ADATA isn’t a name that immediately springs to mind when you consider the SSD market. Names such as Samsung, Crucial — even the Toshiba-owned OCZ — are usually the first brands that people tend to look up. As it happens, though, ADATA has quite the SSD line-up, ranging from server-grade drives through to smaller capacities offering blistering performance.
The Premier SP610 is one of its mid-range SSDs; a 2.5” form factor model that comes in a variety of capacities, ranging from 128GB, through 256GB, 512GB and our test subject, the 1TB version. It has an MLC Micron 128Gbit 20nm NAND flash with a new Silicon Motion SM2246EM controller, which itself incorporates a single core 32-bit ARC (Argonaut RISC Core) processor. This means the I/O requests are handled with extreme efficiency through the use of extra instructions, which in theory should lead to a better performing SSD overall.
In our tests, the ADATA Premier SP610 managed to score a read speed of 560MB/s on the 8192KB file size test and a write speed of 300MB/s. This isn’t the best score we’ve had so far, but it’s still good when compared to a normal spinner hard drive which would score on average something in the region of 140MB/s read and 135MB/s write.
While those benchmark speeds may not set the world on fire, the SP610 does offer an advanced form of data protection in the form of a technology called Advanced BCH ECC — basically a hardware error correction code.
Additionally the Silicon Motion controller offers an improved low power consumption over other controllers, such as the Sandforce and Marvell versions, and to complete the package ADATA has included a 7mm to 9.5mm laptop disk day spacer and a copy of Acronis True Image HD 2013 to aid the task of upgrading.
This is a decent enough SSD for $470. It’s cheaper, and it performs well enough for most average users. Those who would require more speed for their money would no doubt rather opt for the likes of the Crucial M550, though. It’s currently cheaper on Amazon and has significantly faster write speeds, according to our benchmark numbers at least.
The ADATA Premier SP610 is very similar to the Transcend SSD370. There’s very little between the performance numbers and only a pound difference in the price. So, in the end, it probably all depends on the brand name. Who would trust more? A company that you haven’t necessarily heard of, over one that’s popular in the pages of a website? Whichever side of that quandary you fall, we recommend you look into the ADATA range as there’s probably something there that will suit your needs and budget.
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