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It has been a while since this release, but we received an SSD in the mail today that deserves a quick look: the XPG Mars 980 Blade by ADATA. This 1TB SSD stands out because we can’t remember the last time we had a drive of this capacity in hand, let alone reviewed one.
Times are changing, however, and NAND flash memory pricing reflects that shift. Due to ongoing NAND flash supply constraints, 1TB SSDs are now viewed in a completely different light, with shortages driving SSD prices significantly higher.
The XPG Mars 980 Blade is available in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB capacities. It is a PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 2280 SSD (22mm wide by 80mm long) capable of delivering data transfer speeds of up to 14GB/s. Our 1TB sample, however, does not reach the maximum rated specifications of the higher-capacity models, offering up to 14GB/s sequential read speeds and up to 10GB/s sequential write speeds, along with up to 1.6 million read IOPS and 1.65 million write IOPS. The full specifications for all available capacities are listed below:
Although product disclosure lists availability of both 4 and 8TB versions, we might suggest that these would be a bit difficult to locate and very expensive with current SSD pricing.
The XPG Mars 980 Blade contains the SMI SM2508 Gen 5 8-channel SSD controller, along with four pieces of 3D NAND flash memory and two pieces of DRAM buffer cache.
This is a two-sided SSD and ADATA elects to withhold exact specifics with respect to the NAND flash memory. This is most likely to allow the opportunity to use different NAND configurations dependent on pricing at the time of product manufacture. Through our own resources, we have confirmed that the memory within our Mars 980 Blade is Micron 232-layer B58r 3D TLC NAND flash memory.
The only caution we might have with a two-sided SSD would be with respect to upgrading ones ultrabook. In the past, we have learned first hand that two-sided SSDs will not fit into out LG gram Pro ultrabook and we wouldn’t want someone to experience same without being fully aware that it may not fit ahead of that purchase.
The XPG Mars 980 Blade ships with a thick copper-based branding plate that serves as passive cooling by dissipating heat from the SMI SM2508 SSD controller, NAND and DRAM cache. At the time of this report, we could find availability of the 1TB version at Amazon, but for a premium price of $290. We recommend a quick check here to see if pricing has come down a bit. This SSD does come with a standard 5-year limited warranty.