doesnt support BitLocker, or if you prefer to use an open-source encryption solution, then your only choice is to use software based encryption with VeraCrypt. Its a free solution available online. But it is visibly slower than BitLocker. - You will need a newer UEFI (not BIOS) on your computer that supports CSM option, that you will need to disable. (Note that such will probably require reinstallation of Windows, if it was installed on that drive previously.) - Then to enable hardware based encryption you will need to run Samsung Magician (which is quite a buggy piece of software -- see below), to enable encryption and then Safely erase that SSD. - Only then install Windows and then enable BitLocker that will start using hardware based encryption. (Note that if you just enable BitLocker without doing the steps above, or if you dont have all the necessary hardware, it will work as a software based encryption.) Lastly, to check that you have enabled hardware based encryption, start administrative command line (cmd command) and type: manage-bde -status c: then check the line where it says Encryption method. It must have word hardware in it. If so, youre good! And last, keep in mind that hardware based encryption today is prone to many hacker attacks. Watch this YouTube presentation on how easy it is to break into misconfigured self-encrypting drives: (make it into a link. Amazon doesnt allow posting URLs) youtube.com -slash- watch?v=dG7RQgBK0Zo So make sure to follow advice at the end of that video! Lastly, a review of Samsung services and especially their provided software. The bottom line -- I WAS NOT IMPRESSED. First, their data transfer software. I dont know who wrote it, but it is awful! My old drive that I was migrating to this new SSD had 50 GB of free space (out of 500GB total.) So when I ran their migration software, that was included on the disk, it said that it couldnt start moving the data because it needed more free space on the hard drive. :) How much more? 30 GB more! Which meant that to use their dumb migration software I had to throw out 30 GB of my files! So, no thank you! Instead, I downloaded Macrium Reflect Free software, which did it without such dumb restrictions. Then, that flyout paper with the pictures/explanation of how to transfer data. It shows the cable (see my screenshot) but that cable is not included in the package. Seriously! How can you show it when we dont give us a cable?! So be ware of it. That piece of paper is totally useless. Also keep in mind that the drive does not come with any screws or extensions that may be needed to physically mount it inside your computer. In itself its the size of a 2-1/2 inch laptop drive, but be prepared to have spare screws to attach it. Lastly, their Samsung Magician software. Very BUGGY as well! When I was trying to safely erase this SSD to enable hardware encryption it could not recognize my USB stick to write its bootable software on it. Then when I plugged in another USB stick, it recognized it, but while writing it started giving me weird microsoft like errors and failed. I eventually had to waste a blank DVD to burn it. So the bottom line, if you do all this prepare to waste a lot of time and get a headache at the end. Then, last thought, their software to safely erase the drive. When I tried to do it and booted from the DVD that I burned, it told me that the drive is in the frozen state and to unlock it I had to literally disconnect the SATA cable from it while it was still powered up. Do they realize how absurd that statement is for a laptop?! I had a spinning DVD inside that I just booted their dumb software from, so I cant just flip it up-side-down to take the SSD out without shattering my DVD drive. Plus, its a LAPTOP PEOPLE, to take the SATA connector out, I have to open the back cover and pull the whole thing out. It doesnt just come out one by one! I then typed up an email to Samsung, hoping to get some tech support (I personally HATE calling tech support these days and then end up speaking with some dude in India that reads sentences off the screen in a barely legible English. So done that, and no thank you!) Instead I typed up an email asking to guide me thru and received this response one day later: -------------------------- Thank you for contacting Samsung Support regarding your concerns and inquiries. We apologize for any inconvenience this may be causing you. Pleace (sp.) contact 1-800-726-7864 so we can more accurately assist you. -------------------------- So I eventually gave up.... Too much headache dealing with Samsung for nothing!

Replaces my laptops OEM HDD without losing any capacity and gaining a lot of speed. Boots windows in about 15 seconds.

Performance is outstanding. I bought a 2015 27 5K iMac with the 7200rpm 1TB disk. Much to my shagrin the system was unbearably slow. Performed like an old klunker machine. I bought the 500GB Samsung and enclosed it in an external USB 3.0 case and plugged it in. I didnt want to open the machine to install the drive since its under warranty. Running as an external drive my system flies! Performance is fantastic and now I feel like its a new iMac. Like it so much I bought a 250GB and installed it in an old Macbook Pro that I have and thats now usable again! Woo hoo!!

I bought this to put in my late 2011 Macbook Pro based on the other reviews posted here. Used the Startech cable to connect. I followed the instructions that came with it and it would not recognize the disk. The software that comes with this is for Windows only. I tried to find the software others used on the reviews to make it work and couldnt so I put in my Dell laptop. Worked withou any problems. It does take a while for the machine to come back up after the restart (at first I dint think it was working). Be patient and then bamm. It works amazing. Ive built and upgraded a lot of PCs (not Macs other than adding memory) and I can say withou hesitation thisis the best upgrade u can do to a PC. Everything happens almost instantingly. I would give this 5 stars had I originally bought this for my PC but I didnt. Now I need to find one for my Mac or at least the software to make it work. I was planning on putting this in the Mac and an Extreme Pro in the new Dell laptop. Had I purchased this Dell laptop with the SSD option factory installed it would have cost me twice as much. I savd a bundle for about a half an hour of work.

In one word, I would say it as the best drive in the market.

Totally impressed with the cloning software. Took about two hours to transfer from my 256GB drive to the 500GB drive and when I installed the drive and rebooted, it was ROCK and ROLL!!! *** OK, I have been using this for a couple of days now and the performance increase is very noticeable. Could be that I was running out of space on my other drive, but WOW! *** Highly recommend!

What a difference,, no need for a new computer. This drive got my Dell Inspiron 1420 from 2007 to run faster than the devil, super quick boot times snappy performance. Strongly suggest you do not buy another computer just replace the old hard drive. An added benefit is that you get a clean ssd with no crap programs, in other words you load or rather download clean stuff from the cloud. You will need an original CD or DVD to load the operating system, even an old disk will do as nowadays you get the latest operating system from the cloud. I am not a techy but I sure figured it out on my own. Luckily I did have an old windows OS I think it was Windows 8 disk so after pressing I believe it was F2 I inserted the software into the slot and it loaded the os and the old broweser. As quickly as I could afterwords downloaded Kaspersky anti virus and after that most of my stuff was in the cloud so it downloaded by itself. It has been about 8 months now and its simply fantastic.

Got on sale for under 150$. Great deal and value! Never had a drive so fast! You will notice it right away. Excellent warranty (5yrs), best SSD Ive had so far and have had 4 over the last 3 years. Recommend buy, especially when on sale!

The first drive I received had numerous file errors right away, then stopped responding on the first day. The replacement has been working flawlessly for the past 2 weeks. I bought a USB-to-SATA adapter for the Samsung Data Migration software but couldnt use it. I had two hard drives in my PC, one was the primary drive being replaced and the other is dedicated to backup. The data migration software recognized the incorrect drive and there was no ability to change it. Fortunately I have Acronis software which cloned the primary drive perfectly.