MZVLB512HAJQ-00000 - 512GB PM981 NVMe M.2 SSD | Samsung
MPN: MZVLB512HAJQ-00000 ✗ End of Life| Qty | Unit Price | Extended |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $49 | $49.00 |
| 10 | $44.5 | $445.00 |
| 100 | $39 | $3,900.00 |
| 500 | $33.5 | $16,750.00 |
| 1,000 | $28 | $28,000.00 |
MZVLB512HAJQ-00000 Overview
An M.2 NVMe SSD (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a small-form-factor solid-state drive that connects directly to the host CPU via the NVMe protocol stack on top of PCIe lanes. Compared to SATA SSDs that top out near 550 MB/s, NVMe drives move multi-gigabyte data streams in seconds and have largely replaced SATA for primary OS and application drives in modern notebooks, ultrabooks, workstations, and small-form-factor desktops.
Key characteristics of this drive: 512 GB user-addressable capacity, sequential reads commonly benchmarked near 3000 MB/s and writes around 1400–1800 MB/s, PCIe 3.0 x4 host interface, TLC 3D V-NAND with a DRAM cache for low-latency random access, and a 22×80×3.5 mm M.2 2280 mechanical outline. The PM981 family was launched in 2017 as Samsung's OEM/embedded NVMe drive used in Lenovo, HP, Dell and other OEM notebooks before the retail PM981a and 970 EVO branding.
The Polaris/Phoenix controller exposes eight NAND channels and supports NVMe 1.2/1.3 features such as APST power states and S.M.A.R.T. telemetry. Because the firmware is OEM-tuned, exact sequential numbers vary by firmware revision (e.g., EXA7301Q is widely observed in the wild); refer to platform benchmarks for representative throughput.
Typical applications are OEM notebook storage upgrades, ultrabook primary boot drives, workstation scratch disks, and embedded/edge NVR or industrial PCs that need a compact, high-throughput NVMe drive in the M.2 2280 form factor. In legacy HP Pavilion 15-bc550na and Lenovo ThinkPad P71 systems, the MZVLB512HAJQ-00000 is the factory-installed M.2 drive and is a known-good upgrade baseline.
When designing in or sourcing this part, note that the MZVLB512HAJQ is an OEM-only P/N (not retailed in retail Samsung 970/990 channels). It is drop-in compatible with MZVLB512HAJQ-000H1, -000H2, -00007, -000L2 and -000L7 firmware variants that share the same 512 GB PM981 hardware.
This page aggregates OEM firmware lists, verified distributor availability, M.2 2280 drop-in equivalents, and design notes drawn from real forum and OEM service-manual data not found in a single manufacturer PDF.
Drop-in alternatives for MZVLB512HAJQ-00000 — same package, pin-to-pin compatible. Different-package parts requiring PCB rework are excluded.
Quick Comparison Tool — Select alternative parts for side-by-side comparison:
MZVLB512HAJQ-000H1
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MZVLB512HAJQ-000H2
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MZVLB512HAJQ-00007
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MZVLB512HAJQ-000L2
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MZVLB512HAJQ-000L7
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MZVLW512HMJP-000L1
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WDS500G2X0C-00L350
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THNSF51T02CS01M
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MZVLB512HAJQ-00000 Maximum Ratings & Electrical Characteristics
| Series | PM981 (Polaris) |
| Capacity | 512 GB |
| Form Factor | M.2 2280 |
| Interface | PCI-Express 3.0 x4 (NVMe) |
| Protocol | NVMe 1.2 / 1.3 |
| NAND Type | Samsung 64-layer TLC 3D V-NAND |
| Controller | Samsung Polaris / Phoenix (S4LR020) |
| DRAM Cache | LPDDR4 (on-module) |
| Sequential Read (typ.) | ~3000 MB/s |
| Sequential Write (typ.) | ~1400–1800 MB/s |
| Operating Temperature | 0 °C to +70 °C (consumer) |
| Storage Temperature | -45 °C to +85 °C |
| MTBF | 1.5 M hours (per Samsung SSD datasheet family) |
| Form Dimensions | 22 mm × 80 mm × 3.5 mm |
| Mounting Type | Surface Mount / M.2 socket 3 (M-key) |
| Compliance | NVMe 1.2/1.3, PCI-SIG PCIe 3.0, RoHS |
| OEM Variant Suffixes | -00000 / -00007 / -000H1 / -000H2 / -000L2 / -000L7 |
MZVLB512HAJQ-00000 standard Pin Configuration Guide
Pin configuration for MZVLB512HAJQ-00000 (standard package). This digital IC includes GPIO, communication interfaces (UART, SPI, I2C), and power pins. Refer to the manufacturer datasheet for alternate pin functions and configuration options. Essential for embedded system design and PCB layout.
