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, Gammix S70 and Atom 50.

Back in August, we reviewed the ADATA Legend 970 2 TB, which was ADATA’s first PCI-Express 5.0 solid-state-drive, built on the Phison E26 controller which is used on virtually all consumer Gen 5 SSDs on the market. Today we have the Legend 970 Pro on our test bench, which is designed around Innogrit’s new PCIe Gen 5 controller. This makes ADATA one of the first vendors to feature multiple controller vendors in their Gen 5 lineup. Not long ago, we tested the Team Group GE Pro which uses the same IG5666 controller, but NAND flash from YMTC. On the ADATA Legend 970 Pro, 3D TLC NAND flash from Micron is used—the same 242-layer model as on most Phison E26 drives. As expected, a DRAM cache is included, too. What makes the Legend 970 Pro stand out is its cooling design. Virtually all Gen 5 SSDs come with an active fan-cooled cooling solution which requires external power, either through a SATA power connector or a PWM fan header from the motherboard. On the Legend 970 Pro, ADATA came up with a great alternative—the fan is powered by the SSD directly, which eliminates all the cable mess.

The ADATA Legend 970 Pro is available in capacities of 1 TB (price unknown), 2 TB ($300) and 4 TB (price unknown). The endurance is set to 740 TBW, 1480 TBW and 2960 TBW respectively. ADATA includes a five-year warranty with the Legend 970 Pro SSD.