Monday, January 17th 2022

ADATA Guarantees Consistent XPG Atom 50 SSD Controller and NAND Flash Combo

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btarunr
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A disturbing trend among entry-level M.2 NVMe SSDs is a complete disregard from manufacturers for consistency in the brands and types of the various key components of the drives. The companies simply advertise a certain set of performance and endurance numbers, which serve as ends to reach by whatever means (of controller or NAND flash combos). This was recently illustrated with the Kingston NV1, which presents an extreme case of "hardware lottery." You can get either a SMI or Phison controller, and either a TLC or QLC NAND flash (combinations thereof).

Cutting through all this, ADATA is making a reassuring guarantee with regards to its recently announced entry-level NVMe product, the XPG Atom 50. In an exclusive comment to TechPowerUp, the company said that all XPG Atom 50 drives in the market will come with a consistent combination of controller and NAND flash. The drive combines an Innogrit IG5220 RainierQX controller with Micron "B47R" 176-layer 3D TLC NAND flash chips, a combo ADATA guarantees it will never break. We recently reviewed the 1 TB variant of this drive, and found it to offer excellent performance leveraging PCIe Gen4, at a price you'd typically find PCIe Gen3 drives at.

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17 Comments on ADATA Guarantees Consistent XPG Atom 50 SSD Controller and NAND Flash Combo

#1
TheUn4seen
You know the market is shitty when a manufacturer goes out of his way to to guarantee that yes, you will get exactly what you pay for.
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#2
Ferrum Master
At least they listen.

No matter the price and speed I had them blacklisted just because of that. I am not willing to participate in some sort of lottery like arranged marriage :D

Well... acts do speak more loudly than words, we will see how it turns out.
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#3
Nater
They probably had to listen, because I bet their sales took a nosedive. I would have bought a couple more 2TB SX8200 Pro's by now, but after I heard about their bullshit - F' em'.

Good news regardless...but...why should we trust them now?
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#4
W1zzard
NaterGood news regardless...but...why should we trust them now?
I'd look at it the other way, take advantage of the situation while you can. The Atom 50 offers insane value for a Gen 4 high-performance drive, and no way ADATA will fuck up this one, but supply will probably not last forever, and eventually they'll release Atom 55 or Atom 60 (just my own thoughts, I have no specific info on this from ADATA)
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#5
ParanormalPlankton
W1zzardThe Atom 50 offers insane value for a Gen 4 high-performance drive
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the Atom 50 for $120/TB is insane value. E16 TLC/DRAM drives have been at the same price or cheaper for some time (such as the Inland Performance for $110), and ADATA's own S70 Blade is just $10 more. Considering other options on the market, $120 for a 1TB Atom 50 doesn't seem very special.
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#6
bonehead123
NO....just no...

screw me once, shame on you...
screw me 2x...shame on me...

There is no 3rd time in my book, cause I absolutely refuse to give my money to any company that plays & is caught at the bait & switch game, FU & your stupid-assed, too little-too late guarantees....
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#7
trsttte
ParanormalPlanktonCorrect me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the Atom 50 for $120/TB is insane value. E16 TLC/DRAM drives have been at the same price or cheaper for some time (such as the Inland Performance for $110), and ADATA's own S70 Blade is just $10 more. Considering other options on the market, $120 for a 1TB Atom 50 doesn't seem very special.
SSDs are not like GPUs or CPUs, 10$ difference on 100$ is 10% which is pretty substantial. Looking at the review, seems it's a lot cooler than other Physon based drives without sacrificing performance which is nice to see.

Maybe not insane value, it's dram-less after all, but still a nice value offer.
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#8
Minus Infinity
Sorry damage is done. I will never give them a second look nor Kingston. It's bad enough switching controllers or replacing NAND with something a bit slower but to swap TLC for QLC is criminal and they should be fined a huge amount of money.
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#9
Hardware Geek
I understand supply chain issues causing the need to change components but I don't understand how they can do that without changing the model number at the very least. It's great they are promising to keep this the same but it sucks that it is even an issue.
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#10
maxfly
I mean it's great that they are finally listening...right?
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#11
watzupken
Ferrum MasterAt least they listen.

No matter the price and speed I had them blacklisted just because of that. I am not willing to participate in some sort of lottery like arranged marriage :D

Well... acts do speak more loudly than words, we will see how it turns out.
My opinion is that the guarantee of consistency does not mean that they will keep the performance similar to launch day. In other words, at some point in time, it is possible they change some component on the entire series. For example, the SX 8200 Pro got a component downgrade, which is consistent across the entire series going forward. This does not break the consistency guarantee. Adata being one of the first (Kingston I believe is the first) to quietly change their SSD components is unlikely to change their bad habit. After all, they get away scot free.
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#12
Dragokar
Well, it is a necessary move and an appreciated one. They easily could avoid the whole situation just by introducing new SKUs and/or clearly labeled revisions. I will have an eye watching when it becomes available in Germany.
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#13
W1zzard
watzupkenMy opinion is that the guarantee of consistency does not mean that they will keep the performance similar to launch day. In other words,
They literally said that the choice of components is "locked" for the Atom 50 and that they "guarantee" that
ParanormalPlanktonCorrect me if I'm wrong, but I don't think the Atom 50 for $120/TB is insane value. E16 TLC/DRAM drives have been at the same price or cheaper for some time (such as the Inland Performance for $110), and ADATA's own S70 Blade is just $10 more. Considering other options on the market, $120 for a 1TB Atom 50 doesn't seem very special.
The E16 is an old design that's not much faster than typical Gen 3 SSDs, it's also running much hotter and inefficient than the Innogrit 5220.
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#14
ParanormalPlankton
W1zzardThe E16 is an old design that's not much faster than typical Gen 3 SSDs, it's also running much hotter and inefficient than the Innogrit 5220.
Thanks for correcting me there. Still, with the 1TB S70 Blade priced at $130 for more than a month (looking like the new standard price), the Atom 50 feels like a bit of a tough sell.
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#15
Chomiq
Too bad you can't buy one anywhere, at least here.
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#16
Wirko
W1zzardThey literally said that the choice of components is "locked" for the Atom 50 and that they "guarantee" that
That's very good news - however, they should list those components in the specifications on their web page too.
watzupkenMy opinion is that the guarantee of consistency does not mean that they will keep the performance similar to launch day. In other words, at some point in time, it is possible they change some component on the entire series. For example, the SX 8200 Pro got a component downgrade, which is consistent across the entire series going forward. This does not break the consistency guarantee.
Maybe, but with main components unchanged, Adata has very little room to do anything bad. They can tune the firmware to make one metric better (for example maximum write speed) at the expense of others but that's about all.
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#17
chrcoluk
Thats a non committal comment, exclusively made to a media reviewer, not a statement at point of sale, official adverts or on the packaging.

Side note the UK doesn't even have this listed, if it ever makes it a store, it clearly has supply constraints and wont be anywhere near MSRP I think.
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