ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB review – top performance and 176-Layer Micron TLC NAND flash

LaptopMedia.com Reviews and Analysis ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB review - top performance and 176-Layer Micron TLC NAND flash

From: Nikolay Palaozov 22 February 2022 / 09:53 | 0

In the last few years, the NVMe SSDs are the fastest developing components. Their bandwidth doubles every 3 years and the latest ones are super-super fast. 2021 was a bit of a tough cookie for some of the consumers who wanted to buy a fast NVMe because of the hype around the Chia cryptocurrency. Now, the situation is (slowly) going back to its normal state in terms of prices.

When it comes to top-end Gen. 4 models, there are not too many choices on the market that is flooded with low-end QLC drives, and with a decent number of mid-range NVMe variants. In one of our previous reviews, we tested the ADATA Legend 840 1TB – this is a fast Gen. 4 drive which is also interesting and has a bit lower price.

For this article, we got the (ADATA) XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB – this one uses a more advanced Innogrit IG5236 controller than the Legend 840 sibling (with Innogrit IG5220), and the fresh 176-Layer Micron TLC NAND looks like an additional performance booster.

ADATA has included a thin heat sink (most likely it’s a heat spreader) and it looks very similar to the one that can be found in the Legend series packages. So, the XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB looks like an F1-fast drive that has a tiny cooling – let’s see how it’ll perform under stressful conditions.

You can check the current price of ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB here: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)

Specs Sheet
What’s in the box?
Design
Installation, Benchmarking, and Real-life performance
Verdict

Specs Sheet

	XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB
Capacity	512GB / 1TB / 2TB
Dimensions (L x W x H)	80 x 22 x 4.3mm / 3.15 x 0.87 x 0.17 inch (with heat sink) 80 x 22 x 3.3mm / 3.15 x 0.87 x 0.12 inch (without heat sink)
Weight	10g / 0.36oz (with heat sink) 7g / 0.24oz (without heat sink)
Interface	PCIe Gen4 x4
NAND Flash	3D TLC Micron 176-Layer
Sequential Read (Max*)	Up to 7,400MB/s
Sequential Write (Max*)	Up to 5,500MB/s
Op. Temperature	0°C – 70°C
Op. Voltage	DC 5V, 900mA
Controller	Innogrit IG5236
TBW	740TB
Warranty	Limited 5-year

What’s in the box?

The package contains only the most necessary gadgets – the NVMe itself and the heat sink. Aside from the plastic protective cover, everything is fitted into a shiny and reflective box.

Design

Well, when the ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB isn’t covered by the heat spreader it looks like any other similar product on the market. Except for the dark-colored PCB that adds a premium feel when the NVMe is installed without its cooling.

Installation, Benchmarking, and Real-life performance

The installation isn’t different compared to the other NVMe drives – you have the choice to plug the drive into the M.2 slot with or without the heat sink. The latter is so thin, that it’ll fit in almost any super-compact laptop with ease. Speaking of the heat sink – it comes with a pre-applied thermal pad and it’s a real pain to remove the heat spreader after it’s already on the drive – so think twice before using the cooling on purpose.

As always, the drive is completely empty for testing (for the benchmarks).

Benchmark	Read	Write
ATTO Disk Benchmark	6300 MB/s	5700 MB/s
ATTO Disk Benchmark IOPS	100.00 IO/s	92.00 IO/s
AS SSD Benchmark	4805 MB/s	4901 MS/s
AS SSD Benchmark 4K-64 Thrd	2781 MB/s	2919 MS/s
AS SSD Benchmark Access time	0.020 ms	0.026 ms
AS SSD Benchmark Score	3109	3208
Crystal Disk Mark 1GB test	7019 MB/s	6228 MB/s

If we have to be honest, we were expecting this – the XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB is an impressively-fast product. Just have a look at the benchmarks to get a more clear picture of its performance. Just like the ADATA Legend NVMe, this one can show great performance all the time unless you decide to torture it with long sustained writes. In any other scenario, the NVMe is just blazing-fast.

After a restart, the drive temperature is around or under 30°C. In casual daily tasks like watching movies or opening different programs, it reaches 35°C which is perfectly fine. The AS SSD Benchmark is the tool that can show us the raw NVMe performance in different situations thanks to its 4K and access time readings. After some additional runs, we observed some slight performance drop but nothing too serious.

When you’re just copying files, the NVMe thermals are great – 33°C. If the drive hits its thermal threshold it is reaching optimal temperatures again pretty quickly which is good news.

As we said earlier, it’s hard to force this NVMe to throttle in normal daily usage. You can observe this kind of behavior if you’re a professional who is buying the drive for work that includes long sustained write and read loads. In this scenario, a good (and thick) aftermarket heat sink will become handy. If you’re a regular user, just use the provided thin cooling.

Verdict

A great performer – this is what describes best the XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB. This is one of the fastest NVMe drives on the market and the good news is the end price isn’t as high as you may expect (but that is market dependable as well). If you want to change your old SATA SSD or HDD whit something more modern, the XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB is a great choice because it’s showing top-tier performance, it’s bundled with a heat sink, and its price isn’t sky-high.

This one can boost your casual daily PC experience because it has excellent 4K speed and the access times are very good too. This is directly related to working/opening small files which is a typical scenario for most users and this is the area where this NVMe shines bright.

The read and write speeds are impressive and you can spot some write performance drops if you’re using the drive for heavy sustained writes all the time. Actually, the environmental temperature and the airflow around the drive are important when it comes to thermals so keep that in mind as well.

Specs-wise, the Innogrit IG5236 controller and the Micron 96-Layer TLC NAND contribute to the great overall performance. Not so long ago, the market was dominated by the Phison-based NVMes and now we can see that the Innogrit IG5220 and 5236 can be as fast as some of the other high-end drives with Phison controller (in most cases that’s the E18 model).

This ADATA XPG product has a standard 80mm size and it’ll fit in most devices with ease even when the heat sink is installed. The PCB of the NVMe and its cooling are dark-themed so aesthetically it looks great. While we are still talking about the heat spreader – it’s a nice bonus for the regular user that will not stress the drive with prolonged write usage and the drive’s temperatures should be always whiting safe limits. As we said earlier, if you want to buy the XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB for professional needs that includes long writing sessions, an aftermarket heat sink is a must so you can experience the snappy performance of this fast Gen. 4 NVMe drive.

You can check the current price of ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 BLADE 1TB here: Buy from Amazon.com (#CommissionsEarned)