Samsung 980 Spec and Price in the United Kingdom
Released March 9, 2021
The 980 is Samsung's entry-level PCIe 3.0 NVMe drive: 3,500/3,000 MB/s sequential on a DRAM-less Elpis controller using Host Memory Buffer, per the datasheet. Dropping the DRAM cache is what lets it undercut the 970 EVO Plus while keeping the same Gen3 ceiling — random IOPS of 480K/500K and 600TB endurance on the 1TB grade still exceed typical budget NVMe. It fits builders on older platforms capped at PCIe 3.0 who want NVMe speed without paying for PCIe 4.0 parts.
Tied 61st of 106 models in the SSD catalog on Sequential read — 7 models share this figure. Tied 62nd of 106 models in the SSD catalog on Sequential write — 5 models share this figure.
Prices include VAT.
Captured periodically and may have changed.- 1TB
- 500GB
Each point is one capture, not a list price. How we track prices
Specifications
- Capacity
- 1TB
- Interface
- NVME
- Sequential read
- 3500 MB/s
- Sequential write
- 3000 MB/s
- Random read
- 480000 IOPS
- Random write
- 500000 IOPS
- PCIe generation
- 3
- Form factor
- M.2 2280
- NAND type
- TLC
- DRAM cache
- Controller
- Samsung Elpis controller
- Endurance (TBW)
- 600 TB
- Warranty
- 5 years
Capacities
Guides for this category
What owners and reviewers say
Summarised from 2 source(s), reviewed September 13, 2026. A source is counted only where it names this model exactly. How we track prices
Commonly praised
- Strong real-world application performance, costing noticeably less than Gen4 alternatives while performing similarly.
- Random write speed is unusually high for a drive without onboard cache, with a generous cache and no thermal throttling.
- Backed by a five-year warranty in a compact form factor.
- Uses host memory instead of onboard cache to keep costs down, and was very affordable relative to its class at launch.
Commonly criticised
- Pricey for a TLC drive that lacks onboard cache, and write throughput drops sharply once the cache is used up.
- Restricted to the previous generation of the interface, with a top capacity of only 1TB.
- Often finished near the bottom of the performance charts, judged a letdown in performance.
Sources behind this summary
Sources
Every spec above was pulled from one of these — a field a source didn't state was left off rather than estimated.