ADATA SX8200 Pro 1 TB

[W1zzard]

The ADATA SX8200 Pro comes with a faster controller, which improves the performance of TLC significantly. Especially heavy writes see big improvements with results that almost make this drive look like MLC. Pricing is extremely reasonable, too: only 21 cents per GB. The SX8200 Pro is both faster and cheaper than the Samsung 970 EVO.

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[TheLaughingMan]

I am honestly impressed. I thought I would still be waiting another year before considering an NVMe drive because I don't really need the performance; however, that is such a small price premium. Not to mention the performance per dollar is down right awesome.

 

[Vario]

Good to see a review on this, I have read a lot about this drive being the best value in the segment.

 

[Deleted member 50521]

Thanks to @W1zzard review I bought a SX8200 960GB. Amazing drive. On the Z370-itx it actually performs a lot better than my 960Pro 1TB on the X99

 

[DonKnotts]

Since all of the results on the level loading bench are within just a couple seconds of each other, it would've been nice if you had thrown in a few HDDs to give some idea of the performance gains that are possible making the leap from HDD to SSD.

 

[kastriot]

Great review like always but when a saw "only 21 cent per GB" well you know

 

[deu]

Since all of the results on the level loading bench are within just a couple seconds of each other, it would've been nice if you had thrown in a few HDDs to give some idea of the performance gains that are possible making the leap from HDD to SSD.

Just know its a factor 4+ improvement

 

[Space Lynx]

I just bought a 970 Evo 1TB NVMe for $201 shipped new on sale, and that is 3 bit MLC... so you're asking me to pay more for TLC? eeeek no ty

 

[jabbadap]

I just bought a 970 Evo 1TB NVMe for $201 shipped new on sale, and that is 3 bit MLC... so you're asking me to pay more for TLC? eeeek no ty

3bit MLC is TLC.

 

[Space Lynx]

3bit MLC is TLC.

Why does Samsung call it MLC and not TLC then? isn't that false advertising? oh well, my samsung was still cheaper and has better support/software/drivers for long term usage

 

[jabbadap]

Why does Samsung call it MLC and not TLC then? isn't that false advertising? oh well, my samsung was still cheaper and has better support/software/drivers for long term usage

MLC comes from multi level cell, anything over 1bit thus SLC is multi level be it 2bit(MLC), 3bit(TLC), 4bit(QLC). If I remember it correctly Samsungs marketing people explained the reason to calling it MLC is not to get sued by Toshiba?(or was it sandisk, but anyhow), which owns the rights for name TLC.

 

[Space Lynx]

MLC comes from multi level cell, anything over 1bit thus SLC is multi level be it 2bit(MLC), 3bit(TLC), 4bit(QLC). If I remember it correctly Samsungs marketing people explained the reason to calling it MLC is not to get sued by Toshiba?(or was it sandisk, but anyhow), which owns the rights for name TLC.

you must have it wrong, because even the 970 Pro is 2 bit MLC and every tech person I have ever talked to says pay for the Pro version for MLC over TLC

can someone confirm? @W1zzard do you know? since this is your review

 

[jabbadap]

you must have it wrong, because even the 970 Pro is 2 bit MLC and every tech person I have ever talked to says pay for the Pro version for MLC over TLC

can someone confirm? @W1zzard do you know? since this is your review

Yes pro versions are real "MLC" drives, that is true. But Evos are 3bit "MLC" drives thus in reality they are TLC drives. It is the known fact Samsung 970 EVO is using 3D TLC NANDs. You can look any reviews of them to confirm that. Check i.e. Anandtech's review of that drive:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/12670/the-samsung-970-evo-ssd-review

Edit: or even TPUs own review...

Edit2: Any way, you got yourself a great drive for very cheap.

 

[Space Lynx]

Yes pro versions are real "MLC" drives, that is true. But Evos are 3bit "MLC" drives thus in reality they are TLC drives. It is the known fact Samsung 970 EVO is using 3D TLC NANDs. You can look any reviews of them to confirm that. Check i.e. Anandtech's review of that drive:

https://www.anandtech.com/show/12670/the-samsung-970-evo-ssd-review

Edit: or even TPUs own review...

Edit2: Any way, you got yourself a great drive for very cheap.

hmm thanks, seems like false advertising, because I bought it direct from samsung store online, and samsung store online says its 3 bit MLC.

 

[Tsukiyomi91]

THIS is definitely a good drive, keeping up or performing a little better like Samsung's premium 970 PRO drives, which doesn't come cheap. Though I gotta say kudos to the "affordable" 970 EVO for being very consistent in all the benchmarks.

