The ADATA Legend 960 (starts at $129.99 for 1TB as tested) is a PCI Express 4.0 NVMe solid-state drive that delivered strong benchmark scores for both program loading and gaming in our testing. Equipped with a thin heat spreader, the internal SSD can be used as secondary storage in a PlayStation 5 and the hardware-based encryption keeps your data safe. It should be an attractive choice for gamers, game designers, creative professionals and graphic artists who like to play AAA games after hours.
An SSD for all seasons
The Legend 960 is scheduled to release on October 10 in 1TB and 2TB capacities and is available for pre-order through online retailers at the prices shown in the table below. It is a PCIe 4×4 drive built on an M.2 Type-2280 (80mm long) “gumstick” PCB. It uses the NVMe 1.4 protocol over the PCIe 4.0 bus, based on a Silicon Motion SM2264 controller and Micron’s 176-layer 3D TLC NAND flash. To accommodate this memory and the other components, chips are placed on both sides of the circuit board, making it too thick for a pair of ultra-thin laptops. (Check out our glossary of SSD terms if any of the above lingos aren’t familiar to you.)
As noted, a thin metal heat spreader is included that can be applied to the top of the disc by peeling off the plastic covering the adhesive strip. We ran our benchmark tests with the heat spreader in place. Even with the spreader, the Legend 960 is slim enough to fit into the open slot of a PlayStation 5, and in terms of specs it easily meets Sony’s recommendations for use with the PS5(Opens in a new window). ADATA rates the drive for a write speed of up to 6,400 MBps when used with the console.
(Credit: Kyle Cobian)
The Legend 960’s durability ratings, measured in terabytes written (TBW), are slightly above average for a TLC-based drive. The WD Black SN770, the Crucial P5 Plus and the Samsung SSD 980 Pro are all rated at 600TBW and 1,200TBW for their 1TB and 2TB models respectively. The Kingston KC3000 is rated slightly higher than the ADATA with 800TBW for 1TB and 1600TBW for 2TB. The ADATA XPG Atom 50 is rated at 650TBW for 1TB.
A pair of PCIe 4.0 TLC drives offer superior durability ratings: the Corsair Force series MP600 and the Silicon Power US70 are rated at 1,800 TBW for 1 TB and 3,600 TBW for 2 TB. At the other end of the scale, QLC-based drives like the Mushkin Delta and Sabrent Rocket Q4 have a shorter lifespan, rated at just 200 TBW for 1 TB, 400 TBW for 2 TB, and 800 TBW for 4 TB.
(Credit: Kyle Cobian)
The specification “terabytes written” is a manufacturer’s estimate of how much data can be written to a disk before some cells begin to fail and be retired. (TBW tends to scale 1:1 with capacity, as with the drives mentioned here.) ADATA guarantees the Legend 960 for five years or until you reach the rated TBW rating when writing data, whichever is better. occurs first.
As for software, ADATA offers its free SSD Toolbox(Opens in a new window) suite, which provides a wide range of operating tools and health checks for the drive. The Legend 960 also supports hardware-based AES 256-bit encryption, widely regarded as the gold standard for consumer SSDs.
Testing the ADATA Legend 960: A New Record for Read Speed
We test PCIe 4.0 internal SSDs using a desktop testbed with an MSI X570 motherboard and AMD Ryzen CPU, 16GB Corsair Dominator DDR4 memory clocked up to 3,600MHz, and an Nvidia GeForce discrete graphics card. We ran the Legend 960 through our usual internal solid-state drive benchmarks, including Crystal DiskMark 6.0 and PCMark 10 Storage, as well as a relatively new test, UL’s 3DMark Storage Benchmark, which measures a drive’s performance in a number of gaming-related tasks .
Crystal DiskMark’s sequential speed tests provide a traditional measure of disk throughput, simulating the best-case, linear transfer of large files.
The ADATA Legend 960 became the first SSD to achieve a sequential read speed of over 7,500 megabytes per second (MBps) in our Crystal DiskMark tests, beating four drives operating in the 7,400 MBps range (ADATA’s proprietary drive speed rating). layers. It achieved the second highest sequential write score in our test group, effectively matching the manufacturer’s 6800 MBps rating. On the negative side, the 4K write score was near the bottom of the pack.
In the PCMark 10 Overall Storage benchmark, which measures a drive’s speed in everyday storage tasks such as loading games and launching the Windows operating system and various programs, the Legend 960 achieved the third highest score in our comparison group, behind the SK Hynix Platinum P41 and the WD Black SN850X.
Results in PCMark trace tests, which evaluate the individual components used in the overall score, were generally strong, leading the way in booting Windows and loading Adobe Photoshop and Premiere Pro. The game launch results were also above average. Its only stumbling block came in the large file (ISO) copy trace, where it finished last in the group.
(Credit: Kyle Cobian)
Finally, the Legend 960 achieved one of the higher scores in our relatively new 3DMark Storage gaming-oriented benchmark, with only the SK Hynix P41 and WD Black SN850X.
A versatile high-performance SSD
With blistering sequential read and write speeds and excellent scores in various benchmarks, the ADATA Legend 960 is a great choice as a premium SSD for photographers, videographers, graphic artists or gamers. Double-sided and with a slim heat spreader, the drive can be used with desktops, as well as some laptops and the PlayStation 5. The Legend’s 256-bit hardware-based encryption will come in handy for anyone who values data security.
Assuming we’ll see modest price cuts from the launch price over time, the Legend 960 will likely sell at a similar price to the ADATA XPG Gammix S70 Blade, a powerful SSD with a very similar feature set that won an Editors’ Choice price a year ago. Although the new drive achieved slightly better test results than the S70 Blade, the market has not stood still and a few recent speedsters have stolen our highest credit.
(Credit: Kyle Cobian)
But while the 960 didn’t quite match the gaming or overall storage capabilities of the Editors’ Choice-winning SK Hynix P41 and WD SN850X, it achieved impressive scores in several individual tests, including starting Windows, loading Adobe Photoshop and Premiere. Pro and 4K reading speed (relevant for gaming). The ADATA Legend 960 is a great all-round performance, whether you need a drive for your studio or gaming rig or want to add extra storage to a PS5.
Pros
It comes down to The ADATA Legend 960, a powerful PCI Express 4.0 SSD, has delivered excellent benchmark results and is a top choice for both gaming and creative work. It fits everything from gaming rigs to the PS5, but not the thinnest laptops.
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