The Samsung 980 Pro may be three years old, but it’s still a fairly popular PCIe 4.0 solid-state drive (SSD), due to its good performance and more affordable price than its successor, the Samsung 990 Pro. Unfortunately, the immense popularity of this SSD drive has given rise to imitations that are infiltrating the market. As it is one of the best SSD drives on the market, the news is not too surprising, but it is something to keep in mind if you are after getting one. We’ve seen fake SSDs on Amazon in the past, so it’s worrying to see fake PCIe 4.0 SSDs out there as well. Twitter user @harukaze5719 came across a knockoff of the Samsung 980 pro and posted it on a forum. According to the user, the fake drive looked like a legitimate Samsung 980 Pro: It had the Pro 2TB sticker on it and the firmware even suggested it was the 980 Pro, though it turned out to be a fake. The fake was so good that the drive even fooled Samsung Magician software, which is used to manage users’ SSDs.
The dealer had sold the fake Samsung 980 Pro 2TB SSD for 880 yuan (119 euros), even with the official Samsung packaging. However, the price of the drive is a good indicator that the SSD is fake, since the original costs more than 200 euros on Amazon and Mediamarkt. Based on user benchmarks, the drive had read and write speeds of about 4.8 Gbps and 4.5 Gbps respectively, well below what the actual Samsung 980 Pro offers, which offers read and write speeds of 7 Gbps and 5 Gbps depending on capacity. Obviously, the low performance figures are a clear indication that the user had not bought with the original.
The risk of buying counterfeit computer hardware is always present. You always have to be skeptical with prices that are too good to be true. Before buying, make sure that the seller has good customer reviews.
