discussion AData Premier Pro SP920 512GB SSD Review

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SATA 2 Performance

SATA 2 Performance

In a perfect world everyone investing in a new solid state drive would have access to a SATA 6GB/s controller which could pass on the TRIM command. In reality not everyone has this and for many the decision comes down either giving up TRIM – never a good idea with most controllers – and running it off a secondary controller; or taking a performance hit and running in SATA 2.0 mode.

These tests will consist of some of our real world and synthetic benchmarks run on our standard 1155 test-bed; but the drive will be attached to an SATA 2 port.

For synthetic we have opted for the newcomer to our charts: Anvil Storage Utilities Pro. For real world we have opted for our Adobe test. These two tests should give you a very good idea of the level of performance impact you can expect from running a modern SATA 6 drive in compatibility mode.

While it would be a shame to use this mega drive in a such antiquated SATA 2 systems, it certainly would not be the worst choice you could make. Doing would breathe life into that older computer and maybe even allow you to get a few more years out of it.

 

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Conclusion

Conclusion

AData has never been at the forefront of the SSD market, a space normally reserved for the likes of Samsung, Intel, OCZ, Crucial and others. However, with the Premier Pro SP920, they’ve shown that even an underdog can create an SSD which is extremely relevant to 99% of today’s users. Rather than launching a high-end SSD at a ridiculous price point, they’ve perfectly combined performance and a relatively low cost into a drive which should be appealing to pretty much everyone.

At first glance the SP920 may not have ground-breaking specifications or the backing of Intel’s 5 year warranty but it innovates where others have decided to use the same cookie-cutter approach. Instead of using Sandforce’s gracefully aging controllers, AData looked towards Marvell’s 88SS9189 which combines top-shelf performance with that most important of elements: affordability. Their choice also allowed AData to distinguish their newest drive from competitors like Crucial’s M500, which use the slightly older Marvell “Monet” controller which, as evidenced by our results, just can’t keep up.

Some context is warranted here as well. While AData’s latest SSD didn’t top the charts, we put it up against much higher priced competitors. Nonetheless, the S920 held its own which is a testament to the engineering and component choices.

While the AData SP920 series may not be able to match the BareFoot 3 or Intel's LSI built 'X25 generation 3' controllers’ abilities, its combination of price and performance is extremely hard to beat. So much so that we would recommend it over most other competitors since it offers literally 90% of a high-end drive’s performance at 35% (or more!) lower cost. You’re also getting more capacity for your money since over-provisioning is kept to an absolute minimum.

With all of that said the AData Premier Pro SP920 512GB is not without a few minor issues worth considering before rushing out and grabbing one. The first is lack of full drive performance and consistency. By reducing the amount of NAND set aside for RAIN but not increasing the quantity reserved for general house-keeping and maintaining performance, there is noticeable drop-off in performance as the SSD nears capacity.

Marvell controllers are also not as consistent in their performance as those from Intel, Samsung and OCZ / Toshiba. This is especially true when attached to the 'stock' Marvell firmware which this new drive appears to be using. Even though the Marvell 88SS9189 controller has made improvements in this area over its predecessors, there is still a lot of room for improvement.

With every factor being taken into account, it is nearly impossible to overlook AData’s Premier Pro SP920 512GB. It is one of the few SSDs which offers a low cost alongside nearly flagship-matching performance. For anyone looking to get into the SSD market, it doesn’t get any better than this.

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