INTRODUCTION

   By surpassing their older 2.5" brothers both in performance since day one and as of now also in sales there seems to be no end in sight in the market for M.2 NVMe SSDs. What we didn't however have with 2.5" models were the vast differences/gaps in read & write performance levels something which we see a lot with M.2 NVMe solutions. For example, even though current 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD models feature performance levels between 450-550MB/s current M.2 NVMe models feature performance levels ranging from 1000MB/s and all the way up to 4000MB/s. The good news is that for most uses there aren't significant real world benefits between mid and high-end models (at least not for consumers looking for the best price/performance ratio) which is why many manufacturers focus in the development of the former rather than the latter. The brand new ADATA Falcon M.2 NVME SSD is one such model and today I’ll be testing the 1TB variant.

   Founded in May 2001, ADATA Technology Co., Ltd. is committed to providing top-notch memory solutions that enrich the customer’s digital life. The company’s dedication to integrity and professionalism has made ADATA the leading memory brand with the most award-winning product designs. Backed by technical expertise, state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, and premium customer service, ADATA offers complete memory solutions including DRAM modules, USB flash drives, memory cards, solid state drives and portable hard drives.

   The Falcon line of M.2 NVMe SSDs (currently available in 256GB/512GB/1TB/2TB capacities) is based on the DRAM-less RTS5762DL dual-core 8-channel NAND flash controller by Realtek (supports intelligent SLC caching, LDPC - Low Density Parity Check - error correcting technology and AES 256-bit hardware encryption) which is paired with the latest 96-layer BiCS4 3D-TLC NAND Flash by Micron. Now as many of you already know through the Host Memory Buffer (HMB) feature DRAM-less NAND flash controllers use some of your system's regular RAM (up to 65.5MB in this case, always according to ADATA) to cache mapping tables (remember that this feature is only supported on versions of Windows 10 launched from 2019 and beyond). The above configuration allows the Falcon M.2 NVME SSD by ADATA to reach up to 3100MB/s in sequential reads and 1500MB/s in sequential writes along with up to 180k random read/write IOPS. ADATA also reports an MTBF (meantime between failures) of 1.8 million hours with a max endurance of 150TBW for the 256GB model, 300TBW for the 512GB model, 600TBW for the 1TB model and 1200TBW for the 2TB model (a limited 5-year warranty is also in place).

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

THE FALCON 1TB

ADATA ships the falcon inside a small black box that as expected has their logo and a product picture at the front along with the drive capacity.

A product description is available at the rear of the box in 22 languages right over contact information about ADATA and next to a 2D barcode which probably redirects to the product page.

Just the Falcon SSD is placed in the box and as you can see it features a think aluminum heatspreader at the top.

This is a single side M.2 NVMe 2280 SSD so on the other there's just a sticker with the drive information on it.

Removing the heatspreader is not very easy but it had to be done to reveal the Realtek RTS5762DL NAND flash controller and the 4 96-layer BiCS4 3D-TLC NAND Flash modules by Micron.

ADATA SSD TOOLBOX

If you want more control over the Falcon you can download the SSD Toolbox from ADATA which allows you to monitor the drive and even check its SMART page.

This software also features two drive tests and a temperature alert feature.

It also allows the end user to securely erase the contents of the drive and of course update its firmware and the software itself.

Finally, the system optimization tab does exactly what it says and so from here you can optimize your system for use with an SSD (advanced optimization includes more tweaks).

TEST BED

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   After over 12 years of testing solid state drives, i’ve concluded that it's almost impossible for any single benchmark suite to accurately measure their performance and that's why in certain benchmark suites we see amazing read/write performance numbers with some drives while in others things are quite different. The reason behind this is that some benchmarking suites are configured to read and write random chunks of data while others read and write constant (sequential) ones. So that's why i always use a very wide selection of benchmarking suites including AIDA64, HD Tach RW, HD Tune Pro, Crystal Disk Mark, Sisoftware Sandra Pro, AS SSD, IOmeter and ATTO. To get the most accurate results each test gets repeated a total of 6 times with the average performance numbers recorded into our charts*. Also, as of February 25th 2015 our results will also include the Storage Networking Industry Association’s (SNIA) IOMeter tests. These tests include a 12 Hour write test used to “simulate” performance degradation over time and a mixed workload test which basically shows what you can expect when using an SSD continuously for roughly two hours. Unfortunately, due to the time required for these tests we repeat them a total of 3 times and not 6 as the above.

   Many people have made inquiries about our charts in the past so once again please do keep in mind that the Charts have the average performance numbers of each drive recorded and not the peak (highest) ones. Also, although every single one of these programs can help potential buyers choose the right drive for their needs you should also remember that from any kind of benchmark up to real world usage the gap is not small (and usually most differences will go unnoticed by most people). All tests were performed in a fresh Windows 10 Pro x64 installation complete with every update up to the date of this review.

* Since November 2018 our SSD comparison charts have been divided to 2.5” and M.2 models to reduce their growing size.

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

TEST RESULTS - AS SSD / IOMETER

TEST RESULTS - IOMETER SNIA

CONCLUSION

   The Realtek RTS5762DL is not a controller I’ve seen used a lot and as a matter of fact the Falcon is the very first SSD to arrive in the lab featuring it (since this is a new controller further performance optimization may be possible via firmware updates). This means I didn’t know what to expect in terms of performance but since this is yet another DRAM-less solution I knew it would fall short in terms of writes, and it does. You can clearly see in the charts that the ADATA Falcon behaves a lot like the NM610 model by Lexar with which it exchanges blows in all of them. The end result is pretty much a tie or it would be if it weren’t for the heatspreader, higher endurance (500 - 600TBW) and the longer warranty period (3 - 5 years) of the Falcon. Yes, the heatspreader doesn’t do miracles since I did record throttling during the SNIA tests but under normal use it shouldn’t surpass 55 degrees Celsius and that’s a good number. The ADATA SSD Toolbox also adds points since it’s not only easy to use but it offers many system optimization tweaks and simplifies firmware updating.

   Currently the Falcon 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD by ADATA retails for USD119.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 167.31Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) a price tag which although around the same ballpark as other DRAM-less models it could use a bit of trimming in the EU. With that out of the way the Falcon may not be the fastest M.2 NVMe around when it comes to writes but it does exceptionally well in reads and that along with its heatspreader, higher endurance and the 5-year limited warranty is why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Overall Performance (Up To 3100MB/s Read & 1500MB/s Write)
- Factory Attached Heatspreader
- Endurance (600TBW)
- 5 Year Limited Warranty
- ADATA SSD Toolbox
- Price (USA)

CONS

- Thermal Throttling (During Our SNIA Tests)
- Price (EU)