Fantastic sequential read and write performance is a trademark of modern SSDs. To measure it, we use incompressible data over a 16 GB LBA space, and then test at queue depths from one to 16. We're reporting these numbers in binary (where 1 KB equals 1024) instead of decimal numbers (where 1 KB is 1000 bytes). When necessary, we also limit the scale of the chart to enhance readability.
128 KB Sequential Read
As we've seen from some of our recent SSD reviews, performance at low queue depths starts slow, and scales up as outstanding commands pile up. I speculate that our 128 KB sequential workload isn't intense enough to fully saturate Adata's SP920s. Perhaps its an artifact of larger page sizes (16 KB in this case).
All four drives are more or less equal in this test, peaking at almost 540 MB/s at a queue depth of four. I'm using 128 KB chunks of data, whereas a test utility like AS SSD is going to use somewhere in the range of 1 to 4 MB.
128 KB Sequential Write
128/256 GB Adata SP920
I'll start by write testing the two smaller SP920s, and comparing them to the older Crucial M500 equivalents. Why am I dipping back to the 120 and 240 GB M500s? Unfortunately, Crucial didn't send along its 128 and 256 GB models for review, which benefit from twice as many dies as Adata's SSDs. So instead of making this face-off about interleaving, it's instead a measure of firmware and controller performance. Even with the same NAND, we realize a notable speed-up from the two Adata offerings.
The 128 GB Adata SP920 achieves 177 MB/s, which is quite a bit faster than the 120 GB M500's result in the mid-130 MB/s range. The 256 GB model's jump is even more impressive; it registers an extra 100 MB/s. That's awesome, and very close to Adata's official specification. However, the 256 GB M550 is supposed to achieve 500 MB/s. Those extra dies prove useful in a test like this one.
There is a tradeoff here.
512/1024 GB Adata SP920

The larger models fare far more predictably, and we see total parity between the bigger drives with the same number of dies. Performance that falls just shy of 500 MB/s is a result of Micron's flash and firmware. It's about 100 MB/s more than the M500 delivers, though the real fruits of this platform are found elsewhere.
Here's a breakdown of the maximum observed 128 KB sequential read and write performance with Iometer:
The SP920s fall a few megabytes per second short in our benchmark, which are enough to put Adata's largest two models behind the Crucial M550s at the top. In any case, that small amount of difference is imperceptible.
- Adata's SP920: Quite Literally, A Familiar Face
- A Primer: The Art Of The Platform, SMART, And You
- Test Setup And Benchmarks
- Results: Sequential Performance
- Results: Random Performance
- Results: Tom's Hardware Storage Bench v1.0
- Results: Tom's Hardware Storage Bench v1.0, Continued
- Results: TRIM Testing With ULINK's DriveMaster 2012
- Results: Power Consumption
- Adata SP920: Adding Value With A Nice Bundle



The X210 is pretty awesome, but newer Marvell implementations are built with Haswell-style power features in mind. If you're looking for a drive to use in mobile applications, mind the heat and power consumption stats.
Regards,
Christopher Ryan
I have to say, the plastic or metal chassis a drive comes in doesn't mean much. In the lab, I like a nice heavy metal SSD casing, but in a laptop? You probably want a flimsy plastic chassis. It's not conductive and doesn't add much weight.
Regards,
Christopher Ryan
I agree that a substantial chassis tends to reinforce the perception of a drive's build quality, but much of the time its aesthetic. The component choice on the PCB speaks more to quality. I've seen some downright terrible drives in the fanciest of cases.
Regards,
Christopher Ryan
Impressive ... power consumption is a bit high though, compared to the Samsung 120GB Evo (my current $80 fav)
Are 'microseconds' considered 'milliseconds' ??
Case in point. I read ADATA had released driver updates back in February. I have a SX 900 64G I use for benchmarking. After downloading and running the 525 FieldUpdater it was obvious that no matching driver was included in the newly released 525 driver update package I had downloaded despite the SX 900 being on the list.
I emailed tech support and didn't receive a reply for 7 days despite the confirmation of receipt stating a response would come in 1 to 3 days. I did get a reply after a posting the issue to their Facebook page in which I was told "Please see the attached for the signature file you needed for the firmware update as it took us some time to obtain it from our headquarters"
Indeed a matching 525 FieldUpdater driver had been included in this email and I installed it.
