ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 And S50 Lite Review

 ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 And S50 Lite Review 

ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 And S50 Lite Review: PCIe 4 Speed Or Value 

ADATA XPG Gammix S70 And S50 Lite: NVMe PCIe 4 Storage For All 

ADATA has been reliably extending its line-up of XPG, or Xtreme Performance Gaming marked equipment, focusing on PC fans and gamers. The XPG family currently comprises of everything from micoSDXC cards right on up to full gaming frameworks and journals. XPG's SSDs (Solid State Drives), be that as it may, are apparently the broadest cluster of items in the organization's portfolio. ADATA has a heap of XPG SSDs accessible, at a wide assortment of value focuses and execution levels. 

The two drives we'll be demonstrating to you here today, the new ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 and XPG GAMMIX S50 Lite, are both front line PCI Express 4.0 NVMe drives, pressing a portion of Micron's most recent TLC NAND. 

The ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 and XPG GAMMIX S50 Lite are two altogether different drives, in any case. In spite of the fact that the two of them offer solid execution at their separate value focuses and, as you'll see in one minute, the two drives target various sections of the market. XPG's GAMMIX S70 particulars portend one of the quickest SSDs right now accessible, while the GAMMIX S50 Lite is somewhat more agreeable and more spending plan neighborly. Investigate yourselves...

 

ADATA XPG Gammix GAMMIX S70 And GAMMIX S50 Lite Specifications & Features

 

	XPG GAMMIX S70	XPG GAMMIX S50 Lite
Capacity	1TB / 2TB	1TB / 2TB
Form Factor	M.2 2280	M.2 2280
NAND Flash	3D NAND	3D NAND
Dimensions (L x W x H)	80 x 25 x 15mm	80 x 22 x 4.3mm
Weight	34g	10g /3.5oz
Interface	PCIe Gen4x4	PCIe Gen4x4
Sequential Read (Max)	Up to 7400MB/s2	Up to 3900MB/s2
Sequential Write (Max)	Up to 6400MB/s2	Up to 3200MB/s2
Operating temperature	0°C - 70°C	0°C - 70°C
Storage temperature	-40°C - 85°C	-40°C - 85°C
Shock resistance	1500G/0.5ms	1500G/0.5ms
MTBF	2,000,000 hours	2,000,000 hours
Warranty	5-year limited warranty	5-year limited warranty

 

 Find ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 And GAMMIX S50 Lite SSDs @ Amazon

Like the vast majority of M.2 drives currently on the market, ADATA's XPG GAMMIX S70 and XPG GAMMIX S50 Lite use the common M.2 2280 (80mm) "gum stick" form factor. ADATA utilizes dark-colored PCBs with the drives and populates both sides of the boards with an array of components, but everything is covered by integrated heat-spreaders or heatsinks and decals.

At the heart of the ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 is a new 8-channel InnoGrit IG5236 controller. In fact, this is the first SSD we have seen featuring the InnoGrit IG5236. That controller is paired to Micron's latest 96-Layer TLC NAND Flash memory and a few pieces of DDR4 DRAM cache memory. The drive features a PCIe Gen 4 x4 interface and support for the NVMe 1.4 specification.

The ADATA XPG GAMMIX S50 Lite features the same 96-Layer Micron NAND as the GAMMIX S70, and it too has a PCIe Gen 4 x4 interface, but this drive is built around the more affordable Silicon Motion SM2267EN controller.

Ultimate performance levels of the ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 and XPG GAMMIX S50 Lite vary depending on the capacity. We are looking at a 1TB GAMMIX S50 Lite and 2TB GAMMIX S70 here. The XPG GAMMIX S70 is rated for impressive 7.4GB/s sequential reads, and 6.4GB/s writes. 

The GAMMIX S50 Lite’s sequential reads and writes come it at 3.9GB/s and 3.2GB/s, respectively. Both drives have the same MTBF and carry the same 5-year warranty. ADATA hasn’t listed endurance ratings for the GAMMIX S70, unfortunately, but the GAMMIX S50 Lite is rated for 1480TBW.

Due to its leading-edge controller and high-performance levels, the XPG GAMMIX S70 features a relatively large heatsink, that wraps around the entire drive. The GAMMIX S50 Lite features a much more common, flat, thin, metal heat spreader. And that heatsink on the GAMMIX S70 isn’t just for show. 

During testing, we saw drive temps reach about 60°C under long sustained loads when benchmarking the drive inside our test-bed’s mid-tower chassis. Surface temps on the heatsink get pretty toasty too – reaching over 113°F / 45°C, so it's paramount that this drive is installed in systems with adequate cooling to prevent throttling.

We should also mention that the XPG GAMMIX S70’s heatsink may preclude it from fitting in some systems. If your motherboard has especially thick thermal pads or protruding M.2 2260 / 2240 mounts, they may prevent the S70 from seating properly in the slot.

Included with the ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 and XPG GAMMIX S50 Lite is support for the company’s SSD Toolbox utility, for monitoring, maintaining, and updating the drivers. The interface for the tool is somewhat colorful and dated looking, but the functionality and feature set is adequate. ADATA also includes a copy of Acronis True Image with the drives. Both utilities are available to download from ADATA’s site.

While we're on the subject of downloads, both of these drives have updated firmware available that improve performance significantly. Should you purchase either drive, before migrating or loading the drives up with data, we strongly recommend grabbing the latest firmware and updating the drives to ensure they’re running tip-top.

ADATA XPG Gammix S70 And S50 Lite Benchmarks

Under each test condition, the SSDs tested here were installed as secondary volumes in our testbed, with a separate drive used for the OS and benchmark installations. 

Our testbed's motherboard was updated with the latest BIOS available at the time of publication. The SSDs were secure erased prior to testing (when applicable), and left blank without partitions for some tests, while others required them to be partitioned and formatted, as is the case with the ATTO, PCMark, and CrystalDiskMark tests. Windows firewall, automatic updates, and screen savers were all disabled before testing and Windows 10 Quiet Hours / Focus Assist was enabled.

In all test runs, we rebooted the system, ensured all temp and prefetch data was purged, waited several minutes for drive activity to settle and for the system to reach an idle state before invoking a test. Also note, we have completely revamped our test bed, so the numbers shown in this review aren’t comparable to previous articles. All of the drives here have also been updated to their latest firmware and where applicable.

HotHardware Test System Intel Core i7 and SSD Powered

Processor - Motherboard - Video Card - Memory - Audio - Storage -

AMD Threadripper 3990X MSI TRX40 Creator (TRX40 Chipset) GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 32GB G.SKILL DDR4-3200 Integrated on board Corsair MP600 (OS Drive) Samsung SSD 980 Pro (1TB) Gigabyte Aorus NVMe PCIe 4 (2TB) Samsung SSD 970 Pro (512GB) ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 (2TB) ADATA XPG GAMMIX S50 Lite (1TB)

OS - Chipset Drivers - DirectX - Benchmarks -

Windows 10 Pro x64 (2004) AMD v2.07.14.327 DirectX 12 IOMeter HD Tune v5.75 ATTO v4.01.0f AS SSD CrystalDiskMark v7 x64 PCMark 10 Quick Storage Bench SiSoftware SANDRA

IOMeter I/O Subsystem Measurement Tool