Apotop S3C 256GB SSD Review

1. Introduction2. Apotop S3C 256GB SSD3. Apotop S3C 256GB SSD (High Res Gallery)4. Testing Methodology5. CrystalDiskMark6. ATTO Disk Benchmark7. AS SSD8. IOMETER9. Closing Thoughts10. View All Pages

The Apotop S3C 256GB SSD is another high performance drive powered by the Silicon Motion 2246EN controller. The S3C is certainly capable for a variety of tasks, including gaming and other, more serious duties.

This is the second time we have tested a Silicon Motion SM2246EN controlled drive and there is no doubt it delivers well balanced results in all areas. Apotop have been conservative in their estimates of performance ‘up to' 490 MB/s read and 275 MB/s write. Our own results show closer to 550 MB/s read and 300 MB/s write. Random 4K performance is excellent, scoring 71,784 random write 4k IOPS and 73,319 random read 4k IOPS.

The controller is also able to handle incompressible and compressible data without any penalty to performance. If you often deal with incompressible data such as ZIP/RAR files, video and PSD documents then this drive will deliver the goods. The popular Sandforce 2281 controller suffers from a significant performance drop due to the time it takes with additional processing in the same situation.

The Silicon Motion SM2246EN controller is fully loaded with reliability features, using an advanced dynamic global wear-leveling and bad block management algorithm. It data shapes to increase reliability through reduced coupling effects. The MTBF is said to be 2,000,000 hours with a data retention level rated for 10 years. Apotop offer a modest 3 year warranty with the drive.

Availability of the drive may be an issue for European punters – as we have been told that initial stocks will be limited to the USA and Far East. UK availability is said to come ‘in the near future'.

Just before publication we received pricing information. The 128GB version will cost $59.00. The 256GB version will cost $99.00. The 512GB version will cost $199.00.

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Pros:

• performance is very high.
• incompressible and compressible is equally good.
• sequential read can saturate SATA 3 interface.
• seems competitively priced.

Cons:

• poor availability.
• stiff competition.
• write performance could be better.

Kitguru says: An excellent drive that is sadly only available in certain parts of the world right now. We will be interested to see UK pricing when it becomes available.

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