A-DATA S592 128GB SSD Review

Conclusion

Well it certainly has been a rocky ride and one which we were not expecting when we first received the A-Data S592 since it is actually the first Indilinx-based SSD which has truly disappointed us on almost every level. SSD’s live and die by their firmware and without an easy way to update it or a guarantee of the latest revision; any drive in the S592’s situation would end up in our black book as well.

Our issues with this drive do not stem from performance (or lack thereof), or the warranty or even so much the cheapish material the exterior shell is made out of. Rather, it is tied to the absolutely ancient firmware our S592 came with and the fact that there is just no quick, free way to upgrade it at this point. Considering the date we received this drive, it really is too bad that it came with pre-version 1.1 firmware as even the 1.3 revision has been out for a long, long time now. This could translate into the consumer who buys this drive missing out on additional features like the Nand Launderer (Indilinx’s version of Idle Time Garbage Collection), SMART based average cell usage information and the TRIM function. Considering nearly all of the competition allows for the users to upgrade their firmware, A-Data’s misstep here can and will cause them sales.

Let’s play devil’s advocate for a second here, give A-Data the benefit of the doubt and assume that somehow they come out with a jumper-less firmware update process. We know it is possible as since OCZ has been doing it now for a few updates like 1.3, 1.4 beta and 1.4.1. If by some miracle A-Data can do this (even after us waiting for months) the fact of the matter is you are still left with a plastic cased drive which frankly reeks of cost cutting on A-Data’s part no matter how much we can spin it off as a “lightweight alternative”. Our concern here is that by not having a metal case the chips inside have no way to dump their heat load. While yes the controller and ram and even NAND do not need active heat sinks they do need either some air flow (not going to happen inside a sealed case) or have something absorb the heat. The sad truth of the matter is that plastic is a terrible heat conduction medium and a plastic clad case will result in higher internal temperatures. It really is a myth that SSDs produce no heat and in fact they can get down right warm after our IO tests.

In the end what it comes down to is this: with so many great choices to pick from, why should you settle for anything less than perfection? Why deal with a plastic case, why deal with potential firmware issue, heck why deal with only a two year warranty? The only exception to this is if you are looking for a fast drive for your ultra thin, or ultra lightweight laptop and less weight is your main and only priority. For everyone else, unless you get this at bargain bin prices we would recommend going with one of the better thought competitors; preferably from a company which has a better grasp of SSDs and their unique requirements.


Editor’s Note (Oct. 28th, 2009)
As I mentioned in the Firmware section, A-Data has contacted us with some new information regarding this drive and their future plans for it. Supposedly, they have been working with Indilinx to provide users with a quick and easy jumperless firmware update option. We should see firmware updates become available sometime in November 2009 with the 1819 version. In all seriousness, if this simple promise from A-Data comes to pass the S592 may become a competitor in the SSD arena since non-upgradeability really was the major issue we found with it.

Stay tuned as we will be posting a new S592 article when the new firmware is released to users.



Pros:

- Light weight design


Cons:

- Ancient firmware
- No way for a user to update the firmware
- Price
- Drive is lighter weight because it is a PLASTIC cased drive
- 2-year warranty