ADATA Ultimate SU630 Review: Entry Level SSD with 3D QLC Flash Memory

It seems that this year manufacturers will start producing consumer SSDs in bulk using 3D QLC memory with a 4-bit cell structure. Previously, this memory was used only in drives of the corporate segment, but now manufacturers have begun to produce their consumer models. Their main advantage will be an affordable price and an impressive amount. Such drives are aimed at the budget segment and are designed for not the most productive PCs. Soon Samsung 860 QVO will appear on the market and here and there the hero of this review is on sale, ADATA Ultimate SU630, 480 GB version of which we will try in action.

What is interesting ADATA Ultimate SU630?
 ADATA Ultimate SU630 Review: Entry-Level SSD with QLC-2 3D Flash Memory
ADATA Ultimate SU630 is one of the first consumer SSDs with 3D V-NAND QLC memory on the market, available in 240, 480 and 960 GB versions. I would not rule out the likelihood of the emergence of even more capacious options in the future: after all, this allows the QLC memory due to an increase in recording density. QLC (Quad-Level Cell) is a new kind of MLC memory (Multi-level Cell), in which 4 bits of information are written in one cell. 64-layer 3D QLC flash memory chips are used. In the official specifications, the manufacturer does not name the model of the controller, but judging by the information on overseas sites, a rather rare 14-nm dual-core Maxio MAS0902A-B2C is used without DRAM-memory. Declared maximum read speed of 520 MB / s, write – 450 MB / s. The speed of work with 4K blocks promises 65,000 IOPS when writing and 40,000 IOPS when reading. The guaranteed data recording capacity (TBW) is 100 TB. The drive supports S.M.A.R.T., TRIM and NCQ, hardware error correction LDPC ECC, and SLC caching technology to increase the speed of work. The size of the buffer is not specified, we will verify this ourselves in practice.

What is included?
ADATA Ultimate SU630 comes in a simple blister with a plastic transparent exterior. You can see the drive itself in front, and all the main technical information is printed on the cardboard back.

What does ADATA Ultimate SU630 look like?
Talk about the appearance of any 2.5-inch SSD-drive is nothing special. They are standard in size and design, and usually differ only in body colors and stickers. Before us is a typical modern SSD format 2.5 with a black metal case with a thickness of 7 mm. It is very light: only 47.5 g. The front is a black and green sticker with the ADATA logo and the name of the model.
On the back side there is a white sticker with the necessary certification marks, bar codes, model number, format and connection interface. Standard connectors, of course
In TLC-memory – eight levels of charge in the cells, in the new QLC – sixteen, respectively, the information recording density is higher and the price per 1 GB decreases. But, at the same time, the speed of work also decreases due to technological peculiarities when recording and reading information. QLC is the optimal solution for low-volume entry-level low-end models. Another compromise in this case is guaranteed data recording volumes (TBW) – 100 TB for a 480 GB model, the manufacturer gives a 2 year warranty. For competitors, these figures are higher. The TBW 960 GB model claims 200 TB, while its closest competitor, the Samsung SSD 860 QVO at 1 TB, this figure is 360 TB.

We now turn to the technical characteristics of the tested ADATA Ultimate SU630 480 GB. It uses a 64-layer QLC 3D V-NAND memory, 14-nanometer dual-core Maxio MAS0902A-B2C controller without DRAM memory. To increase the speed of work, SLC caching is used. The manufacturer promises a maximum read speed of 520 MB / s, write – 450 MB / s. The speed of work with 4K blocks promises 65,000 IOPS when writing and 40,000 IOPS when reading.

And now let’s remember about SLC-caching. The drive shows the maximum speed while the SLC cache is not full. The linear recording test in AIDA64 showed that at first the speed is kept at about 490 MB / s. But after recording about 30 GB (this is our SLC-cache), the speed drops sharply and fluctuates around 50 MB / s with periodic sags up to 30 MB / s and short-term jumps to the maximum speed (attempts to clear the cache). Of course, the speed drop is very impressive, but for everyday use it will be extremely difficult to notice if the drive is used, for example, in a home PC or laptop that is not used for working with large amounts of data
What can branded software?
To work with the drive ADATA has provided a proprietary utility SSD ToolBox. It looks pretty clumsy, but all the necessary functions are available. There are state diagnostics, TRIM settings, S.M.A.R.T. information, firmware update and overheating notification function:

The bottom line
ADATA Ultimate SU630 demonstrates the claimed performance, which corresponds to the typical entry-level SSD-drives. It is perfect for not too costly transition to SSD from hard drives. The main and, perhaps, the most correct scope of application will be home PCs and laptops with a usage scenario, in which one-time recording and multiple reading of information are assumed. How interesting is the drive will be clear when a mass market entry. For now, the ADATA Ultimate SU630 is only available for sale and the 480 GB version costs about 1900 UAH. For this price there are more productive models on TLC, so you can expect a quick price reduction.

3 reasons to buy ADATA Ultimate SU630:
-High (compared to HDD) speed;
-Support for S.M.A.R.T., TRIM, NCQ and LDPC ECC hardware error correction;
-Simple and clear software SSD ToolBox.

2 reasons not to buy ADATA Ultimate SU630:

-reduction of recording speed to extremely low rates when filling the SLC-cache;
-low TBW declared resource and 2 years warranty.