ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro SSD Review: Strong Performance, Aggressive Price

When we evaluated the original ADATA XPG SX8200 SSD last year, we found the drive to be a solid value that offered good performance for the money. So, when ADATA mentioned that it had an updated version of the XPG SX8200 available for review that should perform even better, we were eager to check it out. The aptly named ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro is similar to the original drive in many ways, but incorporates a new controller and firmware that cranks performance up a few notches and adds some new features.

The ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro’s main features and specifications are outlined in the table below. As you can see, sequential transfers are rated for a healthy 3.5GB/s (reads) and 3GB/s (writes) with up 390K random 4K IOPS. Those numbers put the drive in some lofty territory, among some of the best SSDs currently on the market. Let’s take a closer look…

ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro M.2 NVMe SSD Specifications & Features

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Like the vast majority of other M.2 drives currently on the market, the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro confirms to the common M.2 2280 (80mm) "gumstick" form factor. ADATA utilizes an attractive, dark-colored PCB with the drive, and populates both sides of the board with an array of components. The PCB is definitely much busier than some SSDs we've looked at recently.
At the heart of the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro is an 8-channel Silicon Motion SM2262EN controller. That controller is paired to Micron's latest 64-Layer 3D TLC NAND Flash memory and a few pieces of NANYA DRAM cache memory. The drive features a PCIe Gen x4 interface and support for the NVMe 1.3 specification. On the surface, these components may seem similar to the original "non-Pro" SX8200, which is based on the SM2262, but the "EN" version of this controller offers better performance due to higher-speed internal data paths. Updated firmware on the drive also helps improve performance. We should also mention that the SX8200 Pro supports E2E (end-to-end) Data Protection, LDPC (Low-Density Parity-Check) ECC, and SLC caching to increase bursty writes.
The ultimate performance of the ADTA XPG SX8200 Pro will vary depending on the capacity. We are looking at a 512GB drive here, which falls about in the middle of the line-up – 256GB, 1TB, and 2TB drives are also available. As mentioned, ADATA rates the drives for up to 3,500/3,000MB per second reads and writes, respectively. Although we don't have the actual spec on hand, power for the XPG SX8200 Pro should be somewhat better than the original, though endurance remains unchanced. This particular drive’s endurance rating is 320TBW, but higher capacity drives offer higher endurance (and vice-versa).

Included with the ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro is support for the company’s SSD Toolbox utility, for monitoring, maintaining, and updating the drive. The interface for the tool is somewhat colorful and dated looking, but the functionality and feature set is adequate. ADATA also includes an XPG-branded aluminum heat-spreader should users want to install it. We like this option because it allows owners to opt for the included heat-spreader should they want to use it or attach the beefier heatsinks included on many enthusiast motherboards directly to the SSD, without an additional layer in-between.