Samsung MZQLB960HAJR 960 GB PM983 PCIe 3.0 x4 U.2 (2.5") Read Intensive Solid State Drive

General

Brand	Samsung
Model	PM983
Capacity	960 GB
Usage Class	Read Intensive

Interface

Host Interface	PCIe 3.0 x4
Total Interface Bandwidth	8 Gb/s

Physical Dimension

Form Factor	U.2 (2.5")

Flash & Endurance

NAND Flash	Samsung V-NAND 3-bit TLC
Drive Writes Per Day	1.3
Total Bytes Written	1366 TBW

Performance

Sequential Read	3000 MB/s
Sequential Write	1100 MB/s
Random Read IOPS	400000
Random Write IOPS	40000
Average Latency	85 μs

Reliability

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

Part Number

MPN	MZ7LH480HAHQ-00005

Engineer's Note

Compared with the previous-generation MZ7LH480HAHQ-00005, the PM983 MZQLB960HAJR doubles capacity to 960 GB and upgrades to a PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe architecture, delivering up to 3000/1100 MB/s and 400,000/40,000 IOPS for a clear step up in throughput and transaction responsiveness. With Samsung V-NAND 3-bit TLC, 1.3 DWPD, and 1366 TBW, this drive is a strong fit for read-centric virtualized infrastructure, scale-out storage, and analytics nodes that need higher density and better sustained enterprise endurance than legacy mainstream SSDs.

Endurance & Reliability

With an endurance rating of 1,366 TBW and 1.3 DWPD, the MZQLB960HAJR is designed to handle sustained daily writes with ample margin in typical enterprise and mixed-use environments. In practical terms, for common OS, boot, logging, and general application workloads, this level of endurance supports long-term, worry-free operation and is more than sufficient for use as a reliable system drive over many years. For enterprise reliability, the drive includes Power Loss Protection (PLP), which helps protect in-flight data and metadata during an unexpected power interruption, reducing the risk of corruption and improving operational stability. Its UBER of 1.0E-17 indicates an extremely low rate of unrecoverable bit errors, giving procurement teams added confidence in data integrity for business-critical deployments.

Technical Specs & Insights

1. The PCIe 3.0 x4 interface provides ample host bandwidth for enterprise servers, helping accelerate data movement for virtualization clusters, analytics pipelines, and scale-out storage nodes.
2. Its strong sequential read performance shortens large-file access and dataset loading time, making it well suited for backup recovery, media streaming, and read-heavy content repositories.
3. The high random read capability enables fast response under heavily fragmented, small-block workloads, which is especially valuable for OLTP databases, VDI boot storms, and metadata-intensive applications.
4. With enterprise-class write endurance, the drive can sustain consistent daily rewrite activity over its service life, reducing replacement risk in mixed-workload servers and always-on data center deployments.
5. Built on Samsung V-NAND 3-bit TLC and tuned for low typical latency, it balances capacity efficiency with predictable flash response, supporting better VM density and steadier application QoS in read-centric environments.

Capacity Sweet

Reference capacities in the same series: Lower capacity: 480 GB Higher capacity: 1.92 TB At 960 GB, this SSD sits in the sweet spot of the lineup. Compared with the 480 GB model, it gives materially better headroom for OS images, application binaries, logs, and short-term data growth, reducing the risk of early capacity pressure. Compared with the 1.92 TB version, it preserves nearly the same enterprise-class performance profile while offering a more efficient cost point and lower stranded capacity risk. It is well suited for mid-scale virtualization, such as hosting boot and utility volumes for roughly 40 to 60 mixed-workload virtual machines.

FAQ