Team Group T-Force Delta RGB SSD Review: RGB SSD Done Right, Kinda

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Conclusion

RGB strikes, but this time around, slower performance does not totally overshadow the allure of the shiny bright lights. Unlike the HyperX Fury RGB, which we suggested for those of you chasing aesthetics above all, there isn’t as much of a compromise in performance for looks–now it is mainly just price.

Both the 250GB and 1TB capacities performed well during testing. The drives often ranked in the middle or near the tail end of the comparison pool but were still within a few MB/s or points of the MX500 or WD Blue. It can’t hold a candle to the Samsung 860 EVO’s performance, nor the Intel SSD 660p's sheer raw read and write speed, but the Delta RGB SSD will still get the job done in a timely manner with regular applications. Most importantly, unlike the DRAMless Toshiba OCZ TR200 and the Kingston HyperX Fury RGB, there's no period of laggy performance after filling the drive, bombarding it with our benchmark routine, and continuing to use it as an OS volume.

The Delta RGB's main detraction stems from its premium pricing. Both our Crucial and Samsung comparison products both offer five-year warranties while the Delta RGB only has a three-year warranty. We expect this from an entry-level SSD, but the Delta RGB's pricing isn’t in that class.

Then there's the NVMe Intel SSD 660p and ADATA XPG SX8200 that also offer five-year warranties and much more performance than the Delta RGB, but for just a few dollars more. While they can’t necessarily compete on aesthetics, they are a much better value for those looking for the most bang for the buck, especially at the 500GB capacity point.

Finally, while the Delta's endurance rating is greater than the Intel SSD 660p’s, most SSDs still offer more. This mostly is Team Group's decision to use Micron’s last-gen 32L TLC flash. But, in all, this last point is rather moot because most SSDs won’t see tens of terabytes written within the three year warranty period.

Team Group’s T-Force Delta will provide a cool aesthetic for any build, new or old. While it does come at a premium and trades off a little bit of performance here, and comes with a slightly low three-year warranty, we recommend it to those looking for an RGB SSD. It gets the job done, and it looks good doing it.

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Sean Webster
Storage Reviewer

Sean is a Contributing Editor at Tom’s Hardware US, covering storage hardware.