ADATA SP920 (128GB, 256GB, 512GB & 1TB) Review
by Kristian Vättö on April 1, 2014 8:30 PM ESTAnandTech Storage Bench 2011
Back in 2011 (which seems like so long ago now!), we introduced our AnandTech Storage Bench, a suite of benchmarks that took traces of real OS/application usage and played them back in a repeatable manner. The MOASB, officially called AnandTech Storage Bench 2011 - Heavy Workload, mainly focuses on peak IO performance and basic garbage collection routines. There is a lot of downloading and application installing that happens during the course of this test. Our thinking was that it's during application installs, file copies, downloading and multitasking with all of this that you can really notice performance differences between drives. The full description of the Heavy test can be found here, while the Light workload details are here.
While the tests are now approaching three years old, the data they provide can still be meaningful. Despite the names, both the Heavy and Light workloads represent less strenuous loads than our 2013 suite, and the result is a tighter clustering of scores amoung the various drives. If you're a "typical" user and don't really stress your storage subsystem, most modern SSDs feel plenty fast, but there's still a pretty big drop off in responsiveness when we go below the 240/256GB mark. The SP920 again falls behind the M550 at both the 128GB and 256GB capacities here.
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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.