ADATA S599 100GB SSD review - Introduction

A couple of weeks ago we previewed the Vertex 2 from OCZ. That SSD came with the all new Sandforce SF-1500 controller and quite honestly, performance was pretty good but the product didn't convince us at all as performance was way below advertised. We assumed it was a firmware issue. None the less, over the past weeks weeks we have seen more and more announcements of SandForce based SSD with the SF1200 controller whereas that SF1500 line seems to fade away.

SandForce controller based SSDs are interesting for a couple of facts, first of you do not need an external memory cache anymore as the controller has a trick or two up it's sleeves. As a result the overall read/write performance is very high. However even more interesting, the random I/O with even small files should be staggering, especially in real-world conditions where you stress the storage subsystem a lot that could and should make a difference.

As such today we'll test the very first SandForce SF1200 based SSD here on Guru3D. Shocking performance you guys .. overwhelming even. ADATA release their S500 series of Solid State Disks which are armed with that SF-1200 IC. Hungry for some media coverage they submitted their 100GB model, the S599 for a review. A product that promised read speeds of up-to 280 MB/sec and write speeds of up-to 270 MB/sec, sustained of course. And that's quite a performance level they are claiming.

Will ADATA be able to deliver what they state ? Heck yeah .. let's find out in the review.