ADATA SP920 (128GB, 256GB, 512GB & 1TB) Review
by Kristian Vättö on April 1, 2014 8:30 PM ESTFinal Words
To be honest, I don't have much to add to the conclusion of the M550 review. At 512GB and 1TB, the SP920 is an exact match with the M550. The 128GB and 256GB models lose some performance compared to the M550 due to fewer NAND dies but especially at 256GB the difference is rather insignificant. The only things that the SP920 have that the M550 doesn't are a license for data migration software and a 3.5" adapter. Whether these are something you consider valuable is totally up to you, but nowadays most cases have screw holes for 2.5" drives and data migration can be executed with freeware tools, so neither is exactly a must have feature.
| NewEgg Price Comparison (3/30/2014) | ||||
| 120/128GB | 240/256GB | 480/512GB | 960GB/1TB | |
| ADATA Premier Pro SP920 (MSRPs) | $90 | $160 | $335 | $530 |
| ADATA Premier Pro SP900 | $70 | $140 | - | - |
| ADATA XPG SX910 | $125 | $200 | $600 | - |
| Crucial M550 | $100 | $169 | $335 | $530 |
| Crucial M500 | $80 | $125 | $230 | $470 |
| Intel SSD 730 | - | $260 | $490 | - |
| Intel SSD 530 | $145 | $180 | - | - |
| OCZ Vector 150 | $110 | $190 | $390 | - |
| OCZ Vertex 460 | $100 | $266 | $360 | - |
| Samsung SSD 840 EVO | $90 | $151 | $280 | $500 |
| Samsung SSD 840 Pro | $115 | $208 | $420 | - |
| SanDisk Extreme II | $120 | $195 | $450 | - |
| Seagate SSD 600 | $105 | - | $380 | - |
In terms of pricing the SP920 is extremely competitive. The usage of 128Gbit NAND gives the SP920 a slight pricing advantage at 128GB and 256GB compared to the M550 but at 512GB and 1TB the MSRPs are the same as the M550. It will be interesting to see how the prices play out in the future—on one hand it doesn't make sense for Crucial/Micron to price the M550 higher because they should have a manufacturing cost advantage but on the other hand tier two OEMs (like ADATA) are known to be pretty aggressive on the pricing front and are not afraid of selling at a loss in the short term.
All in all, I would've liked to see something more customized from ADATA but a rebranded value drive suffices too. As I've said before, in the mainstream segment it's all about price and if the MSRPs give any hint, the SP920 (along with the M550 of course) can be very competitive there. The SF3700 is supposed to bring more customization options for OEMs, so focusing the R&D resources on it and the high-end drives doesn't sound like a bad option.
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Guspaz - Thursday, April 3, 2014 - link
I agree. I read the whole article more often than not, but on some articles, where I'm pressed for time or don't have the same degree of interest in the subject of the review, I just read the introduction and the final words. As such, getting the gist of the whole article is very important.Heck, even when I do read the whole article, it's still important. Sometimes a good summary at the end points out things that I missed, or gives me a better idea how to interpret the results.
Kristian Vättö - Thursday, April 3, 2014 - link
I've been with AnandTech for three years now, so I'm not exactly new :)Since the SP920 is a rebranded M550, I think it's a must to look at the M550 review as well, which is why I referred to it so much. Now that I look it at, a mention of the SP920's position in the market wouldn't have hurt but as I mentioned in the introduction, our M550 review has broad coverage of that along with plenty of other stuff.
hrrmph - Wednesday, April 2, 2014 - link
Adata claims to have a software toolbox to ease the inconvenience of occasionally needing to do a Secure Erase and other functions. Crucial / Micron doesn't seem to offer that.Samsung offers RAM caching software. Neither Adata nor Crucial / Micron seems to offer that.
hrrmph - Wednesday, April 2, 2014 - link
I would really appreciate it if the hole in the chart could be filled (the Samsung EVO's ratings with 25% spare area).I take it that getting the sample drives from Samsung has been difficult?
Kristian Vättö - Thursday, April 3, 2014 - link
We do have EVO samples (well, Anand has, I don't) but you can see the EVO's OP behavior in the EVO mSATA reviewhttp://www.anandtech.com/show/7594/samsung-ssd-840...
nofly - Friday, April 4, 2014 - link
Will those PCIe drives mentioned in the article be an upgrade option for older motherboards (like a PCIe card) or will new hardware be required ?Kristian Vättö - Friday, April 4, 2014 - link
Most PCIe SSDs in the near future will likely be just regular PCIe cards. Later we may see transition to 2.5" when/if SATA Express becomes a standard.Alientech - Saturday, April 5, 2014 - link
The new ST3000DM001-1E6166 drives with the FC4x firmware seems to be using Shingled Magnetic Recording. Which means we need SSD caching all the more. Sure wish every one would pack one with the drive. With HDD write speeds dropping through the floor now, its a must. Even 250MB write speeds of a SSD is a huge improvement.sammarth - Monday, April 28, 2014 - link
<a href="http://seoexpertzs.wordpress.com">Sammarth... nice thanks for share usgamoniac - Wednesday, May 20, 2015 - link
Hi Kristian, on power consumption, you mentioned you were posting an update with HIPM+DIPM enabled. I searched through AT but didn't find any update. I know this is a year-old article but it would be nice to see that, since there were some SP920 on sales now. It seems like a pretty solid drive with very competitive pricing (256GB for $89 on newegg). Thanks.