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.
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
ADATA SX8200 Pro v7 [ SM2262ENG + Micron 64L TLC ]
This is also why they have their own branded memory, even though it's made by someone else.
So in other words, Adata has control of what they're making, but maybe not of what parts are available to them at all times.
I've managed to find a couple of reviews of variants w/ 2262G controller, and while results vary slightly, they aren't too far off from "The better version". Also, it's worth reading a conclusion for both.
www.tech-critter.com/adata-xpg-sx8200-pro-1tb-review/
www.servethehome.com/adata-xpg-sx8200-pro-1tb-nvme-ssd-review/3/
Hmm who's lying to whom Aida64 seem to think it's Micron Nand
Best to not test adata stuff and just enjoy
If it tests 500 read/ write lower than spec's who cares right :-)
Anyhow i finally had time to check the two sx8200 pros ive got left.
Bought one on 3-1-2019 a 512gb, sm2262en/micron 64L TLC. Bought on 4-3-2020 1tb sm2262eng/micron 64L TLC.
I somehow managed to avoid the crappy sm2262g controller and samsung 96L NAND on both drives despite there being a year between each purchase and the capacity being different.
I bought it in Nov 2019 IIRC.
Also the product box does have a version, the 7.2 on a review of the G chip, 7.3 is again ENG, etc...
I'll be checking pSLC Caching volume and recovery times, but i think it might be a Smaller Static pSLC Cache.
Fortunately it came with Awesome Dies. I'd just hoped it was the 256Gb instead of the 512Gb for better performanceNo they're both the same controller, but different solder joints, one is BGA and the other SM2262G means TFBGA
it would be cool to have all of them and do a, say, PCMark run or some real life test on the same machine, just to see how the performances are affected by the component choices.
Well, this could be a great ad:
“SX8200 Pro...now turned up to 11*!”
*11 revisions. Disclaimer: Adata reserves the right to modify specs, components and performance at any moment.
Yes, there’s a teeeeeeny tiny asterisk between 1 and !, as with every “good” ad would be XD
i'd recommend watching this video, PS: it's in portuguese (since i'm from Brazil), but nevertheless check out in "21:00" (21 minutes) in which i test it's pseudo-SLC Caching. Which was Hybrid (Static + Dynamic) and i also tested how much GBs it recovered in some idle rounds.
The problem was that ADATA apparently capped the sustained write speeds, maybe because of better endurance, since the NAND was running in 325.5 MHz (650 MT/s) [Bus between controller and NAND] instead of the 800 MT/s (400 MHz) that each controller channel can handle. Or even to make chia minners look away from this SSD. But with 16 dies of V6, this drive SHOULD have a higher sustained write speeds compared to the first revision of SX8200 Pro