Fake Samsung 870 EVO uses a Realtek controller and unmarked NAND
Counterfeit SSDs are becoming difficult to identify without testing their hardware and full storage capacity. A fake Samsung 870 EVO examined by AKIBA PC Hotline used packaging, labels and an enclosure designed to closely match Samsung’s genuine 2TB SATA drive.
The differences were difficult to spot without placing both drives side by side. Windows also detected the counterfeit as a 2TB SATA SSD. CrystalDiskMark reported up to 492 MB/s read and 467 MB/s write speeds, which are within the range expected from a working SATA drive.
The fake drive stopped writing after 120GB
The main problem appeared during a full-capacity H2testw test. The drive stopped writing data after reaching approximately 117,227MB, or around 120GB. Its write speed dropped to zero and the test could not continue.
Source: AKIBA-PC
The data already written to the drive could not be verified either. The storage area became inaccessible and the SSD was no longer detected normally after restarting the system. A buyer could therefore use the drive without noticing anything unusual until more than 120GB of data had been stored, potentially losing everything already copied to it.
When the capacity is falsified, data written beyond the actual capacity cannot be read correctly, and verification usually reports an error. However, with this counterfeit product, the write speed drops to 0KB/s when the written capacity reaches around 117,227MB (approximately 122,921,418,752 bytes), and data writing stops completely.
The write test was terminated, and an attempt was made to verify the data that had already been written, but this failed due to an error. As a result, access to the storage area of the counterfeit SSD became virtually impossible, and after the OS restart, it was no longer recognized as a normal SSD.
— Akiba PC (translation)
Opening the enclosure confirmed that the internal hardware had nothing in common with a genuine Samsung 870 EVO. The fake used a RayMX RM1135T controller from Realtek and two NAND packages without visible markings. Samsung’s original drive uses a Samsung controller, Samsung NAND and a dedicated DRAM cache.
Not just Sata SSDs
We previously reported on a more advanced fake Samsung 990 PRO that reached 7.2 GB/s and successfully completed a full-capacity test. That drive still used a different controller and NAND underneath the copied label. This fake 870 EVO is less capable, but potentially more destructive because it reports 2TB while becoming unusable after writing around 120GB. Samsung SSDs can be checked through Samsung Magician, which identifies genuine retail drives as “Samsung Authenticated.”
Source: Akiba-PC
