Although the Samsung 990 Pro has replaced it, the Samsung 980 Pro used to be one of the best SSDs around. Now, it may be close to three years old, but

Fake Samsung 980 Pro SSDs Are Spreading Around

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Style Pass

2023-03-19 20:00:06

Although the Samsung 990 Pro has replaced it, the Samsung 980 Pro used to be one of the best SSDs around. Now, it may be close to three years old, but it's still a popular PCIe 4.0 drive that's much more affordable than its successor, so it doesn't come as a shock that there are many knockoffs on the market.

One Chinese user from the Baidu Tieba (opens in new tab) (via Harukaze5719 (opens in new tab) ) forums recently encountered an imitation posing as the Samsung 980 Pro. The phony drive had everything that suggested that it was legit: the Samsung 980 Pro 2TB sticker and the firmware, which later turned out to be fake. The forgery was so good that the mysterious drive even managed to fool the Samsung Magician software. Once the sticker was removed, the drive had all the signs of a counterfeit SSD.

The SSD utilizes the Maxio MAP1602A PCIe 4.0 SSD controller, the same one that powers the Acer Predator GM7. The SSD controller comes from TSMC's 12nm process node and features a DRAM-less design. More experienced consumers know that Samsung produces and uses its SSD controllers and NAND chips in the brand's SSDs.