 

[EntropyZ]

Every year it seems competitor SSD's are making Samsung drives less and less unique. I've been buying ADATA and Crucial SSD's for a long time because they don't charge extra for almost similar or even better performance while maintaining good drive endurance.

I remember most people not even looking at the options when the 840 EVO was around because it was such a good drive with low failure rates (back when consumers were concerned about the total write limit on cells), buying an SSD at that time you wouldn't want to settle for less. Now all that Samsung has as an advantage is maybe a longer warranty, I think that is still reserved for the PRO version.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

21 cents per GB is still a lot more than the 3-4 cents of a spindle drive.

NVMe is definitely worth it over SATA for the M.2 form factor.

 

[Assimilator]

Good work ADATA - now make your SATA SSDs less sucky.

hmm thanks, seems like false advertising, because I bought it direct from samsung store online, and samsung store online says its 3 bit MLC.

Anything more than 1 bit per cell (Single-Level Cell aka SLC) is Multi-Level Cell aka MLC. So a 2-bit-per-cell chip is MLC, a 3-bit-per-cell chip is MLC, a 4-bit-per-cell chip is MLC... it's just that the term "MLC" was originally used to refer to only 2-bits-per-cell chips when it was the only NAND in town apart from SLC. Now we have TLC (Triple-Level Cell) for 3 bits/cell and now QLC (Quad-Level Cell) for 4 bits/cell.

So technically your TLC drive is an MLC drive too, just as a QLC drive is technically an MLC drive. But yes, Samsung is playing fast and loose by using "MLC" to refer to their TLC drives.

Aside: I always wondered why the terminology is SLC, MLC, TLC, QLC. It would've been far simpler and more descriptive to just use the number of bits instead (so SLC would be 1LC, MLC = 2LC, TLC = 3LC, ...). Not only would this not allow for marketing shenanigans, it would completely avoid the crap that's gonna arise when we get to:

• 5 bits/cell NAND (can't call them quintuple-layer because that would be QLC which we already have for quad, so they'll have to be penta-layer aka PLC)
• 6 bits/cell NAND (can't call them sextuple-layer because we already have SLC, so they'll have to be hex-layer aka HLC)
• 7 bits/cell NAND (can't call them septuple-layer because we already have SLC, can't call them heptuple because we already have HLC, so what???)

 

[W1zzard]

you must have it wrong, because even the 970 Pro is 2 bit MLC and every tech person I have ever talked to says pay for the Pro version for MLC over TLC

can someone confirm? @W1zzard do you know? since this is your review

Everybody in the industry calls 2-bits per cell "MLC". As others mentioned, "M" stands for "multiple", which of course means "2 and above" in English. Samsung knows this, 100%, everybody calls 3-bits per cell "TLC". It's just a convenient excuse for Samsung to market their drive as "MLC".

 

[Wavetrex]

Thanks for the review !
I was looking for a new NVME ssd for my new Ryzen server/workstation, and having more options is nice !

The competition for fast M.2/NVME drives that go above 3000 MB/s is getting strong, and I already know how using one feels, my gaming PC already has a Samsung 960 Evo, and daaaamn everything launches so fast !

 

[Dammeron]

Everybody in the industry calls 2-bits per cell "MLC". As others mentioned, "M" stands for "multiple", which of course means "2 and above" in English. Samsung knows this, 100%, everybody calls 3-bits per cell "TLC". It's just a convenient excuse for Samsung to market their drive as "MLC".

Changing "MLC" to "DLC" (double level) would be a stupid choice, considering what people think of products already known by that shortcut.

As for SX8200 - anybody can tell if they're failure-free? I had some pretty bad memories with their older 2,5" SSDs.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

BLC = bilayer (aka two-layer).

 

[sanadanosa]

So that heatsink really does something after all.

As for SX8200 - anybody can tell if they're failure-free? I had some pretty bad memories with their older 2,5" SSDs.

I've built 2 PCs with SX8200s, it's been 4 months and so far i'm having no problem with them.

@Wizzard. Would you do the review of SX6200? Really curious about the Realtek controller on that one.

 

[bug]

While some see throttling as a con, I will point out (again), this only throttles after about 80 seconds of writing 2.5GB each second. That's after writing ~400GB. Those are the circumstances under which NVMe drives throttle. So if you're worried about that, look how often you write that much.
Also, I would highlight that 200MB/s random 4k reads. That's going to be rather noticeable over a cheaper AHCI drive.
And what an oddity is the Office install. I wonder what's going on there, iirc other speedy drives have fallen to this test.

 

[Voluman]

Thank you for the great review, and nice to see the notes on Office installer