No detailed pinout data available for MZVLB512HAJQ-00000.
Refer to the datasheet for full pin configuration.
Typical Applications
MZVLB512HAJQ-00000 is suitable for 7 applications: OEM Notebook Boot Drive, Ultrabook Primary Storage, Workstation Scratch / Cache Drive, Small-Form-Factor Desktop Boot Drive, Embedded / Edge Compute Storage, OEM Service-Part Replacement, Gaming Console M.2 NVMe Upgrade (post-mod).
OEM Notebook Boot Drive
The MZVLB512HAJQ-00000 was originally specified as the factory boot drive for the Lenovo ThinkPad P71, HP Pavilion 15-bc550na and similar 2017-2018 OEM notebooks. Its 512 GB capacity covers Windows 10 and the OEM's recovery partition with margin for typical user data, and the Polaris controller's NVMe stack delivers a 2-3 second boot-to-desktop experience versus 8-12 seconds on the SATA HDDs these laptops were previously sold with. The 22×80×3.5 mm M.2 2280 mechanical outline drops directly into the OEM M.2 socket 3 (M-key) slot without chassis modification, making it a confirmed replacement SKU in OEM service manuals. Compared with a SATA SSD swap, this PM981 typically cuts application launch latency by 50-70% because NVMe bypasses the AHCI queue depth limitation. This is the highest-volume use case for the part: replace a failing OEM SSD with the same P/N to preserve warranty paths and BIOS whitelist compatibility. The drive's TLC NAND is sufficient for typical consumer read-write mixes; the DRAM cache keeps the directory operations fast in everyday productivity use.
Recommended
Ultrabook Primary Storage
The PM981 512 GB's single-sided M.2 2280 layout (3.5 mm thickness) fits the slim 5-7 mm Z-height M.2 slots common to ultrabook chassis where thicker double-sided drives would not seat. Its PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe interface delivers the sustained ~3 GB/s reads required for snappy Photoshop, Lightroom catalog browsing, and large-IDE project loads in modern slim laptops. Compared with a SATA SSD in the same slot, this PM981 gives a 5x throughput boost with similar active power. The LPDDR4 DRAM cache accelerates random 4K reads, which is the dominant IO pattern when launching dozens of browser tabs and Office documents. The single-sided PCB also helps thermal dissipation because all NAND packages are on one side, allowing a flat thermal pad to wick heat into the laptop's bottom cover. This is the canonical use case for M.2 2280 single-sided PM981: a thin-and-light productivity machine where storage speed matters but a SATA SSD would be a wasted PCIe bus.
Recommended
Workstation Scratch / Cache Drive
Workstation builds use the MZVLB512HAJQ-00000 512 GB PM981 as a scratch or cache drive for video editing timelines, 3D render previews, and large dataset staging. Its sustained ~1.5-1.8 GB/s sequential write throughput comfortably handles 4K ProRes/RED media transcodes that would saturate a SATA SSD, while the DRAM cache keeps random seeks for proxy files fast enough for timeline scrubbing. Compared with a SATA SSD scratch drive, the PM981 reduces render-to-preview round trips by 30-40% in DaVinci Resolve and Adobe Premiere workloads. The M.2 2280 footprint allows the drive to share the motherboard's existing M.2 slots without needing additional drive bays, freeing SATA bays for archive storage. For multi-stream 4K editing, designers often install two PM981 drives in RAID 0, hitting effective ~5 GB/s throughput. The OEM-channel nature of the PM981 means it is significantly cheaper than the equivalent Samsung 970 EVO Plus retail, making it attractive for budget workstation scratch arrays where warranty is secondary.
Recommended
Small-Form-Factor Desktop Boot Drive
In Mini-ITX, MicroATX, and HTPC builds, the MZVLB512HAJQ-00000 fits a single-sided M.2 2280 slot on the rear of the motherboard or a riser card, freeing the SATA ports for bulk storage drives. Its 512 GB capacity is the sweet spot for Windows 11 plus a game library of 5-10 large titles, and PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe loads game levels 2x faster than a SATA SSD for open-world games with streaming textures. The 64-layer TLC 3D V-NAND offers endurance adequate for consumer gaming workloads (typically tens of GB of writes per day), and the Polaris controller's thermal throttling profile stays under 70°C on standard motherboard M.2 shields. Compared with a SATA M.2 SSD, this PM981 reduces load times in games like Cyberpunk 2077 by 25-35% on first load, with negligible difference after the level is cached in system RAM. This is the typical DIY-builder upgrade path: take a PM981 pulled from an OEM notebook and reuse it in a small-form-factor desktop as a budget NVMe boot drive.
