While not the fastest PCIe SSD to come through the 'Labs, the ADATA XPG ATOM 30 delivers a lot of bang for your buck. This heatsink-equipped, M.2 form factor SSD is powered by Realtek's RTS5766DL controller and is available with up to 1TB of 3D TLC NAND flash. Combine this with a PCIe Gen3 x4 NVMe 1.3 interface and you have a drive capable of delivering more than four times the performance of your average SATA SSD. In our sequential read and write tests, the 1TB version of the ATOM 30 was able to read at speeds as high as 2,700 MB/s and write at speeds in excess of 2,095 MB/s. It also did relatively well in our random write tests, producing more than 137,000 IOPS at low queue depths.
Of course, that's just the ATOM 30 by itself. If you spend an extra $30 and buy the kit, you also get a 250GB Ultimate SU670 SATA SSD. Powered by Realtek's RTS5735DLQ controller, the drive's performance is on par with other DRAM-less SATA SSDs. Like the ATOM 30, it also includes a number of features including SLC caching and Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) code technology. Aside from it having only a three year warranty versus five like the ATOM 30, the only real complaint I have about the SU670 in the kit is its capacity. Instead of a 250GB drive, I would have liked to have seen one with 500GB or even 1TB of storage. This wouldn't have raised the price very much and the extra capacity would allow you to install more than an operating system and a couple of applications or games or let it be used in a game console like the PS4.
The XPG ATOM 30 is available by itself in 500GB and 1TB capacities and can be purchased from Amazon for $48 and $90, respectively. Otherwise, the ATOM 30 kit reviewed here can be picked up for as little as $100 (normally $120) when you clip the $20 off coupon.
Highs:
- Available by itself or in a kit with 250GB SATA SSD
- PCIe 3.0 x4 interface with NVMe protocol
- Realtek RTS5766DL controller
- Equipped with 3D TLC NAND
- Good sequential and random read and write speeds
- Small M.2 2280 form factor
- SLC caching
- Low-Density Parity Check (LDPC) code technology
- Host Memory Buffer (HMB)
- Aluminum alloy heatsink
- AES 256-bit encryption
- Works with ADATA's SSD Toolbox software
- Reasonably priced
- ATOM 30 has 5 year warranty
Lows:
- Write speed drops when SLC cache is full
- SU670 has only a 3 year warranty
- SU670 is only 250GB
