ADATA Launches New SandForce SSDs With More Capacity

The XPG SX900 and Premier Pro SP900 utilize a SandForce 2281 controller on a 2.5-inch form factor with a SATA 6.0 Gb/s interface. The XPG SX900 comes in capacities of 64 GB, 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB and uses MLC Synchronous NAND flash memory. The Premier Pro SP900 comes in capacities of 64 GB, 128 GB & 256 GB and uses MLC Asynchronous NAND flash memory. The Premier SP800 utilizes a SandForce 1222 controller on a 2.5-inch form factor with a SATA 3.0 Gb/s interface and comes in capacities of 32 GB and 64 GB.

Taking a closer look at the XPG SX900 capacities, you'll quickly notice the capacities are not the typical SandForce capacities of 60 GB, 120 GB, 240 GB and 480 GB. SandForce based SSDs have roughly 7 percent NAND flash memory used for firmware and over-provision built into their firmware that wasn't part of the stated capacity. With a recent firmware update by LSI SandForce, it now allows manufactures to modify the over-provisioning percentage down to zero and provide more capacity to the end-user. For example, this would make your OCZ Vertex 3 240 GB come in at 256 GB if the built-in over-provision percentage was set to zero. ADATA is the first manufacturer to take advantage of this new firmware and offer its users the extra capacity without the need to reformat the drive. 

Those familiar with SandForce drives will know that they don't have DRAM cache, so the over-provision in the NAND acts like the cache for the drive. With no over-provision, the question becomes will the drives see a performance decrease over-time because of wear leveling and garbage collection not working to its full potential. The guys over at The SSD Review have provided a little more insight on how the drives have some "hidden" capacity to cover your concerns with wear leveling and garbage collection at 0 percent over-provision. Basically, it comes down to the calculated difference between Billion Bytes and Gigabytes.

Specifications are listed as:

Pricing for the three new drives still has not be made available by ADATA. For more information on the drives, please visit the product pages at ADATA website.