ADATA XPG Atom 50 1 TB

[W1zzard]

At just $120 for 1 TB, the ADATA XPG Atom 50 is one of the most affordable PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSDs out there. In our review, we found that it still offers incredible performance that rivals the Samsung 980 Pro and WD Black SN850 at much better pricing. Thermals are great, too, as there's no throttling, no matter what you throw at it.

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[Dragokar]

The thing is, first day reviews are really appreciated, but I still find it disturbing that they play the switcheroo with the controller and NAND all the time. I have at least three different SX8200 here, and that is bullshit. They could easily make a new SKU or revision when they change parts, but they refuse to. That's why they are on my do-not-buy-list.

Thanks for the review beside the rant

 

[Chrispy_]

The thing is, first day reviews are really appreciated, but I still find it disturbing that they play the switcheroo with the controller and NAND all the time. I have at least three different SX8200 here, and that is bullshit. They could easily make a new SKU or revision when they change parts, but they refuse to. That's why they are on my do-not-buy-list.

Thanks for the review beside the rant

Yeah. ADATA were caught red-handed with the SX8200Pro, too. I'm lucky that mine is one of the good ones, but it was also purchased near launch.

As always, I love these SSD reviews but the bait-and-switch nonsense needs to be called out at every opportunity. We need the high-profile rants from the media giants to get these dirty companies to stop cheating and/or ripping us off.

 

[dj-electric]

The thing is, first day reviews are really appreciated, but I still find it disturbing that they play the switcheroo with the controller and NAND all the time. I have at least three different SX8200 here, and that is bullshit. They could easily make a new SKU or revision when they change parts, but they refuse to. That's why they are on my do-not-buy-list.

Thanks for the review beside the rant

Totally agree on that one. ADATA just "farmed" two TPU medals to show off on the product page, and they are going to surely ride with that

 

[Dragokar]

Tbh I am fine with the review but the SSDs should be tracked in some form or another, but not only A-Data. Many of them, if not all, are doing the switcheroo.

 

[mama]

All the same, the review copy seems good.

 

[Garrus]

Nice. Adata continues their winning streak as the best performance and best value drives. Period. I'll pick one of these up. This explains why the S70 dropped to $120 and $240 respectively for the last month. I'd still consider an S70 if you get it for the same price as the Atom 50.

 

[Assimilator]

Finally, a PCIe 4.0 SSD controller that doesn't burn power like the POS Phison E18.

 

[trsttte]

Performance seems nice for the price and with the lower power and heat would make a nice drive for PS5 but I like to know what I'm buying and not just roll the dice on what variant of drive I'll get

 

[Turmania]

Seems like a very good prodcut for the price. but the brand has a reputation that is in shatters, maybe this is the way they thought they would win back some of it. I repeat actually a very very good ssd for the price.

 

[Chrispy_]

@W1zzard :

"Once the SLC cache is full, write rates drop to roughly 2 GB/s until almost 500 GB have been written. This is the first time we're seeing such behavior. It seems the Innogrit controller will first fill most of the capacity in SLC mode, and then switch to MLC mode, while simultaneously flushing data out of SLC into MLC or TLC. Only once the drive is half full do speeds drop further, to around 500 MB/s, which is still as fast as the best SATA drives."

Are you sure that it's MLC mode? That would be a first that I'm aware of. More likely is that the first drop to 2GB/s is native TLC writes without touching the data written to SLC, and then it drops to 500MB/s when it's almost completely full and is still writing data. At that point it's:

1. writing incoming data into TLC pages from the host
2. reading the next SLC page for step 4.
3. erasing SLC pages pages ready for TLC writing
4. writing data read from SLC pages into TLC to free up NAND

That's three TLC writes and an SLC read, plus controller overheads, for one incoming read - so dropping from 2GB/s to 550MB/s isn't too far off exactly what is theoretically expected.

2GB/s is conveniently similar to other Micron 176L reviews with 4-channel controllers and the sustained write graph looks to be exactly double for more expensive controllers like the Phison E18, meaning that we're seeing the true Micron 176L NAND performance, unencumbered by controller bottlenecks, no?

 

[WhoDecidedThat]

More likely is that the first drop to 2GB/s is native TLC writes without touching the data written to SLC, and then it drops to 500MB/s when it's almost completely full and is still writing data.

This makes a lot more sense. I have another point in support of what you are suggesting.

280 GB in SLC = 840 GB in TLC
220 GB in MLC = 330 GB in TLC

I highly doubt a 1 TB class consumer SSD has 1170 GB worth of TLC NAND.

 

[Luminescent]

While we appreciate the review we have to wonder what relevance does it have since the drive going for sale will be completely different.

 

[AlwaysHope]

The game loading times interest me & again I notice bugger all difference really between PCIe3 & 4 M.2 drives. I mean we are talking about a second or two here, hardly worth the upgrade if one is already on PCIe3 M.2 storage. But if your doing a complete rebuild or new build, then sure throw money at PCIe4 storage of course.