The result was something to see, erratic and downright wonky, come to mind. A malfunction in the installation I presumed and so I downloaded the ADATA software suite SSD Tool which wouldn't and couldn't Security Erase the disk. Parted Magic was then installed and did the job allowing me to clean reinstall the driver I'd been emailed and hopefully resolve the erratic performance issue. In part it resolved erratic reads and writes but now every ATTO write above the 128k mark had lost 40% of its performance capability from the benchmarks using the previous driver.
Support were emailed including ATTO screen captures, and their response was to send it back for replacement.
_Wait a minute just sent me the old driver I stated in my response
Can't "After consulting with our headquarters, it’s confirmed that once the firmware is updated, it cannot be removed or fallback to the older version".
Having no choice I hinted that as this debacle had originated with them that an upgrade from 64G would be an appropriate compensation for the enormous waste of time, and additional costs I was incurring.
The disk was packaged and insured then sent to ADATA for a cost of 20$ and it should be noted that locally this additional $20 represented the retail difference between a 64G and a 128G capacity.
Tracking informed me ADATA received the disk in 5 days and later confirmed by them. Once the 3 to 5 days turn over stated by them came and passed and on day seven a status inquiry was sent and 6 hrs later, confirmation a package to me had been put in the hands of mail services.
That was March 21 and I received the disk 11 days later April 1st in my snail mail box no signature required (a less scrupulous person could easily exploit that).
The round trip experience total is six weeks with a dollar output of over 20% of the sticker price the disk was purchased for. Total time wasted on their error, fiddling with downloads installing and removing ADATA brand software that didn't accomplish the required tasks (additionally the Acronis suite that was packaged with the drive never successfully completed the key transaction on their site) research, installations removal... ya'll get the picture.
Does the SX 900 perform well/competitively... all the published reviews and accompanying benchmarks hold true, so yes it's a cracker even in the 64G capacity.
Would I recommend it?
Only to a tech masochist with tons of time to waste as well a a few bucks.
Now you have a more complete picture.
Impressive ... power consumption is a bit high though, compared to the Samsung 120GB Evo (my current $80 fav)
Are 'microseconds' considered 'milliseconds' ??
Remember (at least for idle) that these are active numbers. That is, the drive and host aren't collaborating to put the drive in a lower power state. In a mobile application, most every SSD is going to drop to lower sleep-state levels, but at the cost of higher latency when returning to idle. For the sake of consistent testing we choose to use active idle.
Did we mix up our units somewhere?
Regards,
Christopher Ryan
I disagree. I actually like seeing the authors chime in. I think it builds a better community as the authors seem more accessible and thus reliable and relatable.
I also don't think Christopher Ryan is trolling in the strictest definition of the word; He's not trying to stir things up for the sake of starting a post war. He's simply continuing to give his opinion and replies in threads. Why should they not be able to make comments on articles they've written? It is expected that any knowledge they can impart to the community is considered of value, regardless if it's in the original article or in the comments section. I think there's also a potential consideration where maybe they have more to share, but due to time constraints or simply available space, they didn't say all they really wanted. So they chime in in the comments section. Kinda like the "extras" on a DVD or BR... "Oh, Director Commentary. Cool!"
I disagree. I actually like seeing the authors chime in. I think it builds a better community as the authors seem more accessible and thus reliable and relatable.
I also don't think Christopher Ryan is trolling in the strictest definition of the word; He's not trying to stir things up for the sake of starting a post war. He's simply continuing to give his opinion and replies in threads. Why should they not be able to make comments on articles they've written? It is expected that any knowledge they can impart to the community is considered of value, regardless if it's in the original article or in the comments section. I think there's also a potential consideration where maybe they have more to share, but due to time constraints or simply available space, they didn't say all they really wanted. So they chime in in the comments section. Kinda like the "extras" on a DVD or BR... "Oh, Director Commentary. Cool!"
I'm making an effort to try and encourage more discussion, which means becoming more active in the comment section. Previously, I tended to let them be. Now, I think I can increase the utility of the comments section over time by more active participation.
As someone who used to read and post comments on Tom's as a reader, I always thought it was awesome that I had a place where I could interact with the author. I want to see more of that with my reviews, so my participation is the best way to make that happen.
Regards,
Christopher Ryan
mSATA SSDs are still using the SATA 3.1 host spec, as are most M.2s. There are a few M.2 PCIe SSDs, but there are currently next to no applications for them. We have more M.2 and mSATA reviews on the way, so you should be able to judge for yourself.
Regards,
Christopher Ryan