Adata Legend 960 is a high-end PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD late to the market. Performance is only average, except for sustained writes. That is, performance is not great except for very specific workloads.The drive runs cool enough, but isn’t particularly efficient, so it’s not a good fit for our list best SSD, but works great on PlayStation 5. Warranty and software support are good, but not exceptional. This makes the Legend 960 worth selling, but it doesn’t really stand out from other high-end PCIe 4.0 drives in any meaningful way. Meanwhile, faster PCIe 5.0 SSDs are coming soon.
specification
| product | 1TB | 2TB | 4TB |
|---|---|---|---|
| price | $109.99 | $167.11 | none |
| form factor | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 |
| interface/protocol | PCIe 4.0 x 4 | PCIe 4.0 x 4 | PCIe 4.0 x 4 |
| controller | SM2264 | SM2264 | SM2264 |
| DRAM | DDR4 | DDR4 | DDR4 |
| flash memory | 176-layer micron TLC | 176-layer micron TLC | 176-layer micron TLC |
| Sequential read | 7,400MBps | 7,400MBps | 7,400MBps |
| Sequential write | 6,000MBps | 6,800MBps | 6,800MBps |
| random read | 730K | 750K | 700K |
| random write | 610K | 630K | 550K |
| safety | none | none | none |
| Endurance (TBW) | 780TB | 1560TB | 3120TB |
| part number | ALEG-960-1TCS | ALEG-960-2TCS | ALEG-960-4TCS |
| guarantee | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years |
The Adata Legend 960 is available in 1 TB, 2 TB and 4 TB capacities, with the first two capacities priced at $109.99 and $167.11. Considering recent sales and pricing trends in the SSD market in general, 1 TB is a steep price. 2TB is available now, but faces a lot of competition in the same price range. Corsair MP600 Pro XTCorsair MP600 Pro NH, and Corsair MP600 Pro LPX.
The 4TB model was not available at the time of review. Finding a drive of that size was sometimes difficult. WD Black SN850X and the Inland Gaming Performance Plus Two popular options available.of Inland Performance Plus The one we previously reviewed was also popular, with the updated hardware matching the Gaming Performance Plus, with the exception of the heatsink.
The Legend 960 is rated up to 7,400/6,800 MBps for sequential reads and writes and 750K/630K IOPS for random reads and writes. The former is essentially the PCIe 4.0 max, while the latter lags a bit compared to the rest, but this is more than enough performance for most. . Adata backs up drives with 780 TB guaranteed writes per TB capacity. It’s slightly more expensive than usual, and all options come with a 5-year warranty.
Software and accessories
Adata provides downloads for the SSD Toolbox software package. This application has the ability to perform drive information, diagnostics, cloning, TRIM optimization, firmware updater, and secure erase.
look carefully
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Adata Legend 960 comes with an attachable heatsink/heatsink for easy installation. This is a great option for such high-end drives. Especially since it allows you to use unique solutions that dissipate heat more effectively when needed. The SSD has 1 DRAM package and 2 NAND packages per side for a total of 2 and 4 respectively. Also, the prerequisite SSD controller is centered and the layout improves heat dissipation through the spreader.
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The controller is a new design SMI SM2264 and is the first drive I’ve tested with it. The SM2264 is an 8-channel, 12nm, quad-core ARM Cortex-R8 SSD controller with 1600 MT/s channels. It features twice the 4KB codeword LDPC error correction of the previous generation SM2262EN’s 2K and can also handle twice as many dies as his with ideal support for up to 64.
The R8 is a different processor revision than the R5, the latter commonly used in SSD controllers including most or all of the Legend 960 competitors, and manufacturing it may be the reason for SMI’s delay in getting to market. I can’t. R8 is also used in the SM2269XT. Solidigm P41 Plusand it should also form the basis for an upcoming controller, the SM2268XT.The R8-based design is potentially very powerful and will also be used in SMI’s PCIe 5.0 solution.
The DRAM package is labeled K4A8G165WC-BCTD. This is Samsung DDR4 in his 512Mx16b configuration for 1GB of DRAM. The two modules add up to a total of 2GB, which is the ideal amount of 2TB of flash.
The Legend 960 uses Micron’s 176-layer TLC (B47R) with 32 64Gb dies in four packages. Each package contains 8 dies for 512GiB of flash. This is the optimal number of dies to interleave and this particular flash has proven to offer excellent performance in our tests.
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