PC World - USA (2019-02)

FEBRUARY 2019 PCWorld 65

less than the 1TB 970 Pro. You

really don’t give up much in the

way of performance in the vast

majority of situations, and the

drop isn’t earth-shattering when

it does. By Grabthar’s hammer,

what a savings!

That said, if you regularly write

hundreds of gigabytes, then the

970 Pro will still save you time and

is quite likely worth the extra

bucks. Also, prices are bound to

drop on other worthy drives such as WD’s

Black NVMe (go.pcworld.com/3dnv), so take

a look around.

I’ve documented the drop in write speed,
but it’s not nearly precipitous enough for me to
sweat about it. Still, it is the one area where the
970 Pro still rules. As noted above, the 512GB
SX8200 Pro will write a bit slower, and the
256GB model quite a bit slower due to less
cache, and/or fewer chips and data paths. They
will also likely dip in performance sooner than
the 1TB drive due to less cache. Factor that into
your decision on which to buy. If you’re moving
up from SATA, you’ll be pleasantly surprised no
matter which capacity you choose.

BOTTOM LINE
At the time of this writing, you could buy
the 1TB Adata XPG SX8200 Pro for $80

Adata XPG SX8200 Pro

NVMe SSD

PROS

• A great performer.


• Significantly cheaper than the competition.


• Attractive heat spreader/cover included for
  gamers.
  CONS


• Drops from 1.8GBps to 1GBps on long writes.
  BOTTOM LINE
  Adata’s XPG SX8200 Pro is as fast as Samsung’s
  mighty 970 Pro the majority of the time, and
  significantly cheaper. A great drive at a great price.
  $219

There isn’t a whole lot to choose from

between the Adata SX8200, the Intel

905P, and Samsung 970 Pro when it

comes to everyday performance.

48GB Folder Write

48GB Write

48GB Folder Read

48GB Read

48GB copies

(Seconds)

SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE

128

24

133

27

123

25

132

27

122

32

128

30

Intel 905P

Adata SX9=8200 Samsung 970 Pro