ADATA XPG SX900 SSD Review

ADATA XPG SX900 SSD

Introduction

Solid state drives are slowly transitioning from a high-end luxury component to a staple of any build. They offer extremely high performance, low heat and power consumption, and are silent. The problem of course has always been the price, but as the technology has developed the prices have fallen to much more reasonable levels.

Today we are taking a look at ADATA’s performance SSD, the XPG SX900. This drives offers blazing fast speed at a price that is affordable for just about any budget. Read on to see how it stacks up.

Features

• Super full capacity with high performance – The XPG (Xtreme Performance Gear) family of products has been expanded to include solid state drives, and the XPG SX900 SSD is a perfect match for the performance requirements of this elite group. Its maximum sequential read and write speeds are 555/535 MB per second, with maximum random 4k write speeds as high as 91,000 IOPS. With capacities of 64, 128, 256, and 512GB, the XPG SX900 SSD is poised to take its place as a market and performance leader.
• Supports Windows TRIM Command, Accelerated Data Transfer Performance – The XPG SX900 SSD adopts specially selected Flash chips from reliable manufacturers, and supports the Windows TRIM command. The Windows TRIM optimization command can directly delete stored data in the Flash memory and release unused space (Free Blocks) to be used for system writes immediately. This results in more accelerated transfer and write performance for solid state drives, and is also effective in slowing down efficiency decline and depletion chances, maintaining effective operation and extending the life of the disk.

Specifications

Capacity	64GB /128GB /256GB /512GB
NAND Flash	Multi-Level Cell (MLC) NAND Flash Memory
Interface	SATA 6Gb/s
Form Factor	2.5 inch
Dimensions (L x W x H)	100 x 69.85 x 7mm
Weight	68g
Features	TRIM COMMAND SUPPORT MAX 4K WRITE IOPS RAID SUPPORT
Performance	128GB Performance (ATTO) : Read: Up to 555MB/S Write: Up to 530MB/S Multimedia Data Transfer (AS-SSD) Read : Up to 470MB/S Write : Up to 180MB/S MAX 4K write IOPS up to 90K
Shock Resistance	1500G
Power Consumption	1.2W Active; 0.5W Idle
MTBF	1,000,000hrs
Warranty	3 years
Accessories	2.5 to 3.5 Bracket 7mm to 9.5mm holder Acronis ATI HD 2013

 

Packaging

The packaging is pretty standard. You have a window on the front so you can see the drive itself and a short list of key features on the back in about 25 different languages.

Closer Look

The drive itself has a nice black brushed aluminum finish to it. Underneath are the barcodes and your Acronis True Image key.
Along with the drive ADATA includes a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter as well as a 7mm to 9.5mm holder which increases the overall thickness so you can install it in laptops that require a standard size drive.

Test System

• Intel Core i7-4960X
• Sapphire R9 290X
• Asus P9 X79-E WS Motherboard
• ADATA XPG V2 DDR3 2600 MHz 16 GB RAM kit
• NZXT Phantom 410 Case
• Corsair H100 CPU Cooler
• Thermaltake Toughpower 1350W Power Supply

Benchmarks

Anvil Storage Utilities

SX900	SP900	M4

Anvil is a good overall benchmark that gives results in MB/s and IOPS for both read and write. Our SX900 was able to score an impressive 422 MB/s read and 172 write for sequential data, putting it well ahead of the lower end SP900 and just behind the Crucial m4.
In the nonsequential tests, it performed slightly worse than the m4 in reads but significantly better in writes. The SP900 isn’t even close.
In the IOPS tests the SX fell behind the m4 and SP900 on reads, but completely blew them away on writes.

AS SSD

SX900	SP900	M4

AS SSD is another good benchmark which really stresses incompressible data, giving us a “worst-case” scenario. On the spec sheet ADATA claims 470 read, 180 write for this test. Our SX900 was able to pull 458/134 which is pretty close to the claimed, but again falls short of the m4 in both read and write.
The lower-end SP900 performed much better in writes, but much worse in reads.

ATTO

SX900	SP900	M4

If AS SSD provides us with a “worst case”, then ATTO would be our “best case” because it uses fully compressible data. This is the benchmarks that gives out the huge numbers that manufactures love to throw around. ADATA claims the SX should top out at 555/530 and it comes pretty close with a 545/521 max, blowing away the m4 but getting slightly beat out by the SP900.

CrystalDiskMark

SX900	SP900	M4

CrystalDiskMark is another good benchmark for getting an overall idea of a drives real-world potential. Like most of the other tests, the SX900 traded blows with the Crucial m4 and blew away the SP900.

Final Thoughts

Pros:

• Awesome compressible read/write performance
• Impressive incompressible performance
• Great price

Cons:

• None

Overall the ADATA XPG SX900 surprised me. Back when we reviewed the lower end SP900 I was disappointed with it’s low performance and instability issues, but I saw none of that with the SX900. It has awesome compressible data performance like the SP900, but unlike the SP900 it also has impressive incompressible performance, putting it nearly in line with the renowned Crucial m4. What really drives it home though is the price tag. At just $80 for the 128GB model, it’s one of the cheapest 128GB SSD’s available, and much cheaper than many of the other performance drives on the market.

With performance like this and low price to compliment it, anyone can make the jump to solid state and reap the benefits of a blazing fast drive. If you are in the market for a performance SSD that won’t break the bank, I would definitely take a look at the ADATA XPG SX900.