Recommended
Embedded / Edge Compute Storage
Industrial PC and edge-compute applications use the Samsung PM981 512 GB for high-throughput logging, sensor aggregation, and local AI inference caching. The Polaris controller's NVMe 1.2/1.3 feature set supports Autonomous Power State Transitions (APST), letting the drive drop to under 5 mW at idle - critical for fanless edge boxes where thermal budget is tight. Compared with industrial SATA SSDs in the same M.2 2280 slot, the PM981 delivers 5-10x the throughput per watt for sequential write workloads like video surveillance buffering. The 0-70°C operating temperature range covers most edge deployments, and the 1.5 M hour MTBF meets the 5-year deployment horizon typical of edge nodes. System integrators often pull PM981s from OEM notebook channels because the same part is 30-50% cheaper than industrial-rated equivalents while delivering comparable endurance for write-skewed logging workloads. The OEM firmware can be reflashed to enable S.M.A.R.T. telemetry collection for remote-monitoring pipelines.
Recommended
OEM Service-Part Replacement
Authorized service centers and warranty repair depots stock the MZVLB512HAJQ-00000 as the official OEM service part for Samsung PM981-equipped Lenovo, HP and Dell notebooks. The exact P/N is required because OEM BIOS whitelists and warranty validation may reject generic retail 970 EVO Plus SSDs, even though the hardware is essentially identical. The PM981's identical PCB to the 970 EVO Plus means depot technicians can swap modules in under 5 minutes using only a Phillips screwdriver and standard M.2 mounting screw. Compared with a retail-channel replacement, the OEM P/N preserves the original warranty ticket and avoids 'non-OEM parts used' flags in service databases. This is a routine use case: a failed PM981 in an out-of-warranty laptop is replaced with a service-stock PM981 to restore the laptop to factory configuration. Bulk pricing from secondary distributors (memory4less, harddiskdirect) makes this economically attractive for repair shops handling several such units per week.
Recommended
Gaming Console M.2 NVMe Upgrade (post-mod)
Modders and console hardware enthusiasts use the MZVLB512HAJQ-00000 512 GB PM981 as a PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe M.2 upgrade in systems like the PS5 internal expansion slot (which accepts PCIe 4.0 but downshifts to Gen3) and certain Steam Deck APU-board refreshes. The PM981's Polaris controller runs comfortably at PCIe 3.0 x4 and is supported by common mod firmware loaders. Compared with budget SATA M.2 drives in the same slot, this PM981 delivers Gen3-saturating reads that cut game load times in half. Single-sided M.2 2280 (3.5 mm) form factor is essential because some console chassis cannot accommodate double-sided modules. The 512 GB capacity is the baseline for a usable game library, and Samsung NAND's reputation for low defective-block rate is reassuring when running thousands of hours of game asset reads. Note that warranty implications for console modders mean OEM-channel parts are preferred over retail channels for legal-risk reduction.
Recommended
Recommended Products Summary
Engineering reference data for MZVLB512HAJQ-00000 — comparison, design guidance, and compliance information.
