Storage

XPG GAMMIX S10 512GB Review

vortez
August 13, 2017 7 Min Read
4 0

We have ADATA’s latest NVMe drive in for testing, claiming 1800MB/s read and 850MB/s write speeds and boasting a whole host of built-in technologies.


Product on Review: ADATA GAMMIX S10 512GB
Manufacturer: ADATA
Street Price: 512GB £203.00 / $263.00

It’s been a little while since we last reviewed an SSD from ADATA so we were keen to accept the opportunity to review their latest NVME drive. The ADATA XPG GAMMIX S10 operates on the PCI-E Gen. 3 x4 interface and claims to reach speeds of 1800MB/s read and 850MB/s write which far surpasses the speeds of any SATA 3 SSD. The GAMMIX S10 also sports a sleek black and red heatsink atop the M.2 2280 form factor.

ADATA are a big name within the memory industry, with both volatile RAM memory and non-volatile SSDs, they were founded back in 2001 and have received several awards since then.

The S10, codenamed the SX7000NP, is available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB capacities; ADATA have sent us the 512GB for testing, being the likely most popular capacity option for those seeking an M.2 NVMe SSD. All 4 versions of the drive come with a generous 5-year warranty to match their 2,000,000 hour MTBF (mean time between failure).



ADATA on the XGP GAMMIX S10:
A black XPG heatsink with red streamlined curves makes the GAMMIX S10 look attractive and aggressive. Compared to M.2 SSDs without a heatsink, the S10 reduces temperatures by about 10°C for better cooling.

Technical Specifications

Capacity : 128GB / 256GB / 512GB / 1TB
Form Factor: M.2 2280
NAND Flash: 3D TLC
Controller: SMI
Dimensions (L x W x H): 22 x 80 x 3.5mm
Weight: 8g / 0.28oz
Interface: PCIe Gen3x4
Performance(Max): read 1800MB / s, write 850MB / s
Maximum 4K random read/write IOPS: up to 130K / 140K
* Performance may vary based on SSD capacity, host hardware and software, operating system, and other system variables.
Operating temperature: 0°C – 70°C
Storage temperature: -40°C – 85°C
Shock resistance: 1500G/0.5ms
MTBF: 2,000,000 hours
Warranty: 5 years

Packaging, Bundle & Closer Look

The ADATA GAMMIX S10 arrives in a small packet, showing off that curvy black and red heatsink on the front. The capacity is clearly stated in the bottom left with the NAND type and NVMe interface shown on the top right.



The rear of the packaging describes some of the technologies used within the NVMe drive and quotes the read and write speeds, at 1800MB/s read and 850MB/s write. We’ll find out later on how accurate those numbers are.



As you can see, the drive is held in place within a large piece of dense foam underneath a flip-lid style packaging. That drive would look perfect in any black/red themed desktop.



Internal components are no longer hidden away from users behind a thick metal side-piece, more and more consumers are now purchasing tempered glass cases to show off their pride and joy; this necessitates an attractive appearance, which ADATA have certainly delivered on; they also claim the heatsink can reduce temperatures by up to 10°C compared to a naked M.2. One thing to note is that the drive’s XPG logo, on the front of the drive, will be upside down in most conventional systems due to the orientation which the majority of motherboard manufacturers adopt.



The rear of the M.2 isn’t anything special, though it’s nice to see they’ve used a black PCB. The GAMMIX S10 conforms to the M.2 2280 specification.

Test Setup & Methodology

Our test system is formatted and a fresh version of Windows is installed with just drives in place – no additional applications. Windows is then updated to the latest release and the drivers are installed.

Included in the list of benchmarks are the following applications:
Benchmarks
Anvil Pro
AS SSD
ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.46
Futuremark PCMark 8
AIDA64


Test system
CPU: Intel Core i5 6600K
Motherboard: MSI Z270 Gaming M7
Graphics: EVGA GTX 1070 SC
Memory: 16GB CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 3200MHz DDR4
ADATA XPG GAMMIX S10 512GB
PSU: Enermax Modu82+
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit

Benchmarks: Anvil Pro

Anvil Pro from Anvil Storage utilities is one of the most popular storage benchmarking utilities today thanks to the large suit of tests available. You can test pretty much anything from Read/write Speed to IOPs with many variables to tweak allowing you to get either a single or host of results to compare with other likeminded enthusiasts. In our test we ran the standard suite 5 times, subtracting both the highest and lowest scores and determined the final result from the average of the remaining three results.


Benchmarks: AS SSD

AS SSD Benchmark is a straightforward tool for measuring the speed of your SSD drive.

Simply launch the program, choose your drive, click Start, and it’ll test your SSD’s read and write speed in a variety of ways, delivering a score for each when it’s done. And if that’s not enough, there are also additional file copy and compression-related benchmarks available from the Tools menu. (The author’s support page is German only, but if you need further English explanations then there’s a thread on the program at the OCZ Technology forum.).


Benchmarks: ATTO

The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Measure your storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customize your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host adapters, hard drives and SSD drives and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.


Benchmarks: AIDA64

With this module, we can measure the performance of the PC’s storage devices, including (S)ATA or SCSI hard disk drives, RAID arrays, optical drives, solid-state drives (SSD), USB drives and memory cards. It also allows us to perform write tests, which helps us detect fake products and errors on the devices. In order to attain reliable benchmark results we have to make sure to close all background applications.


Benchmarks: PCMark 8

We use the Futuremark PCMark 8 utility to measure storage via Photoshop performance under both light and heavy loading conditions. Accelerated (open CL) is used to perform this test. The test is measured in seconds to complete.


Conclusion

NVMe drives have become increasingly popular this year, with users taking advantage of the extreme speeds compared to SATA solutions, as well as the lack of any cables making their builds look ever more beautiful.

ADATA have provided an M.2 SSD with an appealing enclosure, ready to be displayed within any system, though this would obviously match any black/red theme best. It’s frustrating that the XPG logo is upside down when mounted within any conventionally positioned M.2 slot, we can’t understand the design choice in that respect. The drive didn’t seem to suffer from any kind of throttling during our tests, which indicates that the heatsink was performing as required.

The drive performs reasonably well even if it does find itself at the lower end of NVMe performance; that being said, it is almost £100 cheaper than some similar capacity drives from Samsung, Kingston and Corsair. It’s clear that the drive is nowhere near saturating the current PCI-E x4 bandwidth, but at a touch over £200 for a fast, good looking, 512GB NVMe, the GAMMIX S10 represents decent value for money.

The ADATA GAMMIX S10 is backed by a 5-year warranty, which is 2 to 4 years longer than similarly priced NVMe drives; everyone can appreciate a lengthy warranty period.



The ADATA GAMMIX S10 is a good looking drive with a functional heatsink, offering relatively fast speeds at an affordable price point

Pros
+ Functional heatsink
+ Drive looks great
+ Priced competitively
+ Lengthy warranty

Neutral
+- Not the fastest drive available

Cons
– XPG logo is upside down


Click here for an explanation of our awards at Vortez.net.

Tags:

ADATA

Share Article

vortez