60GB ADATA XM13: Shopping for mSata SSD

Purpose:
I have recently bought a Lenovo laptop with mSata capability and immediately decided to upgrade it. After snooping around for different affordable SSDs out there, I've found this review NVELO Dataplex SSD Caching Software Review - Seven mSATA SSDs Prove An Amazing Concept - The SSD Review

Selection Process:
Since I already had a 64GB SATA III SSD on my desktop, I knew that I wouldn't settle for anything less in size in order to fit the OS and programs I wanted. I looked at the prices and the cheapest 3 variants at 60GB were 60GB ADATA XM13, 64GB MyDigital 64GB and 64GB Kingston mS100. Based on the review linked above I decided to give ADATA a try and wasn't disappointed. Newegg.com - ADATA XM13 mSATA 60GB SATA II SSD The cost was just $120, $20 more than Kingston and MyDigital SSDs at exactly $2 for GB. (Update: $90 on Newegg right now)

Update: Available on Amazon for $105: Amazon.com: A-Data 60GB XM13 mSATA SSD SATA II 3Gb/s Sandforce Driven Internal Solid State Drive: Computers & Accessories

Testing:

Boot time:
I formatted my hard drives and did a fresh Win 7 Professional install on the SSD. With just a part of the drivers loaded, Lenovo Boot Optimizer was showing boot times of 9-10 seconds. However, with all the devices working and some additional programs loading on start up, it slowed down to 15-17 seconds on average.



Sata III Boot Comparison:
I ran a comparison test between my laptop and a desktop. The desktop was equipped with 2500K processor and Crucial M4 64GB Sata III SSD. The goal of the test was to boot from turned off state to the desktop screen with everything loaded and then open Firefox/OpenOffice/Microsoft Visual Studio. The laptop won by about 2-3 seconds. Mostly it was due to the shorter pause between the BIOS screen and loading OS, I was impressed nevertheless.

Temperatures:
Temperatures do concern me. SSD runs at 45-50C without load and gets as hot as 70C with CrystalDiskMark. I thought that no moving parts would mean less of an increase in temps, so now I'm not too eager to stress test it further. According to another mSATA manufacturer, these temps are within safe operating range.


Crystal Disk Mark:
You can compare the CrystalDiskMark results to $20 cheaper myDigital 64GB mSata SSD and $60 more expensive 80GB Intel 310 mSata SSD:

________$120 60GB Adata XM13_______________$100 64GB MyDigitalSSD_______________$180 80GB Intel 310________


The scores indicate good sequential and random access reading speeds in comparison to cheaper alternatives as well as comparable performance to more expensive ones. 4K write speeds are excellent, so I believe that's where it counts. The sequential write speeds are subpar on the other hand, however that hasn't really affected my usage. Unfortunately I don't have Kingston results available for comparison, although it is included in review mentioned at the start of the post.

AS SSD: 246 Score


WEI Score: 7.6


Conclusion:
I'm really happy with the drive I went with. So far I've had a good experience with it and didn't run into any problems. Fellow Y470 owners reported boot times of about 25 seconds with 64GB myDigital mSata SSD, so I think those extra $20 were well worth saving me several seconds here and there. I don't really know much about ADATA, but now I'll pay a closer attention to that company.



If you'd like me to run more tests, let me know.

 

thanks for the review. i think you may have sold me.

 

This is awesome; I'm probably going to get this along with the 500GB drive in my laptop; do you know if it's possible to run a 500GB hybrid w/ 4GB SSD and this cache combined? Or does that confuse it?

 

I dont think that will confuse it.!
But as far as i know laptops nowadays have a hdd bay and an msata connection.!
So if thats true after 500gb hdd and 4gb ssd cache i dont think your laptop will be able to connect to other msata!
pleaae check your ports once before you buy.!

Cheers

 

Several questions. Did you run the tests on the 3 SSD's: the Adata the MyDigital and the Intel on the same machine? If not, invalid data. Different computers can show different results...... see below. HM55 and PM55.

Second: Can you run the Adata now and show the tests? SF controlled SSD's have shown a tendency to, ummm, sometimes have performance deteriation after time. I have heard very good things about the Adata, but there is an entire thread about the issues of the mydigital 64gb, which is not present with the mydigital 128gb drive. Firmware issues it seems.

Third, it seems from reading that your not using it as a cache, but as a boot drive. However, I have tried using an SSD with a hybrid, and then with a Scorpio Black, and found better response and test times with the Black. But if your using it as a boot drive, your not using it as cache, so it will work. But here is the order... HDD is less than Hybrid is less than SSD. The hybrid will be faster, after time, than the HDD. The SSD will blow both away. I have found the best way for me is the SSD in the HDD bay with a HDD for data storage and backups. Use the SSD or mSata SSD for the OS and programs.

As in all SSD's, the larger the better. Larger is faster, allows for more programs and by keeping some space available, trim works better and performance is better. I have had my Intels for between a year and 3 now, write a lot to them on a daily basis, over 3TB on my 510, and all are still at 100%. My 310 has over 2 TB and is 100% and my x25-m has just over 4 TB and is at 98%.

The last point, the Intel 310 is a 34nm while the Adata is a 25nm, so the lifetime of it may be shorter. Although I have found threads in different forums showing that the listed lifetimes are significantly shorter than actual lifetime of SSD's.

Last, the importance of the testing comes about because the Intel HM55 and PM55 have an inherant slowdown with the speed of SSD's running on them with the 4k randoms. There is a tweak, but unless the ssd's are run on the same system, it is not an apples to apples comparison. hence the first question. With SSD's, larger is better, apples to apples is always great, and size always matters.

Bottom line, can you show us recent test results?

 

I also found out you can not use the less than sign on here or it will omit the rest of the statement. Wierd.

 

I have not really been following the forum for the last several months, decided to check back in. After 6 months of every day extensive use, my ADATA XM13 is still going strong. Although it holds much more information that it used to (just 16GB from being full), the tests show that its performance has not really deteriorated in comparison to the other models. Don't really feel like running all of the tests, but here is Crystal Disk Mark from today.



So as you can see the numbers are still very good, slightly lower sequential and 512k write speeds, but everything else is the same or surprisingly even higher

I also ran boot time tests, it shows between 17 and 19 seconds boot time on average. The single out of place result is due to running optimization, so disregard it. Considering I have a lot more programs loading on startup than in my previous tests I'm not surprised that it's a bit slower than my original 15-17 seconds boot time.



So ADATA still gets my seal of approval. Consider it as one of the most affordable and reliable options for mSata SSDs at 64GB range.

P.S. Would love to see someone to try this one out though and report the results back to the community. Newegg.com - ADATA XPG SX300 ASX300S3-64GM-C mSATA 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)