Adata's High Performance XPG Spectrix S40G RGB SSD Might Beat Samsung's Best

Adata today announced the launch of its XPG Spectrix S40G RGB gaming SSD. The new drive has speed ratings that are smoking fast, with the higher-capacity drives reaching speeds of 3,500 MBps reads and 3,000 MBps writes, actually surpassing the rated write throughput of the formidable Samsung Pro line. Aside from its speeds, the S40G includes customizable RGB lighting on the heat spreader, giving the device some aggressive gamer styling. Adata markets the drive to PC enthusiasts, overclockers, and graphics professionals. 

On the performance front, the S40G uses the PCIe 3.0 x4 interface along with SLC caching and internal DRAM buffer, allowing the module to reach some of the highest rated speeds we have seen on a single drive (reads are limited by the PCIe 3.0 x4 bandwidth). The S40G line can reach up to 300K/240K IOPS (4K random reads), which is also quite fast on paper. Adata didn’t mention the controller used to reach these speeds, but we imagine it is the Silicon Motion SM2262EN found in their other high-performance drives. We've reached out to confirm and will update the article as needed.

Capacities on the 2280 size modules will come in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB according to their specifications page (the data sheet does not have any details on the 2TB capacity). Detailed specifications can be found in the table below.

Aside from the lights, the S40G includes a brushed-aluminum heat spreader with the XPG naming in red on the interface side. Flanking the heat spreader on the top and bottom are programmable RGB LEDs hidden under a frosted diffuser, which gives the drive a nice RGB glow. Users are able to customize the lighting patterns, intensity, speed and more through XPG’s RGB control software. There is no mention of the drive working with motherboard RGB ecosystems, however. 

Additional features include LDPC (Low-Density Parity Check) error correcting code technology said to detect and fix a wider range of data errors for more accurate transfers and increased lifespan. There is also E2E (End-to-End) data protection, AES 256-bit encryption, and RAID Engine support for data security and integrity purposes. Adata stands behind these drives with a long 5-year warranty and 2 million hour MTBF (Mean Time Before Failure).

Pricing or availability were mentioned, but we expect these fast drives to fetch a premium due to its speeds and included RGB LED heatsink.