INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Whether you place RGB lighting high in your list of things you'd like to have in your home the fact of the matter is that RGB illuminated products look quite impressive. Because of that RGB lighting has expanded to most areas of the electronics market in a very short time so if you were to visit a large electronics retailer you'd see a plethora of such products including TV's, portable speakers, stereo/surround sound systems, lights (bulbs), gaming peripherals (from fans and CPU coolers up to LCD screens, keyboards, mice, pads, headsets and even chairs) and PC hardware components (such as PC cases, mainboards, graphics cards, memory modules and even SSDs). RGB illuminated PC hardware components are still somewhat limited (mainboards hold the highest number currently) but there are some quite interesting products in the market like the brand new DELTA R Rainbow SSD by TEAMGROUP.

   T-FORCE is TEAM force. The red "T" on the logo of "TF" represents TEAMGROUP's passion for the storage products. The black "F" represents TEAMGROUP's over 18 years of promotion of storage products. The visual design of the perfect combination elegantly symbolizes a pair of flying wings. They represent that the high quality and extreme performance gaming products from TEAMGROUP are capable of allowing all gamers to break the speed limit and enjoy the ever-changing world of gaming.

   As you can all tell from the above picture the DELTA R Rainbow SSD (currently available in 250GB/500GB/1TB capacities and with different power connectors and enclosures - plastic and aluminum) is a unique looking product and to achieve that TEAMGROUP/T-FORCE equipped it with a total of 8 RGB LEDs (powered by a 9-pin USB mainboard header - 5V) which in turn were setup to use the water flowing lighting effect (fixed brightness level with single effect / can't be controlled in our sample). Underneath the RGB illuminated cover we find the SM2258 quad-channel NAND controller by Silicon Motion along with Micron's previous generation 32-layer 3D TLC NAND flash and 256MB DDR3L SDRAM by Nanya. The SM2258 quad-channel NAND flash controller is quite familiar to us and as with previous SSDs it features various technologies such as NANDXtend (error-correcting with data protection), Static Data Refresh (ensures data integrity), Direct-to-TLC and SLC Caching (algorithms for optimal sustained performance), global wear leveling (algorithm which evens program/erase count and extends SSD lifespan), DevSleep (device sleep - power save), S.M.A.R.T, TRIM, NCQ, TCG Opal and hardware AES 256bit encryption. Last but not least TEAMGROUP covers the entire line of their DELTA R RGB SSDs with a 3 year limited warranty and reports write endurance numbers of 60TBW for the 250GB model, 120TBW for the 500GB model and 240TBW for the 1TB model (MTBF is set at 1 million hours for all models).

 

 

SECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two product pictures are placed at the front of the box in which TEAMGROUP ships the DELTA R Rainbow RGB (a sticker with the included capacity is also present).

 

 

The specifications of the product are printed at the rear right beneath an ABOUT T-FORCE text and next to the required RGB connector for this model.

 

 

Inside the box you will find the DELTA R Rainbow RGB SSD, 9-pin mainboard connector to micro USB cable, sticker and the user manual.

 

 

THE DELTA R RAINBOW RGB 250GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although shaped like any other 2.5" SSD the top plastic section of the DELTA R Rainbow RGB SSD gives it a different look.

 

 

At the rear there's only a sticker with the product serial number, part number and barcodes.

 

 

Aside the usual SATA power and data connectors at the rear of the drive there's also a micro USB port (5V) used to power the RGB LED strip inside the enclosure.

 

 

Opening the enclosure was very easy and as you can see the LED strip is placed on one side of the enclosure.

 

 

As expected from a 250GB model the bottom side of the PCB is empty.

 

 

At the top we find a single NAND flash module (288GB in capacity), 256MB DDR3L module by Nanya and the Silicon Motion SM2258 NAND flash controller.

 

 

The RGB LEDs may be placed on one side of the top but you can hardly tell by looking at the drive when it’s glowing.

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   After almost 10 years of testing solid state drives we’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 with every update installed up to November 21st 2018.

* Since November 2018 our SSD comparison charts have been divided to 2.5” and M.2 ones 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 X64

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – AS SSD / IOMETER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – IOMETER SNIA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Unlike most 2.5” SSD models in the market the DELTA R Rainbow RGB SSD by TEAMGROUP is not just about performance and endurance but also looks. Of course we don’t need to tell you that it looks quite unique so if you’ve recently build your brand new RGB system then this could be the drive you’re looking for. That is if you don’t care much about the performance and endurance part since by using the previous generation NAND by Micron the DELTA R Rainbow RGB SSD falls back on both when compared to similar models (even DRAM-less ones). That being said the DELTA R Rainbow SSD is still at least 2-3 times faster than your average HDD so for most consumers performance shouldn’t really be a problem. Endurance is perhaps even more of an issue for the DELTA R Rainbow SSD since our 250GB sample features 60TBW when for example the SOURCE 250GB by Mushkin features 100TBW and the BX500 250GB by Crucial 80TBW. The variety of available DELTA R RGB models (for consumers with and without RGB compatible mainboards) is a nice touch however and certainly not something many SSD manufacturers would go into all the trouble of making.

   As expected the RGB feature of the DELTA RGB Rainbow SSD by TEAMGROUP doesn’t come for free so currently it retails for USD59.99 inside the USA (Amazon) and for 59.90Euros inside the EU (Caseking). This price tag may be set roughly 15-25% higher compared to similar capacity models but we think that it’s worth it if you’re investing on a new RGB lighted system. Performance and endurance may be two things we would had liked different but at the end of the day the DELTA R Rainbow RGB by TEAMGROUP is aimed at a specific segment of the market which is why it comes highly recommended by us.

 

PROS

- Performance (Compared To HDDs)
- Water Flow RGB Illumination (8 RGB LEDs)
- Features (NANDXtend / SLC Write Caching / DevSleep)
- Available Models (Standalone & Compatible With RGB Mainboards)
- Available Colors (Black & White)
- 3 Year Warranty

CONS

- Performance & Endurance Levels (Compared To The Competition)
- Price (For Some)