Storage

TEAM GROUP DELTA S TUF Gaming RGB Review

vortez
December 21, 2018 7 Min Read
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TEAM GROUP’s once again partnering with ASUS TUF Gaming, this time around with their DELTA S TUF Gaming RGB SSD.


Product on Review: Team Group Delta S TUF Gaming RGB SSD
Manufacturer: Team Group
Street Price:
250GB – GBP £49.99 / USD $62.99
500GB – GBP £74.99 / USD $91.99
1TB – GBP £129.99 / USD $159.99

Around 6 months ago we looked at the TEAM GROUP DELTA RGB SSD, the RGB lighting was impressive, as was the stylish frame. Today we take a look at the same drive, but this time having received the TUF Gaming approval. You may have read our TEAM GROUP DELTA TUF Gaming RGB DDR4 review last week, which would suit this SSD perfectly, along with the range of CPU coolers, motherboards and other components available with the same style.



Due to the alliance with TUF Gaming, a subsidiary of ASUS, the lighting is advertised to work only with ASUS Aura Sync, but thanks to the 12v, 5-pin RGB cable the lighting should work with any motherboard sporting the relevant header.

The spec’ sheet claims speeds to up 560MB/s read and 500MB/s write, so we’ll see how this performs; we weren’t blown away by the previous model, so perhaps TEAM GROUP have tweaked the internals for faster transfers.

Team Group on the Delta S TUF Gaming RGB SSD:
TEAMGROUP T-FORCE once again joins forces with motherboard leader ASUS TUF Gaming Alliance and releases the T-FORCE DELTA S TUF Gaming RGB SSD (12V) which is certified and strictly tested by TUF Gaming Alliance. With the most eye-catching lighting effect of the RGB solid state drive, the appearance is designed with TUF Gaming Alliance’s unique military camouflage pattern, so consumers can have the most colorful lighting effect and a unique military style ASUS co-branded SSD. T-FORCE DELTA S TUF Gaming RGB SSD (12V) is definitely your best choice for combat equipment.

Technical Specifications

Model: DELTA S TUF Gaming RGB SSD (12V)

Interface: DATA: SATA Rev. 3.0 (6Gb/s) – with backwards compatibility to SATA Rev. 2.0
RGB Signal: USB Micro B type
Capacity: 250GB / 500GB / 1TB[3]
Voltage: DC 5V
Operation Temperature: 0°C ~ 70°C

Performance:
ATTO / Crystal Disk Mark：
250GB Read: 560MB/s ; Write: 500MB/s
500GB Read: 560MB/s ; Write: 500MB/s
1TB Read: 560MB/s ; Write: 510MB/s[4]

IOPS：
250GB 4K Random Read/Write: 90K/80K IOPS max
500GB 4K Random Read/Write: 90K/80K IOPS max
1TB 4K Random Read/Write: 90K/85K IOPS max[4]

Dimensions: 100(L) x 69.85(W) x 9.5(H)mm
Humidity: 0°C ~ 55°C / 5% ~ 95% RH,non-condensing
Vibration: 20G (non-operating)
Shock: 1500G
MTBF: 1,000,000 hours
Warranty: 3-year limited warranty

Packaging, Bundle & Closer Look

The packaging for the DELTA S TUF Gaming RGB is rather fancy with shiny text and colourful imagery. The capacity and form factor is mentioned on the front.



The rear of the box gives detailed information regarding the RGB connection, expected speeds, dimensions and warranty length.



Alongside the SSD is a small metallic T-FORCE sticker, the RGB cable and a small user manual.



The front face of the SSD is a busy affair, with an urban-camo style. With many cases now housing specific zones to show off 2.5” drives, this style could prove very desirable, especially with such a huge blank zone for the RGB lighting. The drive is 9.5mm thick, so won’t fit some of the thinner laptops out there, but you’d be irresponsible to be buying an RGB drive for that purpose any way.



The rear isn’t anything special, though we don’t expect it to be. The 4 mounting holes are present as well as serial number information.



Looking at the end of the drive, you get the typical SATA power and data ports, along with a micro USB connection for the RGB lighting.

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 i7 7700K
Motherboard: MSI Z270 Gaming M7
Graphics: EVGA GTX 1070 SC
Memory: 16GB CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 3200MHz DDR4
Samsung 970 EVO 1TB
Team Group Delta S TUF Gaming RGB SSD 250GB
PSU: BeQuiet Straight Power 11 650W
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit
Monitor: ASUS ROG PG279Q

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

These days, with the SATA 3.0 interface being a bottleneck for most controllers/NAND combinations, performance has somewhat stagnated within the 2.5” form factor market, but there’s no such thing as a perfect SSD so there’s always room for improvement. The DELTA S TUF Gaming RGB appears to offer better performance in every measure over the previous DELTA RGB, which we’ll admit was surprising. We went into the testing expecting identical results.

The drive looks great, compared to the bog-standard 2.5” x 9mm drives we typically review. A dash of RGB lighting adds something a little different to the market, which is certainly a good thing, in our opinion, though with the SSD having no control over its own lighting, you must make sure the lighting support on your motherboard is up to scratch, with our MSI motherboard lacking a little in the software department, only allowing single colours to be displayed with no effects.

Pricing is somewhat of a weird one, with the 250GB and 500GB drives being poor value compared to non-RGB alternatives, whereas the 1TB is about on par with other drives, or a smidge more expensive.



At the end of the day, most SSDs perform roughly the same, and the DELTA S certainly isn’t a poor show, but the RGB lighting will be the big swing in your purchase decision. If you’re not into RGB lighting, save your hard-earned and look elsewhere.

Pros
+ Bright and vibrant RGB Lighting
+ Lighting requires no setup
+ Much more interesting than your typical 2.5” SSD
+ Reasonable performance

Cons
– Costly for the 250GB and 500GB models
– Relies solely on your motherboard’s RGB ability for effects


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