TeamGroup Z540 2TB ($329) vs Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB ($369). $/TB analysis, performance, and use-case recommendations.
TeamGroup Z540 2TB and Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB are direct competitors — same generation, same capacity. Choose by controller behavior under sustained load, DRAM/HMB cache strategy, and $/TB economics.
Hardware-wise, the TeamGroup Z540 2TB runs on Phison's E26 silicon, which kicked off the consumer Gen 5 era and typically requires a heatsink. The Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB pairs Samsung's Piccolo controller — DRAM-less with PCIe 4.0/5.0 dual-mode support.
The cheaper drive — TeamGroup Z540 2TB at $164.50/TB — saves you $20.00 per TB versus the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB. Worth it if you're capacity-constrained; either works if you just want one fast drive.
On sequential reads the TeamGroup Z540 2TB pulls ahead by 5,150 MB/s (12,400 MB/s versus 7,250 MB/s). That matters for moving large files but rarely shows up in game loads.
Write speeds skew toward the TeamGroup Z540 2TB: 11,800 MB/s sustained against 6,300 MB/s. Content creators feel this; gamers do not.
Cache architecture differs: TeamGroup Z540 2TB has DRAM hardware, Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB uses HMB. For OS, gaming, browsing — indistinguishable. For databases, large file ops, or 4K video editing — DRAM has a small but consistent edge.
Heading to a PlayStation 5? Both drives drop into the console's M.2 bay and report identical real-world benchmarks since the PS5 caps storage at PCIe 4.0 speeds. The TeamGroup Z540 2TB wins this matchup on $/TB. Video editors will gravitate toward the TeamGroup Z540 2TB for its write headroom (11,800 MB/s sustained). Project saves and proxies move faster, which compounds across a workday. Heads-up — these are full-length 2280 drives. Steam Deck and most current handhelds require shorter 2230 modules, so check capacity-specific 2230 variants if that's your target platform.
Market context: we track 11 Gen 5 2 TB drives, and by price per terabyte the TeamGroup Z540 2TB currently sits #2 while the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB sits #4. One of them is genuinely among the cheapest options in its class, so this matchup includes a real value pick.
As of July 27, 2026, these tracked drives undercut both the TeamGroup Z540 2TB and Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB on $/TB:
The TeamGroup Z540 2TB is the right call if the lower retail price ($329 vs $369), better $/TB economics ($164.50/TB), meaningfully faster reads (12,400 MB/s), higher sustained writes (11,800 MB/s), and a dedicated DRAM cache chip matter to you. The TeamGroup Z540 2TB captures the value tier well: same NAND class as flagships, paired with a DRAM-less controller that costs less and uses HMB for the address-mapping table.
The 990 EVO Plus uniquely supports both PCIe 4.0 x4 and PCIe 5.0 x2 modes — useful flexibility if you might upgrade motherboard generations.