ADATA Premier Pro SP600 128GB SSD

Product: ADATA Premier Pro SP600 128GB SSD
Provided By: ADATA
Price: ~$79.99

Introduction:

Solid State Drives are becoming quite popular and thanks to the price decreases over the past year especially, they are becoming quite affordable for the average user.  While the capacities still aren't equivalent to traditional mechanical storage, these drives are becoming larger at more affordable prices.  The drive we are looking at today from ADATA is the Premier Pro SP600 128GB SSD.  This drive is the "big" one from the SP600 line - a line that is geared towards consumers who want to get an SSD, but can't afford a high-end Intel, Samsung or OCZ drive.

The SP600 series claims write speeds at up to 360MB/sec and read speeds at 140MB/sec.  These numbers may seem pretty slow when compared to these high-end drives, but at the price point of the SP600, and the market is geared towards, it has some value to offer.  In this review today - as with all of our reviews, we will take a look at this drive and see how it lives up to the manufacturers claims.  If it does, it gets some points.  How it fits into the value category is another thing.  We'll compare performance of other drives and see what kind of "bang for your buck" this drive offers.

Bundle & First Look:

SSDs don't typically come with a lot of extras, and the ADATA drive actually comes with a bit more than most - and this is surprising due its low price tag.  In the actual box we get the traditional 2.5" to 3.5" bracket that allows us to install this drive in a desktop system more easily.  Also in the bundle is a quickstart guide and instructions on where to download Acronis True Image HD as well as a trial of Norton Security.  I haven't seen many other drives that come with a brand-name migration software bundle and this is pretty sweet as this software alone will cost you  $40.

As with virtually every SSD, the outside of the drive isn't all that exciting.  The drive body is made from aluminum and this provides some extra stability.  The case cover for the OCZ Vertex 3 was made from plastic, with a metal base, so the overall feel of the ADATA SP600 is pretty positive.  While you may think that the case material isn't all that relevant, the truth is that if the case body is allowed to flex, it puts a lot of stress on the PCB inside.  This "flexing" has caused the premature death of quite a few SSDs, so we applaud the all-metal body of the SP600.

The SP600 is a SATA III drive and while the rated read speed doesn't exceed the 300MB/sec barrier by much, it is still a good thing that they have embraced this speed instead of crippling themselves by saving a few dollars and sticking with SATA II.  The JMicron controller isn't the fastest in the world, but it should get the job done.

On the next page we'll take a look inside the drive, and cover some of the features and specifications before we jump into testing.