Article Index Review: Adata S599 128Gb SSD (SandForce) Specifications and Features Photo Gallery and Closer Look System Properties, Everest Info and ATTO Everest Disk Read Test Everest Disk Write Test Sandra and Crystalmark Disk Test Verdict and Conclusion

Introduction  

It seems that SandForce driven SSDs are dominating the market. So why is this? Well, over the past few months, we've tested several SSDs which uses the SandForce SSD controller, and I can tell you ... it's really quite impressive. So what makes SandForce SSD controllers so good? According to SandForce, their SF-1200 controllers are cost-effective, offers extremely high IOPS, long MTTF, low power consumption and more importantly, offers a very high read/write performance of a least 260-280Mb/sec. Manufacturers such OCZ now use SandForce controllers in ALL of their high-end SSDs including the IBIS, RevoDrive and of course the Vertex 2 series.

As far as I'm aware, there's only one other serious competitor to SandForce, and that's JMicron. Unfortunately for JMicron, they've recently received some bad publicity from certain hardware review websites regarding their performance. But what I found, is that many of the "value" SSDs on the market tend to use JMicron controllers. That isn't to say that they're no good ... in fact, mainstream SSDs which are JMicron driven often produce decent read/write performance of around 150-180Mb/sec. The new and higher performing JMicron JMF616 controller can in fact, produce an impressive read/write performance of around 220-240Mb/sec. All this however, is still no match against the SandForce controller (but marginally). And this is why Adata and many others, have decided to include SSDs which uses the higher performing SandForce controllers in their high-end enthusiast SSD series.

To refresh, Adata are well known for producing quality memory products, portable hard drives, SSDs and USB flash drives. For those who are not too familiar with Adata, here's a little blurb taken from their website.

A couple of months ago, we reviewed Adata's S596 Turbo 128Gb SSD, which used the newer and faster JMicron controller JMF616 controller. We thought it was a good performing SSD that produced some very good results in terms of read and write speeds. However, it still fell slightly behind against some of the SandForce driven SSDs we tested, such as the OCZ Vertex 2.

In this review, we'll be taking a look at the Adata S599 128Gb SSD, which uses the much talked about SandForce SF-1222 controller. The drive has a total capacity of 128Gb and is based on a 2.5" inch form factor and uses the standard SATA-II interface. It offers a maximum of 280 MB/s read speed, 270 MB/s write speed and an impressive 50,000 IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second). According to Adata, it is even faster than the Intel G2 SSD. And just like Adata's other SSD ... the S596 Turbo, it features a brushed aluminum chassis, which is designed for fast heat dissipation and helps to improve its durability and longevity. The firmware supports Windows 7 TRIM command, which significantly shortens the boot-up time. It's also optimised for AHCI mode, which is an enhanced SATA option selectable in the BIOS, and supports advanced features like Native Command Queuing and Hot Plug.

There's one thing missing with the Adata S599. We were hoping to find a USB port, which is already included on their other model, the S596 Turbo, but unfortunately with the S599 ... there's no USB port. This would have made the SSD extremely appealing to a lot of users. In terms of performance, I'm expecting the Adata S599  to produce some excellent scores in out tests. It will be interesting to see how well it performs against other similar SSDs in its class, which includes the OCZ Vertex, Vertex 2 and even Adata's very own S596 Turbo.

We'll be testing the Adata S599 128Gb SSD on our test rig which consist of an Intel Core i5 - 650 @ 3.2Ghz cooled by a Noctua NH-D14 CPU cooler, a Gigabyte P55 USB3 motherboard, a Geforce GTX 460 OC, 4Gb Crucial Ballistix Tracer and a Thermaltake ToughPower 875W PSU.

OK, now let's take a closer look at the specifications of the Adata S599 SSD in our next page ...

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