The latest generation of
NVMe-based solid state drives have significantly altered the value proposition for performance-conscious PC enthusiasts. Whereas the NVMe drives of “old” were significantly more expensive than SATA-based products, while offering somewhat higher performance, many of today’s drives are only slightly higher priced and may offer 5 – 6x the peak throughput. Case in point, the
ADATA XPG SX8200 we will be showing you here today. This ADATA drive is a speedy, yet affordable solid state drive that offers peak read and write speeds of 3200/1700MB per second, with a good warranty and solid endurance rating.
The ADATA XPG SX8200’s main features and specifications are outlined below. Take a gander to level-set your expectations and then we’ll dive in a little deeper to see what makes this drive tick and compare and contrast its performance alongside some other popular NVMe SSDs...
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Specifications & Features
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The
ADATA XPG SX8200 confirms to the common M.2 2280 (80mm) form factor just like the vast majority of today’s NVMe-based gumstick drives. ADATA utilizes an attractive, dark-colored PCB, and populates both sides of the board with an array of components.
At the heart of the ADTA XPG SX8200 is an 8-channel Silicon Motion SM2262 controller. That controller is paired to second-gen
IMFT 64-Layer 3D TLC NAND Flash memory and a few pieces of NANYA DRAM cache memory. The drive features a PCIe Gen x4 interface and support for the NVMe 1.3 specification.
The ultimate performance of the ADTA XPG SX8200 will vary depending on the capacity. We are looking at a 480GB drive here, which falls right in the middle of the line-up – 240GB and 960GB drives are also available. As mentioned, ADATA rates the drives for up to 3200/1700MB per second reads and writes. Idle power should be around .14W and typical active power around .33W. This particular drive’s endurance rating is 320TBW, but half that for the 240GB drive and double for the 960GB model.
Included with the ADATA XPG SX8200 is support for the company’s SSD Toolbox utility, for monitoring, maintaining, and updating the drive. The interface for the tool is somewhat colorful and dated looking, but the functionality and feature set is adequate. ADATA also includes an XPG-branded aluminum heat-spreader should users want to install it. We like this option because it allows owners to opt for the included heat-spreader should they want to use it or directly attach the beefier heatsinks included on many enthusiast motherboards directly to the
SSD, without an additional layer in-between.
