Initially, Samsung SSDs were distributed by Prime ABGB in India ever since 830 series came out, and they used to sell like hot cakes. They are known to be rock solid drives and priced very nicely to keep them as a preferred over certain drives with SandForce controllers (and the OCZ drives but then the Vertex 4 had obvious flash NAND degrade issue).
It should be noted that a majority of the companies who are in the SSD business mostly buy controllers from one source, flash NAND from another and have an in-house team to design the firmware, or some parts of it. Most of these drives are based on LSI Sandforce control base with flash NANDs are either from Intel, Toshiba and even SandForce chips.
Micron, SanDisk, Samsung and Intel are the usual ones who make their own controllers (exception on the processing SOC, depending on the series of the SSD), and some of them even have their own flash NANDs. At times there is an upper hand when everything is made in-house: You have your own set of team who have worked building previous models, implement good controller firmware because the hardware is all yours and your own standards that you want to maintain in a solid state drive. Mind you, some of the chips made some of the chip makers, although there maybe nothing really wrong with them, get rejected and sold to much lower tier level SSD manufacturers- or those who want to sell cheap SSDs with lower capacity.
Samsung and Intel probably have a bigger advantage compared to others: we’re talking about those who fabricate a lot more than controllers and flash NAND, therefore having manpower and resources are well in hand. Of course, that doesn’t mean I am saying they could release a bad product or a bad firmware release, nor it means that others could not compete with such manufacturers. But yeah, chances are high for them to release a firmware fix a lot quicker. Remember when LSI Sandforce firmware had TRIM issue? Kingston was the first to release for their 3K drive, followed by Corsair. Some manufacturers have taken their time until recently, like ADATA SX900. But the rev version of their controller was of an older one, whereas newer rev came out. There wasn’t any rev version mentioned on the packaging, so there’s no way of saying whether or not SX900 that you’re buying comes with a newer rev controller or not. Mind you, the newer rev controller for SandForce 2281 is known to be consuming lower power if used with newer firmware, so it does matter up to a point.
Then again, Kingston (for both, HyperX and V Series) and Corsair (at least till Force GS in my observation, before Corsair India preferred reviewers to make them look cute).
I know! I know! 840 Series came few months ago. Well, better late than never!
Samsung India sent their Samsung 840 Pro Edition Solid State Drive which uses Samsung’s own Controller and Flash NANDs. 830 series were very well known for the rock solid performance and a legendary lifespan of the product. That itself would build some pressure on any companies to have a worthy successor!
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