test of five models of Kingston, SanDisk, Kingmax, ADATA and Intel – Today will will take a look at the Specs, Hashrate, CPU performance and also a testing of this SSD Drive. We will go into more details as it regards to the testing in the article below.
Manufacturers of the first echelon and “close” ones with special contracts (Crucial-Micron, Intel, LiteON, Plextor, Samsung, SanDisk, Toshiba, Transcend, etc.), as a rule, more or less comply with the original specifications of the released model, maneuvering in pricing policy due to a higher margin, as well as the scale of production. Although they can also present surprises.
Companies that order finished products from ODM / OEM-manufacturers with their own brands (ADATA, PQI, PNY, Silicon Power, SmartBuy, etc.) are often deprived of this opportunity. Therefore, they apply a policy of making the price cheaper by choosing cheap hardware configurations (non-original flash memory, asynchronous flash memory instead of synchronous one, simplified controller, etc.). In this case, the formal name of the model of this or that drive during its hardware “modernization” most often remains the same.
Therefore, when reading the review, you should also check the availability of newer materials on this model (not necessarily of the same volume) in the corresponding section of articles – as far as possible, we try to track changes in hardware platforms. There is a separate section on drives on Phison controllers – there is a special conversation about this developer (for example, GoodRAM C100, SmartBuy Ignition 2 and Silicon Power V55 / S55 were at one time the same drive, just with different labels and packaging).
And an overview of a particular drive at a certain moment turns into a historical reference for advanced readers and those who, by the will of fate, became the owner of the old configuration, which is often no less valuable than a reflection of the current state of affairs in the solid-state drive market. This is normal in view of the rapid growth and development of the latter. In this review, you will be introduced to five solid state drives ranging from 60GB to 64GB.
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It is worth noting that this volume is quite modest today. What can we talk about if only the folder of Windows itself can occupy 15-20 GB? Especially for users who do not bother too much with all kinds of “tweaks”, constant cleaning and “polishing” of the system. Modern games are not distinguished by their modest appetites either. Let’s add here photos, documents, music, possibly videos. And almost certainly we will get a disk that is constantly loaded at 50-70% of its volume.
And here the ability of the SSD to maintain speed characteristics, provided that the volume is filled almost to the maximum, becomes especially relevant. Experience has shown that things are far from being as smooth as we would like (remember the OCZ Vertex 4). Several more tests have been added to the testing methodology, aimed precisely at this question.
List of participants:
As you can see, the cost of the four test subjects is in the range of 2300-2600 rubles, for the company it was decided to take an Intel 520 drive to them, albeit more expensive. What these models have in common is that all of them (except SanDisk) are based on the SandForce SF-2281. Today it is the most popular controller in this segment. And if just half a year ago it was possible to find disks on Marvell (in fact, only one manufacturer offered them), now Plextor PX-64M5S, having barely managed to change the revision, disappeared from sale. And the older PX-64M3 was discontinued and left the store shelves even earlier.
Test participants
ADATA XPG SX900 64GB (ASX900S3-64GM-C)
Recently, a model with a capacity of 128 GB has already been tested, but now it is the turn of a 64 GB drive. The design of the box has remained the same, which is not surprising, given that it belongs to the same family. All the same dark blue tones, the ADATA corporate logo – a hummingbird bird and a transparent window on the front side through which the disc is visible (at the same time, there is no need to indicate the capacity of the model on the packaging itself and the need to order printing of different boxes).
On the reverse side, it is honestly written about the features of the controller that underlies the media.
Inside the box, the disc is placed in a plastic backing and sits tightly without dangling. In addition to it, the kit contains mounting bolts and an adapter from 2.5 ” to 3.5 ”, an instruction booklet and a flyer.
And, to some surprise, the package contains a plastic frame for installing the SX900 (with a 7 mm case thickness) in a slot designed for 9 mm thick drives. The 128 GB XPG SX900 did not have such a frame.
The drive is made in a metal case with a black finish. On the front side – a sticker that carries only a decorative purpose
But on the back there is a sticker on which the disk model, serial number and license key to Acronis True Image HD are indicated. The latter must be downloaded by yourself.
To download software from the official website of the company, you need to indicate your mailbox (a letter of gratitude from ADATA Group comes to it). The proprietary software is represented only by a firmware update utility that works in both Windows and Linux environments.
Before us is the standard LSI SandForce program for updating the firmware of its controller, only the logo in the main window has been replaced with the ADATA logo. As it is already clear, the drive is based on the SandForce controller, namely – SF-2281. The flash memory is MLC NAND, manufactured using a 20 nm process technology and operating in a synchronous mode.
After creating the file system (MBR, NTFS), 59.6 GB becomes available to the user.
Intel 520 Series 60 Гбайт (SSDSC2CW060A310)
This drive was reviewed with an OEM package. A common industrial box made of gray cardboard.
The case is aluminum, its bottom is without any coating (by the way, it looks rather untidy).
The front of the case is polished and bears the model information sticker. There is also an additional plastic frame that allows you to install the Intel 520 in a seat designed for devices with a case, 9 mm thick, while the Intel 520 itself is 7 mm.
The frame may appear to be removable. In principle, this is true, but not entirely. When we try to remove it by unscrewing the four bolts in the corners, the media crumbles in our hands. In the end, the frame can be removed, but the bolts are not fully recessed into the case, so you cannot count on installing the disk in the slot for the Slim version of the 2.5 ” format.
Please note: the disc was not originally sealed. Why not perform an autopsy? On the inside, the case is pasted over with a film that protects the drive electronics from accidental short circuits as a result of touching bare metal – the board itself is not fixed inside the case. The controller contacts the housing cover through a sealing gasket (not thermal), which is used as an additional protection against moving the board inside the device.
On one side of the board you can see the controller itself – LSI SandForce SF-2281 and empty slots (obviously, the same board is used for models with different capacities).
On the other side are flash memory chips.
Installed MLC NAND, produced by 25 nm process technology, manufactured by Intel, operating in synchronous mode (ONFI 2.2). The physical volume of the media is 64 GB, with 4 GB reserved for the needs of the controller as a replacement fund. In fact, the user, after creating the file system (MBR, NTFS), becomes available 55.9 GB.
Software monitoring of the drive temperature is not available, there are statistics on its operation:
Intel was one of the last to launch its series of SSDs based on SandForce SF-2281 controllers. And for a reason: the firmware of these models is significantly different from the reference version of LSI – it was largely rewritten by the company’s engineers. It uses its own software, and it is very extensive in terms of capabilities.
Intel SSD Toolbox provides various media management options, including Secure Erase, TRIM, performance tests, search for bad memory cells, firmware updates (the user does not need to go to the Intel website and manually download the update – the program will do it on its own). A competent localization of the interface into Russian has been implemented.
At the same time, the program is equipped with a full-fledged Russian-language help.
After creating the file system (MBR, NTFS), 55.9 GB becomes available to the user.
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