Introduction
Review: ADATA XPG Gaming SX950U 3D NAND SSD 250GB 2.5" SSD
A surprisingly good SSD underneath that RGB
ADATA recently announced their XPG SX950U series SSDs. Being TLC based with a DRAM cache and SLC buffer, the SSD remains fast and effective for the money. We review the new 240GB model which sells for just € 69. The series will is available in 120, 240, 480 and 960 GB versions all offering roughly the same performance at 560 MB/sec reads, 520 MB/sec writes (sequential) and 80 to 90K Random Write IOPS ranges for all models.
You guys likely know it, I've been in the computer industry a LONG time and have noticed that two developments evolve in very fast paces, graphics cards, and storage technology. If you look how far and fast we've become with NAND technology you can only acknowledge, it is just amazing. My first HDD storage unit was connected towards a Commodore 64, back in 1984 (!), that unit was SCSI based and could hold a whopping 10 MB of data, it did that (if memory serves me right) at roughly 40 KB/sec in read performance which honestly was blazingly fast at that time and cost me something in the extent and equivalent of 500 USD / EURO. And yes, here we are in an era where NVMe SSDs reaches 3 GB/sec and SSDs having storage capacities of 2 Terabyte priced at that same level as that Commodore 64 storage unit back in the days. It is these trends that drive SSD storage to the high-level momentum in evolution as we see today: endurance, performance, price, and capacity.
NAND flash memory (the storage memory used inside an SSD) has become cheaper thanks to the newer 48, 64-layer and in the future 96-layer fabrication. Prices a few years ago settled at just under 1 USD per GB. These days a good NVMe SSD can be found under 50 cents per GB. With parties like Samsung, Toshiba, and Micron the prices have now dropped towards and below the 30 cents per GB marker for SATA3 TLC based units. This means that SSD technology and NAND storage have gone mainstream and due to the lower prices, the volume sizes go up as well. A couple of years ago a 64 GB SSD was hot stuff, then slowly we moved to 120 GB, last year 240 GB for an SSD in a PC was the norm, this upcoming year we'll transition slowly to roughly 500 GB and 1 TB per SSD as the norm with sub prices for TLC NAND in the 25 Cents per GB range. With the market being so competitive, it brought us to where we are today. Proper volume SSDs at acceptable prices with very fast performance. Not one test system in my lab has an HDD anymore, everything runs on some form of NAND storage, while I receive and retrieve my bigger chunks of data from a NAS server here in the office. The benefits are performance, speed, low power consumption, no noise and good reliability.
Available in capacities of 120, 240, 480 and 960 GB, these drives are fitted with vertically stacked NAND from Micron (also referred to as 3D NAND). It is paired towards a Silicon Motion SM2258 controller. ADATA guarantees this SSD for 5 years under warranty and at €0,287 per GB, that might actually be a compelling offering. Have a peek and then let's head onwards into the review.
