Review eVM SSD - 2.5" SATA 1 TB

This is not really going to be a detailed review, since I don't have the tools or the knowhow to do a detailed review.

I had been seeing this SSD on onlyssd.com for a while now. This is the cheapest 1 TB SSD currently available online. It cost me only 4099.

My primary purpose for this SSD is creating a backup server for my photos. My photos currently reside on my Synology NAS and a backup copy is kept on an external HDD. This purpose was currently being served by a Raspberry Pi. However, I want to move the setup to a Libre Computer. Since the Libre Computer has a 2 Amp power supply, as opposed to the Pi's 3 Amp, I felt it might not be able to safely power an HDD. I also saw this as an opportunity to test out this SSD.

I ordered this SSD yesterday morning from OnlySSD.com (PrimeABGB). Since the shop is in Mumbai, same as me, I received it in just 1 day. It came in a fairly standard packaging, hard plastic pack inside a box. The package contained nothing else other than the SSD itself (not even a warranty card).

Out of the box, the SSD feels solidly built. I have 2 other SATA SSDs with me (one from Oscoo and one from Kingston) and this one feels the most solid of the three. Not that it matters a lot for an internal SSD, but a well built product does inspire confidence.

To initialize and test it, I first connected it to my NUC via an Orico enclosure over USB 3.0. I was surprised to see the capacity as 956 GB on Windows. For a 1 TB drive, it's pretty much standard that it would be 931.5 GB. So unlike other HDDs and SSDs I've owned, which count 1 TB as 1000 GB, this one counts 1 TB as 1024 GB, hence the higher capacity. My WD Black 1 TB is also 931.5 GB.

I then fired up Crystal Disk Info, hoping to find out the internal model number, and thereby the original manufacturer of the SSD. To my surprise, it just showed EVM SSD, pointing to a clean white-labelled product. Searching for the number shown in Firmware points to Netac SSD, but I can't be entirely sure if that's the original manufacturer of this SSD. The drive or the box itself gives no indication as to the original manufacturer. It's worth noting though that the box says Country of origin: Taiwan, but Netac is a Chinese company, has no manufacturing facilities in Taiwan. It's also worth noting that eVM's website gives no indication that it is an importer and claims to sell products manufactured in India. Techies here would very well know that there are no flash drive manufacturing facilities in India as of yet.
CrystalDiskInfo_20230302210725.png


I then tried copying a 2 GB file to the SSD over USB. I got a write speed of 300 MBps for the entire file (i.e., less than 7 seconds). I will be trying out with larger files later. As of now, I didn't have any on my NUC and the SSD was not detected by my Synology NAS for some reason.

I then proceeded to run Crystal Disk Mark, the results of which are shown below:
CrystalDiskMark_20230302210310.png


The results are fairly impressive, given the price of the SSD.

Lastly, I would like to point out a few things.
  • I could not find any reviews or specs of any eVM SSD online.
  • The official website does not give a spec sheet or anything similar.
  • There is no mention of an endurance rating anywhere. It says it has 5 years warranty, so I hope it wouldn't be too bad. The warranty policy also does not mention any TBW limits.
I will be posting pictures of the SSD tomorrow.
 
Isn't Purple a surveillance drive ? I have always wondered why do these get recommended for NAS unless of course, the NAS is used to store surveillance data.
It's just branding. There's practically no difference for a regular user. Surveillance data is also zeroes and ones, like any other data.
 
It's just branding. There's practically no difference for a regular user. Surveillance data is also zeroes and ones, like any other data.
 
I fail to see any problem. Apart from the one guy who said he has a problem (and most likely due to a faulty drive), most others just point it that it's not "supposed" to be used this way.

I read hundreds of posts before buying one for myself. Majority just say that chances of data corruption is higher and it's only meant for surveillance systems. I failed to find any actual reports of data corruption or issues from actual users. Which makes sense, because a drive which has frequent data corruption issue, will not be used by anyone.

I have been using it for more than a year now on my Synology (no Surveillance, just regular data storage) and am yet to face any issue. It's just plain voodoo marketing by manufacturers. It's a perfectly fine hard drive to use for normal people.
 
The Disk drives maybe the same internally but the firmware may be optimized for the various different scenarios the drives may be used in .
Thus same drives internally but different firmware for storage and surveillance drives .
 
The Disk drives maybe the same internally but the firmware may be optimized for the various different scenarios the drives may be used in .
Thus same drives internally but different firmware for storage and surveillance drives .
Correct but as per some experienced users comments on reddit, those optimized firmware "unique features" only come into effect when using under the hdd under those "unique conditions". Kind of like how a 35w charger will charge a compatible quick charge phone at fast speed but charge an incompatible/power locked charging(like samsung lower end models) at usual 10w.
@gourav
 
I fail to see any problem. Apart from the one guy who said he has a problem (and most likely due to a faulty drive), most others just point it that it's not "supposed" to be used this way.

I read hundreds of posts before buying one for myself. Majority just say that chances of data corruption is higher and it's only meant for surveillance systems. I failed to find any actual reports of data corruption or issues from actual users. Which makes sense, because a drive which has frequent data corruption issue, will not be used by anyone.

I have been using it for more than a year now on my Synology (no Surveillance, just regular data storage) and am yet to face any issue. It's just plain voodoo marketing by manufacturers. It's a perfectly fine hard drive to use for normal people.
Yes. From what the WD Staff mentioned, random read/write will not be as fast as a normal desktop drive and it will not go into power saving mode if not in use. Only the second may matter for NAS.
 
How reliable are these drives? Their 2 TB drives are very cheap compared to others. Onlyssd doesn't have those. In amazon its being sold with small premium still cheaper.
There were few negative comments for Drive failed or DOA. What happened after that no one reported.

I have to choose between 4 TB Inrnal or 2 TB SSD
 
How reliable are these drives? Their 2 TB drives are very cheap compared to others. Onlyssd doesn't have those. In amazon its being sold with small premium still cheaper.
There were few negative comments for Drive failed or DOA. What happened after that no one reported.

I have to choose between 4 TB Inrnal or 2 TB SSD
Buy 2TB SP from amazon, just a bit costlier than EVM.
 
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Yes. From what the WD Staff mentioned, random read/write will not be as fast as a normal desktop drive and it will not go into power saving mode if not in use. Only the second may matter for NAS.
It might actually be better suited to NAS than normal drives. Surveillance drives usually have some special AT commands for streaming/contiguous read/writes, but if you're not using them, it will act as a normal drive. That being said, these drives might last longer than normal drives because, like a NAS, they're supposed/made to run 24×7. I can't really recommend them for normal PC use, but they should work fine for that too…
Though I'm not sure if they're rated for vibration, like when having multiple drives running close by? They should be, but I've not looked it up.
 
If anyone interested.. just got a email from them. 5 Year Warrenty is interesting.
It is nothing like that. Basically, it just shows that EVM got these generic Chinese ssd at such low cost that even after giving 5 years warranty with a failure rate of 10-20%(just my assumption but their reliability will be certainly lower than any established brand for sure especially when going by online & real world comments about another similar brand Consistent) it will still make profit. Better spend 1k more & get 2TB SP from amazon after some card discount/offer.
Though I'm not sure if they're rated for vibration, like when having multiple drives running close by? They should be, but I've not looked it up.
Multiple drives vibration is only an issue when running almost dozen or more drives in a server rack or prebuilt NAS like synology with 4 or more bays, typical home user will never face such an issue.