The Zadak Spark RGB is a truly exceptional SSD in terms of looks. Thanks to an outstanding ARGB implementation, it will neatly integrate with the other RGB components in your system. It's also nice to see widespread support for vendors: ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, and ASRock are all compatible with the Zadak Spark RGB. Getting the RGB up and running is really plug and play; plop in the SSD, no additional cables needed, start the motherboard RGB software, and control the lighting on the SSD immediately—it just works.

While the hardware implementation is pretty much perfect, I feel like it would be nice to also have a software solution from Zadak for the SSD RGB control, just in case you don't have a supported motherboard or don't want to install its software. If I had to nitpick, I'd probably mention that the SSD does not remember the last RGB setting. It will always boot with an animated rainbow color theme until the motherboard's RGB software uploads new settings. Still, if you're a case modder and want to show off your system with massive bling, this SSD should be on your shopping list.

Averaged over all our real-life performance tests, we see the Zadak Spark RGB battling it out with the top M.2 NVMe PCIe Gen 3 drives. It matches big name drives, like the Kingston KC2000, ADATA SX8200 Pro, WD Black 2018, HP EX950, and Crucial P5. In recent months, we've seen the release of real PCIe Gen 4 SSDs, like the Samsung 980 Pro, WD Black SN850, and Corsair MP600 Pro. These drives are still around 5% faster on average.

A major con of the Zadak Spark RGB is its SLC cache of just 14 GB, which can be considered tiny by today's standards. Large bursts in write activity can fill this cache in just a few seconds. Once the SLC cache is full, the drive has to juggle flushing the cache and handling incoming writes, which results in a sustained write speed of 1 GB/s—still pretty good. You also have to put 14 GB in perspective. Nearly all everyday write bursts are smaller, so unless you're a power user, you might never exhaust that SLC cache. Of course, momentarily stopping the write activity has the SLC cache free up capacity immediately, so full write rates are available as soon as you give the drive a moment to settle down.

Because of the large preinstalled heatsink, thermals are no problem on the Zadak Spark RGB. Previously, there have been RGB SSDs that ran hot because all the RGB LEDs pumped out so much heat. That is not an issue here, the highest temperature we measured was 63°C, barely warm by SSD standards. Unlike some other drives, which report temperatures that are way too optimistic, the sensor on the Zadak Spark SSD is fairly accurate—63°C actual temperature, 57°C reported. Zadak's heatsink not only cools well, it also looks nice thanks to the mix of materials, colors, and surface structures.

Zadak wants $220 for the Spark RGB, which is way too much. For that amount of money, you can almost buy a PCIe Gen 4 SSD, which will be faster, but of course lacks the RGB effects. The same money could also double your capacity—decent 2 TB SSDs start at around $220. There's no magic on the Zadak Spark RGB, it's a fairly standard Phison E12 SSD with Intel B27A flash and Hynix DRAM. Without RGB, this drive would maybe cost $130. The RGB LEDs cost cents; if I'm generous, I'd say $150 is a fair price for this unique product. My guess is Zadak is testing the waters with this niche SSD to see how many will sell, and at which price point. I'm still giving the Zadak Spark RGB our Recommended award because if you're looking for an M.2 NVMe SSD with RGB, this is as good as it gets even though priced a bit high.