Knowledgeable’s Score
Professionals
- Nice real-world efficiency
- Very reasonably priced
- Engaging designer-styled warmth spreader out there.
Cons
- 512GB capability is a comparatively gradual author
Our Verdict
For $50 it’s onerous to beat the 512GB Legend 850, which truly bested a variety of 1TB and 2TB SSDs in our real-world 48GB file transfers.
Finest Costs At this time: Adata Legend 850 512GB SSD
$47.99
I used to be a bit shocked when Adata despatched the 512GB capability of its newest Legend 850 NVMe 1.4, M.2 SSD. Bigger-capacity drives (1TB, 2TB, and better) typically obtain higher efficiency numbers due to the higher quantity of NAND out there to be used as secondary cache.
That is what I used to be pondering when the 512GB Legend 850 lagged on the primary two exams. However then, startlingly, the drive managed a 4th-place end within the 48GB file transfers amongst all of the drives we’ve examined, most of that are 1TB and 2TB contenders. That is the take a look at that almost all mimics real-world use. Colour us impressed.
Be aware: See our roundup of the most effective SSDs to study competing merchandise, what to search for in an SSD, and shopping for suggestions.
Adata Legend 850: Design and specs
Adata despatched us a restricted version Legend 850 styled by German Designer Mister Fred (not Ed.). The colourful floral motif is evocative, although not notably indicative of digital storage. If it’s to not your style, there’s a extra mainstream charcoal-gray and gold coloration scheme, as proven beneath.
The 512GB capability of the Legend 850 we examined prices solely $48, however there are additionally 1TB and 2TB variations out there for $90 and $216, respectively. That’s an excellent value for the 1TB, with the 2TB about par for this class of drive.
The Legend 850 is a 2280 (22x80mm) kind issue, M.2, PCIe 4.0 SSD that makes use of a DRAM-less HBM (host bus reminiscence) design. In different phrases, it makes use of a few of your system reminiscence for major caching duties.
Using an SM2269XT Silicon Movement controller, it was additionally very good about allocating NAND for secondary caching functions (written as 1-bit SLC somewhat than the 176-layer, 3-bit TLC that’s the native capability of the cells).
The Legend 850 is warrantied for 5 years, or 500TBW (terabytes written) per 512GB of capability—whichever comes first. That’s a somewhat beneficiant TBW score for the worth.
The 512GB Legend 850 actually got here alive in studying and writing our 48GB single file and knowledge set, besting many drives with 1TB/2TB of NAND.
Adata Legend 850: Efficiency
As famous up high, the Legend 850’s artificial benchmark numbers have been combined, with excellent learn scores and off-the-pace write scores.
Nevertheless, the drive actually got here alive in studying and writing our 48GB single file and knowledge set, besting many drives with 1TB/2TB of NAND. That’s no imply feat and certain because of the new Silicon Movement controller’s deft dealing with of secondary cache.
The Legend 850 got here again right down to earth in our 450GB write after an excellent begin.
There’s simply no getting round the truth that it solely had 62GB of NAND to spare on this explicit take a look at. You may see within the display seize beneath that efficiency dropped fairly a bit after the 100GB mark and once more at round 350GB.
Nevertheless, it dropped solely to round 450MBps, which whereas not NVMe-like, just isn’t the slothful onerous drive tempo we’ve seen from some SSDs writing off cache.
Be aware additionally that the Legend 850 formatted and optimized in a short time. Some bargain-level drives will take a comparative lifetime to carry out these operations.
Inner drive exams presently make the most of Home windows 11 64-bit operating on an MSI MEG X570/AMD Ryzen 3700X combo with 4 16GB Kingston 2666MHz DDR4 modules, a Zotac (Nvidia) GT 710 1GB x2 PCIe graphics card, and an ASMedia ASM3242 USB 3.2×2 card. Copy exams make the most of an ImDisk RAM disk utilizing 58GB of the 64GB whole reminiscence.
Every take a look at is carried out on a newly formatted and TRIM’d drive so the outcomes are optimum. Over time, as a drive fills up, efficiency will lower on account of much less NAND for caching and different elements.
The efficiency numbers proven apply solely to the drive we have been shipped and of the capability examined. SSD efficiency can differ by capability on account of extra or fewer chips to shotgun reads/writes throughout and the quantity of NAND out there for secondary caching. Distributors additionally often swap elements, and Adata didn’t exempt this drive from the observe. If you happen to ever discover a big discrepancy between the efficiency you expertise, and that which we report (programs being roughly equal), please tell us.
Must you purchase the Adata Legend 850?
Okay, you’re not prone to desire a 512GB Legend 850 in your primary SSD in a quick gaming or inventive PC. However for the typical discount PC or laptop computer it’s very good basis or improve.
