Monday, March 1st 2021
ADATA Explains Changes with XPG SX8200 Pro SSD
ADATA has recently been in a spot of controversy when it comes to their XPG SX8200 Pro solid-state drive (SSD). The company has reportedly shipped many different configurations of the SSD with different drive controller clock speeds and different NAND flash. According to the original report, ADATA has first shipped the SX8200 Pro SSD with Silicon Motion SM2262ENG SSD controller, running at 650 MHz with IMFT 64-layer TLC NAND Flash. However, it was later reported that the SSD was updated to use the Silicon Motion SM2262G SSD controller, clocked at 575 MHz. With this report, many users have gotten concerned and started to question the company's practices. However, ADATA later ensured everyone that performance is within the specifications and there is no need to worry.
Today, we have another report about the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro SSD. According to a Redditor, ADATA has once again updated its SSD with a different kind of NAND Flash, however, this time the report indicated that performance was impacted. Tom's Hardware has made a table of changes showing as many as five revisions of the SSD, all with different configurations of SSD controllers and NAND Flash memory. We have contacted ADATA to clarify the issues that have emerged, and this is the official response that the company gave us.For starters, you can take a look at the table made by Tom's Hardware, highlighting all the different revisions starting from V1 to V5.SSD table of changes by Tom's Hardware
We have received detailed feedback from ADATA, and can now publish more information about the changes. First, the label of changes, from V1 to V5, is not chronological. The appearance of these versions has remained a bit weird. ADATA shipped V4 and V5, then followed by V2 and V3 during 2020. ADATA no longer shipped V4 and V5 after they have shipped V2 and V3, which makes sense. Since December 2020, the company has shipped V1 of SX8200 PRO 1 TB and 2 TB to the US market. As you can tell, there is data missing from the Tom's Hardware table. The information on V4 and V5 is too old. Additionally, sourcing 64-layer 3D TLC NAND chips is hard for any brand.
In our own review of the XPG SX8200 Pro SSD, we have tested the V1 version of the SSD. The V1 version that is shipping in 2020/2021 is still using the same controller, like our sample, which points towards a controller consistency here for at least the 1 TB+ models.
Sources:
u/svartchimpans (Reddit), Tom's Hardware
Today, we have another report about the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro SSD. According to a Redditor, ADATA has once again updated its SSD with a different kind of NAND Flash, however, this time the report indicated that performance was impacted. Tom's Hardware has made a table of changes showing as many as five revisions of the SSD, all with different configurations of SSD controllers and NAND Flash memory. We have contacted ADATA to clarify the issues that have emerged, and this is the official response that the company gave us.For starters, you can take a look at the table made by Tom's Hardware, highlighting all the different revisions starting from V1 to V5.SSD table of changes by Tom's Hardware
We have received detailed feedback from ADATA, and can now publish more information about the changes. First, the label of changes, from V1 to V5, is not chronological. The appearance of these versions has remained a bit weird. ADATA shipped V4 and V5, then followed by V2 and V3 during 2020. ADATA no longer shipped V4 and V5 after they have shipped V2 and V3, which makes sense. Since December 2020, the company has shipped V1 of SX8200 PRO 1 TB and 2 TB to the US market. As you can tell, there is data missing from the Tom's Hardware table. The information on V4 and V5 is too old. Additionally, sourcing 64-layer 3D TLC NAND chips is hard for any brand.
In our own review of the XPG SX8200 Pro SSD, we have tested the V1 version of the SSD. The V1 version that is shipping in 2020/2021 is still using the same controller, like our sample, which points towards a controller consistency here for at least the 1 TB+ models.
51 Comments on ADATA Explains Changes with XPG SX8200 Pro SSD
I recently purchased a kingston A2000 which is also reviewed here, but some components can't be identified properly as this will probably void your warranty if you take off some sticker covering them.
Im glad to hear my recent 1tb purchases are solid but it doesnt change my decision to avoid adata drives from here on out. 5 revisions and you wait until your caught doing it to make a sorry excuse as to why?
I like to know that im getting exactly what im paying for. Not i maybe, depending on nand or controller availability. I gave adata a chance and they blew it. Ill be sticking with samsung and crucial once again for storage.
Also, the customers don't care about explanations, they now know one company will launch one thing and then move on to sell another. It's done.
1) Adata has reached to clarify that the Redditor measured performance with the new SSD configuration connected to the PCH and compared performance to the originally-shipping SSD connected to the CPU.
2) Adata has clarified that the endurance rating remains the same.
Pretty sure that with either variant or configuration the actual performance will be within the margin of error(~10% sequential). I did own both SX8200 and I do own an SX8200Pro, and as far as I know, the only noticeable difference is random R/W, and only in benchmarks. Not something you'll even notice in daily use. You are paying for a product that fits the spec, not for tiny letters on tiny chips.
AFAIK, either an official spec on their website or product datasheet even mentions which 2262 gen it has and who's NAND do they slap on it.
Not every company has means of manufacturing their own NAND and controllers.
V3 Samsung flash drives are hot trash.
I also recently ordered two Grammix S11 Pro drives, one was Samsung(China V3) and one was Micron(Taiwan V2)
...wow
I could care less if adata is having manufacturing issues or cant source components, whatever, thats not my concern.
The fact that ive built and sold several rigs with their potentially sub par drives in them is and thats unacceptable. Unlike adata i stand behind my builds. When i say a drive will hit its stated r/w speeds it had better do exactly that.
The HP EX950 is still much cheaper than samsung options and is a bit better than the SX8200 Pro.
type of nand etc...?
ty
Micron 64L 3d tlc nand
The same components as the hp950. Anandtech did a review of the two when they were released.
The toms article has all the specs and data in it.
www.tomshardware.com/reviews/adata-xpg-sx8200-pro-ssd,5955.html
ADATA SX8200 Pro v6 [ SM2262ENG + Micron 96L TLC ]
As for why Adata did what they did well it has to be cost doesn't it I bet the other versions use a cheaper controller which is not only slower in speed but has less channels and cheaper nand going from 64 layer to 96 layer must be saving them quite a bit of money as 96 layer nand is cheaper per Gigabit than 64 layer
sx8200 480GB version, 9,2TB total host writes @ 92% health
sx8200 pro 1TB version, 8,2TB total host writes @ 99% health
both are living similar life in terms of how are they used and what is being done with them, so results are comparable.