Selection Guide
Comparison with Alternatives
| Parameter | This Product | MZVLB512HAJQ-000H1 | MZVLB512HAJQ-000H2 | MZVLB512HAJQ-000L2 | MZVLW512HMJP-000L1 | WDS500G2X0C-00L350 | THNSF51T02CS01M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brand | Samsung Electronics | Samsung Electronics | Samsung Electronics | Samsung Electronics | Samsung Electronics | Western Digital (WDC) | Toshiba Memory (Kioxia) |
| Package | M.2 2280 (M-Key, single-sided) | M.2 2280 (M-Key, single-sided) - same | M.2 2280 (M-Key, single-sided) - same | M.2 2280 (M-Key, single-sided) - same | M.2 2280 (M-Key, single-sided) - same | M.2 2280 (M-Key, single-sided) - same | M.2 2280 (M-Key, single-sided) - same |
| Capacity | 512 GB | 512 GB | 512 GB | 512 GB | 512 GB | 500 GB | 1 TB |
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x4 (NVMe) | PCIe 3.0 x4 (NVMe) | PCIe 3.0 x4 (NVMe) | PCIe 3.0 x4 (NVMe) | PCIe 3.0 x4 (NVMe) | PCIe 3.0 x4 (NVMe) | PCIe 3.0 x4 (NVMe) |
| Controller | Samsung Polaris/Phoenix (S4LR020) | Polaris/Phoenix (S4LR020) | Polaris/Phoenix (S4LR020) | Polaris/Phoenix (S4LR020) | Polaris/Phoenix (S4LR020) | WD in-house PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe controller | Toshiba TC58NC controller |
| NAND Type | 64-layer TLC 3D V-NAND | 64-layer TLC 3D V-NAND | 64-layer TLC 3D V-NAND | 64-layer TLC 3D V-NAND | 64-layer TLC 3D V-NAND | 64-layer TLC 3D NAND (SanDisk) | Toshiba MLC 3D NAND |
| Sequential Read (typ.) | ~3000 MB/s | ~3000 MB/s | ~3000 MB/s | ~3000 MB/s | ~3400 MB/s | ~3400 MB/s | ~2500 MB/s |
| Sequential Write (typ.) | ~1400–1800 MB/s | ~1400–1800 MB/s | ~1400–1800 MB/s | ~1400–1800 MB/s | ~2300 MB/s | ~2500 MB/s | ~1200 MB/s |
| Channel Type | OEM-only (no retail warranty) | OEM-only (no retail warranty) | OEM-only (no retail warranty) | OEM-only (no retail warranty) | Retail (Samsung 970 EVO, with warranty) | Retail (WD Black SN700, with warranty) | OEM (Toshiba/Kioxia XG3) |
Key Differentiators
- Lowest-cost OEM P/N in the Samsung 512 GB PM981 family (vs MZVLW512HMJP-000L1 (retail 970 EVO))
- Single-sided M.2 2280 (3.5 mm) fits ultrathin laptops where double-sided drives cannot seat (vs WDS500G2X0C-00L350 (Western Digital SN700))
- Drop-in firmware variants preserve OEM service compatibility (vs Generic retail NVMe SSDs)
Design Notes
The MZVLB512HAJQ-00000 is a single-sided M.2 2280 module (3.5 mm Z-height) with all NAND packages and the Polaris/Phoenix controller on one side. In thin laptop chassis, place a 0.5-1.0 mm thermal pad (e.g., Thermalright or generic silicone) between the PCB back and the bottom plate to wick heat into the chassis, which acts as a heatsink. Without a thermal pad, sustained writes can throttle the controller within 30-60 seconds at ambient 25 °C. Estimated worst-case active power is ~5 W (estimated 1.8 GB/s sequential at 3.3 V × 1.5 A), so the thermal pad should be at least 1 W/m-K conductivity for sustained-write workloads.
The MZVLB512HAJQ-00000 uses the standard M.2 2280 M-keyed card-edge connector with 75 contact positions. Pin 1 is on the 22 mm side per PCI-SIG M.2 specification. Do not attempt to install in a SATA-only M.2 slot (B-key or B+M-key) - the M-key notch (single slot at positions 12-19) physically blocks SATA-while-itting SSDs. The mounting screw hole is at the 80 mm end; use a standard M2.5x3 standoff and a 0.6 Nm torque on the screw to avoid PCB warping.
Do not confuse OEM P/N variants (MZVLB512HAJQ-00000, -00007, -000H1, -000H2, -000L2, -000L7) with the retail Samsung 970 EVO Plus (MZ-V7S512BW) or 980 (MZ-V8V500B). The OEM variants have no retail warranty, may be flagged by OEM BIOS whitelists if installed in Lenovo/HP/Dell service-warranty contexts, and ship with OEM-tuned firmware. For OEM notebook service replacements, match the OEM P/N exactly; for new consumer builds, prefer retail 970 EVO Plus with Samsung Magician support and a 5-year warranty.
In motherboard layouts, route the PCIe 3.0 x4 lanes from the CPU or chipset to the M.2 socket with 90 Ω differential impedance and avoid right-angle bends within 5 mm of the connector. M.2 NVMe signal-integrity compliance is sensitive to via stubs; use back-drilled vias or route the M.2 lanes on the top layer with no via transitions. Keep the M.2 slot away from high-current VRM inductors to prevent conducted noise from coupling into the PCIe lanes.
Compliance Information
RoHS and REACH compliance per Samsung-SM family PM981 product page; not AEC-Q100 qualified (consumer-grade SSD, automotive applications require Samsung Auto SSD).
