Introduction

ADATA is Taiwan’s largest manufacturer of flash storage and DRAM memory for computers. They have been at the forefront of SSD development for many years, bringing us famous SSDs such as the SX8200, SX900, and Gammix S70.

In this review we’re taking a look at the ADATA Legend 970, which is the first company’s first PCI-Express 5.0 solid-state-drive. We’ve previously reviewed the Corsair MP700, which came without heatsink, resulting in thermal problems when heavily loaded. The ADATA Legend 970 comes with a heatsink preinstalled—that heatsink even includes a tiny fan to improve airflow. Just like all other “Gen 5” SSDs on the market right now, the ADATA Legend 970 is based on the Phison E26 controller, which is the only controller available at this time with support for the new interface. Other vendors such as Samsung, WD, Kioxia, Silicon Motion and Innogrit are working on their own designs, but have nothing to show yet. For NAND flash the ADATA drive is using Micron’s newest B58R 3D TLC NAND with 232-layers. As expected for a high-end drive, a DRAM cache chip is included.

The ADATA Legend 970 is available in capacities of 1 TB ($190) and 2 TB ($330). Endurance for these models is set to 700 TBW and 1400 TBW, respectively. ADATA includes a five-year warranty with the Legend 970 SSD.