Samsung MZ7LM480HCHP-00003 480 GB PM863 SATA 6.0 Gbps 2.5" Read Intensive Solid State Drive

General

Brand	Samsung
Model	PM863
Capacity	480 GB
Usage Class	Read Intensive

Interface

Host Interface	SATA 6.0 Gbps
Total Interface Bandwidth	6 Gb/s

Physical Dimension

Form Factor	2.5"

Flash & Endurance

NAND Flash	Samsung V-NAND 3-bit TLC
Drive Writes Per Day	1.3
Total Bytes Written	680 TBW

Performance

Sequential Read	525 MB/s
Sequential Write	475 MB/s
Random Read IOPS	99000
Random Write IOPS	17000
Average Latency	120 μs

Reliability

Mean Time Between Failures	2 Million Hours
Uncorrectable Bit Error Rate	1.0×10⁻¹⁷
Power Loss Protection	Yes

Part Number

MPN	MZ7LM480HMHQ

Engineer's Note

Compared with the earlier MZ7LM480HMHQ, the Samsung PM863 MZ7LM480HCHP-00003 delivers a stronger endurance-to-cost profile by pairing Samsung V-NAND 3-bit TLC with 680 TBW (1.3 DWPD), while sustaining up to 525/475 MB/s and 99,000/17,000 random read/write IOPS on a SATA 6.0 Gbps interface. This makes it a particularly strong choice for read-intensive virtualization, web hosting, and scale-out application servers that need higher usable write life and better random-read responsiveness than the previous-generation SATA drive.

Endurance & Reliability

With an endurance rating of 680 TBW and 1.3 DWPD, the MZ7LM480HCHP-00003 is designed to handle sustained daily write activity well beyond typical OS, boot, and general server application workloads. In practical terms, for common system-disk or mixed-read enterprise use, this level of endurance supports many years of stable operation and can comfortably meet long service-life expectations when deployed within its intended workload profile. For enterprise reliability, the drive includes power-loss protection (PLP), which helps preserve data in transit and protects metadata integrity if power is interrupted unexpectedly. Its ultra-low UBER of 1.0E-17, together with a 2 million hour MTBF, indicates a very low probability of unrecoverable read errors and supports dependable operation in business-critical environments.

Technical Specs & Insights

1. The SATA interface provides broad drop-in compatibility with legacy enterprise servers and storage arrays, enabling cost-effective SSD upgrades without changing the existing backplane or controller stack.
2. Its near–bus-limit sequential throughput helps accelerate full-table scans, backup jobs, and large file delivery in read-heavy business applications.
3. Strong random-read performance supports dense virtualization, metadata-heavy databases, and boot storms by keeping small-block access responsive under concurrency.
4. This endurance profile is well suited to mixed-use enterprise workloads that require dependable daily overwrite capability without stepping up to a higher-cost write-optimized drive class.
5. Samsung V-NAND TLC paired with low typical latency delivers a balanced combination of capacity efficiency, predictable QoS, and fast application response for mainstream data center deployments.

Capacity Sweet

In the MZ7LM series, the nearest lower capacity reference is 240 GB, and the next higher capacity reference is 960 GB. The 480 GB model sits at the sweet spot of the lineup: it offers meaningfully more headroom than 240 GB for OS images, logs, and application growth, while avoiding the higher acquisition cost of 960 GB when that extra capacity is not yet required. With similar enterprise-class sequential and random performance across the range, 480 GB is the most balanced choice for cost efficiency, utilization, and deployment flexibility, such as boot and middleware storage for a 12- to 20-node virtualized cluster.

FAQ