Page 2 - A Closer Look, Test System
The ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB looks nothing like your traditional Serial ATA solid state drive, because it is not your traditional solid state drive. Like all performance SSDs, the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB is in the M.2 2280 format. If you are not familiar with the M.2 physical standard, M.2 2280 means it the size of the drive is 22mm by 80mm, hence its numerical designation. Its components are located on the black printed circuit board, which we will take a closer look at in just a moment. A black XPG branded aluminum heatsink can be placed on by yourself. It comes with double-sided tape from the factory. I think it is nice it is not attached by default, so you can choose whether to put it on or not. The ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB works on the NVMe 1.3 logical device interface and plugs into compatible motherboards directly. Electrically, M.2 NVMe interfaces with PCIe 3.1. The SX8200 Pro uses four lanes for up to 4000MB/s bandwidth in each direction. The specified weight is a paltry 8g.
Behind where you would normally put the heatsink, you can see what the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB is made from. There are four components that can be seen. At the heart of ADATA's XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB is a Silicon Motion SM2262EN controller. It is an NVMe solution on the M.2 socket to overcome traditional Serial ATA bandwidth bottlenecks. A Nanya NT5CC128M16JR-EK DDR3L-1866 256MB memory chip is present; it is used by the controller for system memory. The SX8200 Pro's flash memory are Micron 128GB 64-layer triple-level cell chips labeled NW926, which translates to MT29F1T08EMCAGJ4-5M:A from Micron's database. Its rated write endurance is 320TB, which equates to about 175GB per day for five years. This is very good. Its rated power consumption of 330mW average and 140mW sleep. The actual usable space is 512GB, as advertised. You will see 477GB in Windows.
Flipping the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB around and you will find more components of interest. Two more Micron MT29F1T08EMCAGJ4-5M:A ICs can be found along with a second Nanya NT5CC128M16JR-EK DDR3L-1866 256MB memory chip, making the total system memory present to be 512MB. A label on the SX8200 Pro itself carries miscellaneous information such as its model name, serial number, and regulatory certifications. Like many ADATA products we have reviewed in the past, this SSD is made in Taiwan.
Specified at 3500MB/s read, 2300MB/s write, and up to 390,000 IOPS over NVMe 1.3 on PCIe 3.0 x4, these figures are leans on the higher end. It is roughly seven times to speed of a regular SATA 6Gb/s drive and specified among the top models we have here at APH Networks. For comparison, the Western Digital Black NVMe SSD 1TB is rated at 3400MB/s read, 2800MB/s write, and up to 500,000 IOPS. To see how it translates to numbers in our benchmarks, we will pit them against the big boys of this game to see how this new flagship from Western Digital steps up against some popular PCI Express based SSDs from manufacturers like Crucial, Patriot, Toshiba, and Western Digital in the next nine pages or so.
Our test configuration is as follows:
CPU: Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4.6GHz
CPU Cooling: Noctua NH-D15S
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97X-UD3H-BK
RAM: Patriot Viper 3 Low Profile PC3-17000 4x8GB
Graphics: Gigabyte G1 Gaming GeForce GTX 960 4GB
Chassis: Fractal Design Define R6 Blackout TG
Storage: OCZ Vector 180 240GB; Crucial MX200 500GB
Power: Seasonic PRIME Ultra Titanium 850W
Sound: Auzentech X-Fi HomeTheater HD
Optical Drive: LiteOn iHAS224-06 24X DVD Writer
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro
Compared Hardware:
- ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 512GB
- Crucial P1 1TB
- Crucial P1 500GB
- Gigabyte M.2 PCIe SSD 256GB
- Kingston HyperX Predator PCIe 480GB
- OCZ RD400A 512GB
- OCZ RevoDrive 350 480GB
- Patriot Hellfire M.2 240GB
- Toshiba RC100 240GB
- Western Digital Black NVMe SSD 1TB
- Western Digital Black SN750 NVMe SSD 1TB
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark
4. Benchmark: ATTO Disk Benchmark
5. Benchmark: Crystal Disk Mark 6.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tach 3.0.1.0
7. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 5.70
8. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 9.0
9. Benchmark: PCMark Vantage
10. Benchmark: PCMark 8
11. Conclusion
