Samsung 970 EVO Plus 2TB (MZ-V7S2T0B/AM)
A reliable PCIe 3.0 upgrade with strong endurance, now outpaced by newer drives.
The short version
- Owners of PCIe 3.0 desktops and laptops who want a reliable 2TB upgrade
- Anyone who values a long warranty and high endurance rating over peak speed
- Your motherboard supports PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 and you want the speed it offers
- You regularly copy single files of 100GB or more and need steady write speed
What owners like
- Fast in everyday use and a clear step up from the original 970 EVO
- Holds speed better than many TLC drives once its cache runs out
- Long warranty and high endurance rating for the price tier
Common complaints
- Write speed drops sharply on very large transfers once the cache is full
- Later units ship with a different controller, which ran warmer and showed lower post-cache synthetic writes in testing
- PCWorld noted reports of instability on some Mac systems at launch
Based on Samsung's product page, PCWorld's review of the 500GB model and SamMobile's report on the hardware revision.
Research scores
Scored from the maker's specs and what owners report. Drew's own notes and photos will refine these.
Ownership
Drew's hands-on notes for this product are on the way. Long-term updates will be added to this timeline.
What it does
A 2TB PCIe 3.0 NVMe M.2 2280 solid state drive from Samsung, an older model that Samsung's own Canadian product page now lists as out of stock.
- Fits any M.2 2280 slot that supports NVMe, and runs in PCIe 4.0 slots at PCIe 3.0 speed
- Rated by Samsung for 1,200 terabytes written on the 2TB model
- Dedicated DRAM cache, which helps keep everyday responsiveness steady
- Hardware encryption support for TCG Opal
- Five year limited warranty
A dependable pick for upgrading a PCIe 3.0 desktop or laptop, with a 1,200 TBW endurance rating and a five year warranty. The trade-off is age: it tops out at PCIe 3.0 speeds, writes slow down once the cache fills, and Samsung quietly changed the controller partway through production, so two drives with the same name can behave a little differently.
How it compares
Specs
- Capacity
- 2TB
- Interface
- PCIe Gen 3.0 x4, NVMe 1.3
- Form factor
- M.2 2280
- Flash
- Samsung V-NAND 3-bit MLC
- Cache
- 2GB low power DDR4 SDRAM
- Sequential read / write
- Up to 3,500 / 3,300 MB/s (maker rating)
- Random read / write (QD32)
- Up to 620,000 / 560,000 IOPS (maker rating)
- Endurance
- 1,200 TBW
- Warranty
- 5 years or 1,200 TBW, whichever comes first
- Encryption
- AES 256-bit, TCG Opal, IEEE1667
Questions
Is the Samsung 970 EVO Plus discontinued?
Samsung's Canadian product page shows it as out of stock and does not name a successor. It is still listed on Amazon, and Samsung's newer 990 series drives are on sale.
Does the 970 EVO Plus work in a PCIe 4.0 slot?
Yes. NVMe drives are backward compatible, so it works in a PCIe 4.0 M.2 slot but runs at PCIe 3.0 speed.
What changed in the revised 970 EVO Plus?
SamMobile reported Samsung swapped the Phoenix controller for the Elpis controller and enlarged the cache. Synthetic post-cache writes fell, but a large real file copy finished faster on the new version.
How fast is the 970 EVO Plus 2TB?
Samsung rates it for up to 3,500 MB/s reads and 3,300 MB/s writes.
Sources
- Amazon: Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD 2TB NVMe M.2 (MZ-V7S2T0B/AM)
- Samsung Canada: 970 EVO Plus NVMe M.2 SSD 2TB
- PCWorld: Samsung 970 EVO Plus review
- SamMobile: Samsung quietly revised the 970 EVO Plus SSD with a new controller
Researched 2026-10-02. We bought this product; our page is built from the maker's details and what owners report across reviews and forums. We never copy Amazon customer reviews.
