The fastest SSD reviewers have tested is back at last year's price. It costs 4,799 CZK

TechRadar’s editorial team summarized this drive in one sentence: “the fastest write speed we’ve ever tested”. The Samsung 9100 PRO now costs 4,799 CZK with code ALZADNY20 instead of 5,999 CZK – roughly the price it sold for a year ago before memory prices soared.

👍 Get it if you have a motherboard with PCIe 5.0 and work with large files, video, or AI models.
🤔 Hesitate if you primarily want the drive for gaming – reviewers agree that you’ll practically not notice a difference compared to PCIe 4.0 drives in game loading.
💰 Price tag: 4,799 CZK for the fastest consumer drive on the market; slower PCIe 4.0 models can be bought cheaper.

Double the previous generation

Samsung waited a long time for PCIe 5.0, but the result is worth it. Inside sits a proprietary Presto controller manufactured with a 5nm process and the eighth generation of V-NAND memory – thus, the entire drive is Samsung’s own, from chips to firmware, which is not the case for competitors using Phison controllers. Declared speeds are 14,800 MB/s for reading and 13,400 MB/s for writing, roughly double that of the previous 990 PRO.

Even more important than sequential speeds are random operations: 2,200,000 IOPS for reading and 2,600,000 for writing. StorageReview’s editorial team measured 9,542 MB/s for reading and 9,907 MB/s for writing in the Blackmagic test, which simulates video editing – almost double that of the 990 PRO and the competing WD SN850X. And an interesting fact for today: Samsung states that the drive can halve the loading time of large AI models compared to previous-generation drives.

Who will truly benefit from the speed

Reviewers are unusually united here, and it’s fair to reiterate. TechRadar lists the drive among its main criticisms as “best choice, but not for gamers”, and PCGamesN adds that the extra speed is often not noticeable in everyday use. The reason is simple: games and the system load many small files, and there, the difference between a top-tier PCIe 5.0 and a good PCIe 4.0 drive is minimal.

Where the speed will be fully evident: 4K and 8K video editing, working with large datasets, moving enormous files, and local execution of AI models. If you do these things, the 9100 PRO is the best choice on the market. If you play games and work with documents, you’ll save money with a slower drive and won’t notice any difference.

Two practical notes. Firstly, you need a motherboard with PCIe 5.0 – in an older system, the drive will run at PCIe 4.0 speeds, and you’ll overpay for performance you won’t utilize. Secondly, reviewers repeatedly point out that the drive heats up more than the competition, so proper cooling is needed; this variant comes without a heatsink, so plan for a cooling plate on your motherboard or purchase the version with a cooler. By the way, it’s only 8.8 mm thin and fits even into a PlayStation 5.

For 4,799 CZK, you get the fastest consumer drive available today – just honestly ask yourself if you will truly utilize its performance.

Do you have a PCIe 5.0 slot in your computer, or is PCIe 4.0 still perfectly sufficient for you?

Sources: Alza.cz – product parameters, TechRadar – Samsung 9100 Pro review, StorageReview – 9100 Pro review, PCGamesN – 9100 Pro review, Digital Citizen – 9100 PRO review