ADATA Premier Pro SP920 256GB Solid State Drive Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

One of the most remarkable things about this drive to me is not its consistently high levels of performance, although this is a major feature of the SP920, but the price is even more staggering. Synchronous NAND is typically more expensive than asynchronous or toggle mode NAND to buy and this is typically why we see these latter two NAND types being used. Somehow though ADATA have managed to not only hit the performance nail on the head, but also the price point as well. In the US, this 256GB drive has an MSRP of $159.99 which works out at only 62 cents per GB – in the UK things are relatively similar with the same 256GB drive sporting a sub £120 price tag and only 47 pence per GB. Yes you have heard it – a 256GB SSD that is below 50p a GB – bang for buck – it’s a bit of a no brainer this time round really isn’t it?

Overview

At the start of the review is asked what is the significance of this SSD release and even though this is not the first time we have seen synchronous NAND used in the design of a SSD, what ADATA have done with the drive as a whole is far more important and thus worth shouting about.

Bar the random read performance as recorded within AIDA64, each of the following results charts show performance lines that are near flat with no rise or fall in drive performance as the volume fills and the NAND incurs more read / write cycles. Some of you may be thinking that a flat line means that this drive doesn’t get better over time and thus is not as good as those that do, but in reality this mind-set should be the other way round. From the moment I put this drive on the bench and put it through its paces, it was delivering all that it had to give right from the start. What’s more the means that not only are you going to be getting superior levels of performance out of the box, you will ALWAYS get this top-level of performance – no matter how much data is on the drive.

When we look at the wider picture, ADATA built this drive for the purpose of multimedia data transfer and especially uncompressed files such as audio and video. By strictly selecting the best NAND available and optimising the controller to work with synchronous NAND in this manner, a drive has been produced that is close to taking each performance metric right to the outer limits of what SATA III is capable of – I’m taking about more than sequential read and write performance here.

With the SSD market constantly growing and the gap between each vendor closing up on the upper end of the performance charts, no longer is it a fast sequential speed that will make you the king of SSDs. All round performance and a lower cost of ownership is where the market is going and the SP920 is without a doubt in this new league of drives.

Pros:

• Consistent drive performance throughout the drives lifespan
• High levels of performance in most of the benchmark areas
• Ultra low price per GB of storage
• Synchronous NAND optimised with a Marvell controller
• Designed for multimedia applications

Cons:

• Write performance levels slightly lower than other drives at this level

“Switching over to synchronous NAND may seem to be a risky decision in a highly competitive SSD market – especially when performance and price is taken into account. ADATA have taken the challenge face on to deliver a drive that gives top levels of multimedia performance, with a price that is simply staggering. Not only this but they have got performance figures that are consistent across the drives conditioning period – once they get the write speeds and IOPs up to the same level they will have hit the jackpot with the perfect drive.”

Thanks to ADATA for providing this review sample.