 

[Chrispy_]

The game loading times interest me & again I notice bugger all difference really between PCIe3 & 4 M.2 drives. I mean we are talking about a second or two here, hardly worth the upgrade if one is already on PCIe3 M.2 storage. But if your doing a complete rebuild or new build, then sure throw money at PCIe4 storage of course.

At present on PC, game loads are mostly a CPU-bound decompression task.
That may change with DirectStorage being adopted but we're likely a way off that happening still and it's unlikely to apply to existing games, only new releases going forward after DirectStorage's official launch.

This makes a lot more sense. I have another point in support of what you are suggesting.

280 GB in SLC = 840 GB in TLC
220 GB in MLC = 330 GB in TLC

I highly doubt a 1 TB class consumer SSD has 1170 GB worth of TLC NAND.

Good point, I'd not even considered looking at capacity - which also makes sense because the second stage at 1900MB/s is too even and consistent to suggest that it's already moving data out of SLC by then.

It definitely doesn't have 1170GB of NAND. W1zzard did a teardown and you can see two 512GB NAND packages in total.

 

[mstenholm]

The link for US costumers ends at product that ain’t available. One of the bigger computer equipment site in Germany, idealo.de haven’t heard about that product. Adata homepage doesn’t show it. Are you sure that it exist?

 

[MachineLearning]

The link for US costumers ends at product that ain’t available. One of the bigger computer equipment site in Germany, idealo.de haven’t heard about that product. Adata homepage doesn’t show it. Are you sure that it exist?

US link
Atom 50 product page
Mindfactory doesn't seem to list it either, maybe not available in Germany at this time?

 

[mstenholm]

US link
Atom 50 product page
Mindfactory doesn't seem to list it either, maybe not available in Germany at this time?

Thx @MachineLearning. My european location opens a different page. I assume that US are the test-dummies for this drive
Your us-link doesn’t open for me. They really don’t likes us to see it….

 

[MachineLearning]

Thx @MachineLearning. My european location opens a different page. I assume that US are the test-dummies for this drive
Your us-link doesn’t open for me. They really don’t likes us to see it….

I'd assume as much too...
Damn, link's not opening for me now either. Well, regardless it exists (somewhere...) on Amazon - though it isn't on Newegg USA, otherwise I'd link that instead.

 

[Wooden Law - Black]

Are you sure that it's MLC mode? That would be a first that I'm aware of. More likely is that the first drop to 2GB/s is native TLC writes without touching the data written to SLC, and then it drops to 500MB/s when it's almost completely full and is still writing data.

Honestly, I don't think the flash uses pMLC. The behavior that happens after 2 GB/s I'm pretty sure that it's due by folding, I already explained what is in another thread.

"Then the SSD does data folding, so reprogramming SLC blocks to TLC, more overhead as there’s more garbage collection in background, etc."

 

[WhoDecidedThat]

At present on PC, game loads are mostly a CPU-bound decompression task.
That may change with DirectStorage being adopted but we're likely a way off that happening still and it's unlikely to apply to existing games, only new releases going forward after DirectStorage's official launch.

I disagree. I think we can manage without DirectStorage. Not saying that DirectStorage is useless; just that the bottleneck lies in the games themselves. I think what is holding load times back is that games load new areas at once every few minutes. Case in point, God of War sees spikes in CPU load (for about 10 seconds) when it is loading new areas. What if we could spread that 10 second CPU load over time by breaking the game world into even smaller chunks. Have it load new areas in small portions continuously? Of course, this might necessitate a SSD and break backwards compatibility with spinning media depending on how game loading works, I am just spitballing.

 

[Anymal]

I guess Adata representatives spent some on skiing resort.

 

[maxfly]

You'd think that Adata has to have noticed all of the negative comments whenever one of their new SSDs is released. Virtually every website that reviews them, it's the same across the board. No one trusts that whats in the review sample will be whats in consumer drives and if they are, they will inevitably change components on the down low. They are by far THE most tone deaf, untrustworthy company ever. It's impossible that their despicable acts haven't cut into their bottom line. I speak with my wallet and like many others, have stopped buying anything they make(the 8200pro used to be my go to). I know I'm not the only one that's done the same from what I'm seeing here and at other forums. So why they haven't taken substantial steps to remedy this lack of trust is beyond me.

 

[trsttte]

You'd think that Adata has to have noticed all of the negative comments whenever one of their new SSDs is released. Virtually every website that reviews them, it's the same across the board. No one trusts that whats in the review sample will be whats in consumer drives and if they are, they will inevitably change components on the down low. They are by far THE most tone deaf, untrustworthy company ever. It's impossible that their despicable acts haven't cut into their bottom line. I speak with my wallet and like many others, have stopped buying anything they make(the 8200pro used to be my go to). I know I'm not the only one that's done the same from what I'm seeing here and at other forums. So why they haven't taken substantial steps to remedy this lack of trust is beyond me.

When I buy a CPU I know that it has X cores Y threads Z clock etc. It may overclock or heat slightly more or less depending on silicon lottery but it is what it is. Same for GPU, RAM, etc.

Why do these scumbags think they can use spec sheets as sugestions and hopes and dreams is beyond me.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Largest capacity available is 1 TB

This is strange given that there are two unpopulated spots for NAND chips. Very odd indeed.