ADATA XPG SX900 256GB SATA 3 SSD Review – Expanded Capacity and SandForce Driven Speed

CRYSTAL DISK BENCHMARK VER. 3.0 X64

Crystal Disk Benchmark is used to measure read and write performance through sampling of raw (0/1 Fill/compressible) or random data which is, for the most part, incompressible. Many new SandForce Driven SSD owners who cant wait to test the performance of their SSD often grab this program and run a quick test, not realizing that they are testing with incompressible data rather than compressible data used in testing by manufacturers.  We have provided compressible (oFill) results on the left with incompressible (random data) results on the right.

The XPG is looking stronger with every test.  Low 4k random writes are up there with 90MB/s but, even better, the high sequential write transfer speed performance above 300MB/s when testing in highly incompressible, or random data, was amazing.  This was totally unexpected as this was the point where we first thought we might see that trade off in performance for that extra 7% capacity gain.

AS SSD BENCHMARK VER 1.64

Up until recently, AS SSD was the only benchmark created specifically for SSD testing and it uses incompressible data.  AS SSD, for the most part, gives us the worst case scenario in SSD transfer speeds while using SandForce Driven SSDs as they use compression in storage as discussed earlier.  Many enthusiasts like to benchmark with AS SSD for their needs.

Once again, these are some of the higher scores we have seen from ‘SandForce Driven’ SSDs and, although the IOPS may appear to be a bit low, this is typical of AS SSD IOPS results.

AS SSD Copy Bench is a very realistic benchmark, in that, it simply measures the transfer speed and time it takes to transfer a typical ISO, program and game from one part of the disk to another.  These are excellent results. Lets take a look at the AS SSD Compression Test:

ANVIL STORAGE UTILITIES PROFESSIONAL

Over the last little while, we have been assisting with beta testing new benchmark software called Anvil Storage Utilities which is an absolutely amazing SSD benchmarking utility.  Not only does it have a preset SSD benchmark, but also, it has included such things as endurance testing and threaded I/O read, write and mixed tests, all of which are very simple to understand and utilize in our benchmark testing.

The definite pluses seen in this benchmark include the quick disk access speeds as well as something that we don’t often see in SandForce Driven SSDs, this being strong read and write IOPS results as shown with the 68, 213 IOPS result at 4k0QD16 read and the 83,013 IOPS result at 4k-QD16 write. This could very well be the top drive we have reviewed in awhile.