Samsung 990 EVO Plus SSD Review: The Mid-Range Speed Demon Worth Your Money

Hey storage enthusiasts! The Storage Guy here with another deep dive into the SSD world. Today we’re tackling the Samsung 990 EVO Plus—a drive that’s been making waves in the mid-range NVMe market. Let’s see if it deserves a spot in your rig!

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What’s the Deal with the Samsung 990 EVO Plus?

The Samsung 990 EVO Plus sits in that sweet spot between “I want speed” and “I don’t want to sell a kidney.” It’s Samsung’s attempt to deliver high-end Gen 4 performance without the premium price tag of their Pro series. And spoiler alert—they might have actually pulled it off!

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Design & Capacity: Keeping It Simple

The 990 EVO Plus comes in three flavors:

• 1TB – $74.99
• 2TB – $129.99
• 4TB – $268.98

One thing to note—Samsung’s keeping it naked here. No pre-installed heatsink, and no heatsink versions available. The single-sided layout is a nice touch though, making it compatible with pretty much any motherboard or even your PS5 (with your own heatsink, of course).

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Performance: Punching Above Its Weight Class

This is where things get interesting. The 990 EVO Plus rocks the latest NAND memory, pushing sequential read/write speeds up to a blistering 7,250/6,300MB/s. That’s knocking on PCIe 5.0’s door while still being a Gen 4 drive!

In my testing:

• PCMark 10: Scored an impressive 753MB/s average, actually beating its bigger brother the 990 Pro and the Crucial T500
• 3DMark Storage: Landed near the top of the charts, showing significant improvement over the regular 990 EVO
• Gaming Performance: Hits about 90% of what the fastest Gen 4 drives can do—a difference you’d need a stopwatch to notice

For gamers, this thing is a beast, especially if you’re slapping it in a PS5. Load times? What load times?

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Thermals: Cool as a Cucumber

Here’s where Samsung really impressed me. The 990 EVO Plus runs surprisingly cool even under heavy loads. The nickel-coated controller is doing some serious work here, using less power while maintaining performance.

That said, I’d still recommend slapping a heatsink on this bad boy if you’re planning any extended heavy workloads. Better safe than thermal throttled!

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The Tech Inside: DRAM-less Done Right

Samsung’s using the same controller as the previous 990 EVO but pairing it with faster memory and updated firmware. It’s a DRAM-less design that relies on Host Memory Buffer (HMB) for caching.

Now, I’m usually the first to roll my eyes at DRAM-less drives, but Samsung has somehow made this work. It’s easily one of the most convincing DRAM-less implementations I’ve seen.

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Reliability: Samsung’s Got Your Back

The 990 EVO Plus comes with a 5-year warranty and a solid 600 TBW per terabyte endurance rating. That means the 2TB model can handle 1,200 terabytes written before warranty concerns—more than enough for typical users.

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What Real Users Are Saying

I’ve combed through customer feedback, and the consensus is overwhelmingly positive:

• Performance and speed get consistent praise
• Installation is reportedly a breeze
• Samsung’s software makes setup user-friendly
• Many consider it excellent value for money
• No reports of crashes or errors

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The Verdict: To Buy or Not to Buy?

Buy it if:

• You want high-end performance without the high-end price
• You’re building a gaming rig or upgrading your PS5 storage
• You appreciate a good balance of speed, reliability, and value

Look elsewhere if:

• You have a PCIe 5.0 system and want to max out its capabilities
• You absolutely need a drive with DRAM (though honestly, you probably won’t notice the difference)

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Final Thoughts

The Samsung 990 EVO Plus is a seriously impressive drive that punches well above its weight class. It delivers near-flagship performance at mid-range prices, runs cool, and comes with Samsung’s legendary reliability.

For most users—even enthusiast gamers—this drive hits the sweet spot of performance and value. It’s a significant upgrade over the standard 990 EVO and can hang with drives costing much more.

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If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up - I respond to all messages. Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch you in the next review!