Jesper Berg ADATA just announced two new SSDs, one of which focuses on high-end gaming builds, while the other targets notebooks and SFF systems. The former goes by the name XPG Gammix S11 Pro and the latter is known as SX6000 Lite. Both drives use the NVMe PCIe Gen3x4 interface and come in the M.2 2280 form factor, much like the manufacturer’s SX8200 Pro. They also both employ 3D TLC NAND memory modules in combination with an SLC cache, but this is mostly where the similarities end.
XPG Gammix S11 Pro
There are several aspects that separate the new SSDs from ADATA, although both are similarly consumer-oriented, and use the same interface and form factor. First, the Gammix S11 Pro includes a DRAM cache buffer, whereas the SX6000 Lite does not. The S11 Pro is also equipped with a heatsink, which might be somewhat useful in a gaming system. According to ADATA, this could lower temperatures by a full 10°C.
It will be available in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB capacities.
Performance, as listed, is also considerably higher in the Gammix S11 Pro, with sequential reads/writes reaching 3500/3000MB/s – at least in short bursts and as long as the SLC cache does not fill up entirely. Random performance is supposedly up to 390K/380K IOPS.
These numbers can be compared to the Gammix S11 (non-Pro), which is currently available on the market and offers read/write speeds of up to 3150/1700 MB/s.
The S11 Pro is backed by a 5-year warranty, but as of yet, ADATA has not listed a TBW (terabytes written) endurance rating for the drive.
XPG SX6000 Lite
At the lower end of the spectrum, and mainly focusing on consumers looking to upgrade their small form factor PCs or notebooks, we find the XPG SX6000 Lite. This is also a PCIe Gen3x4 M.2 2280 SSD, supporting NVMe 1.3 and is equipped with the same type of TLC Flash and an SLC cache, but no DRAM buffer.
It will be available in a slightly wider range of capacities, including 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. Sequential transfer rates are listed as 1800/1200MB/s (read/write) and random performance as up to 220K/200K IOPS.
Both the Gammix S11 Pro and the SX6000 Lite comes with low-density parity-check (LDPC) ECC technology, which allegedly ‘detects and fixes a wider range of data errors for more reliable data transfers and a longer product lifespan’.
