ADATA Launches SP580 SSDs

The race to the bottom for PCs has just about run its course but it’s just getting started for SSDs. With every new release, the price per GB continues to drop while capacities keep on rising. ADATA has been in the SSD market for quite some while and they’ve just updated their lineup with their latest budget offering. The Premier SP580 offers competitive speeds at a low-cost with 120 GB and 240GB variants.

As expected from one of their SP5xx series SSD, the SP580 uses TLC NAND. The drive marks a return to the use of Marvell controllers, last seen in the SP920, likely in the form of the new 88SS1074 quad channel design. This new controller is specifically tuned for TLC NAND and allows ADATA to offer an SLC cache mode to help speed up operations. Because of the SLC cache, read speeds go up to 560 MB/s and writes are a decent 410 MB/s. Even with the cache, TLC isn’t quite as fast as MLC was but it is much cheaper.

In addition to the drive, the SP580 comes bundled with a 2.5m space as well as their SSD Toolbox to help maintain and monitor the drive. ADATA has also included unspecified data and operating system migration utilities. With the lower capacities, ADATA is obviously targeting the lower end market for now. We may yet see higher capacities roll out later. There is no word yet on pricing.