Introduction

Today, we are reviewing the ADATA SX8200 SSD in its 480 GB variant. ADATA was one of the first players to join the SSD market and has an even longer history in DRAM and general flash memory, like USB storage.

Compared to the SX8000 we reviewed a while ago, the SX8200 is using a Silicon Motion SM2262 controller, whereas the SX8000 used the SM2260. Flash chips have been switched from MLC to 64-layer 3D TLC by Micron, and overprovisioning has been increased, which results in higher performance at the price of smaller total capacity (480 GB vs. 512 GB).

Both drives use the PCI-Express x4 interface, which guarantees the highest-possible throughput, at least from an interface perspective. In addition to a DRAM buffer, the drive also features pSLC (pseudo-SLC), which runs a portion of the MLC flash in SLC mode for increased write performance.

The A-DATA SX8200 SSD is available in capacities of 240 GB, 480 GB (this review sample), and 960 GB. Warranty is set to five years for all these models.