XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB NVMe Gen3x4 PCIe M.2 SSD $237 Again (Amazon Prime)

Nside

Limp Gawd
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https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TY2TN64

Clippable $13 off coupon makes it $237(+tax) ...
Free Prime shipping.

61KnHhF8CnL._AC_SL1000_.jpg

2 Terabyte (1.81899 Tebibyte, or "Windows Terabyte")
NVMe 3.0
TLC + DRAM
5 year warranty
Thin Heatsink

Most of the bad Amazon reviews come from people who bought smaller capacities (256 or 512GB) and the write speeds aren't as good on those models.
1 and 2 TB drives have ~3000MB/s sequential writes.

Product Page:
https://www.xpg.com/us/feature/583/

Some Review sites:
https://www.anandtech.com/show/13759/comparing-adata-sx8200-pro-vs-hp-ex950
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3323075/adata-xpg-sx8200-pro-nvme-ssd-review.html
https://techreport.com/review/34431/adatas-xpg-sx8200-pro-1-tb-reviewed/

Edited for current price 8/13
 
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That looks like a good deal. I keep having to prune files to stay under my 1TB stick so maybe its time to bite the bullett.
 
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I have been running two of the 1TB version (the one in the Anandtech review) for the past 6 months and they're rock solid. Excellent read/write speeds for this price.
Yeah, people I've talked to said this thing only gets beaten by the 970 Pro when it comes to random writes on 3rd Gen NVMe.
Sequential writes seem to fall around average for good TLC drives, between 970 Evo and WD SN750, but those aren't the typical writes for most people anyway.

For this price/performance, this thing's a steal... Until 4th Gen starts dropping considerably in price anyway.
 
Yeah, people I've talked to said this thing only gets beaten by the 970 Pro when it comes to random writes on 3rd Gen NVMe.
Sequential writes seem to fall around average for good TLC drives, between 970 Evo and WD SN750, but those aren't the typical writes for most people anyway.

For this price/performance, this thing's a steal... Until 4th Gen starts dropping considerably in price anyway.
Good summary & saved me tons of research, thx!
 
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I have the gammix 1tb version of this which is the same drive just with a fancy heatspreader. No issues, but I don't get the speeds claimed, though I got it on an amazing deal so it was cheaper than any other 1tb drive, so I'm not complaining.
 
Id be concerned if they were using their own controller but they are using a really common controller and Intel/micron flash, so I don't think there is much concern other than if you need to warranty it but they have been around along time so should be fine. I just wouldn't trust smaller companies rolling their own controllers.
 
Bought this the other day to replace a 2TB spinner, so far so good. You have to register it to get a free key for the acronis oem cloning software, which didn't work for me. Windows would reboot, but no cloning process started. I ended up just copying my steam folder from the spinner to this drive and calling it a day. I'll use the spinner for onedrive and music.
 
Bought this the other day to replace a 2TB spinner, so far so good. You have to register it to get a free key for the acronis oem cloning software, which didn't work for me. Windows would reboot, but no cloning process started. I ended up just copying my steam folder from the spinner to this drive and calling it a day. I'll use the spinner for onedrive and music.
If it's same as the one WD comes with, you have to use the boot menu to pick it since it doesn't get put at the top of the list.
 
Bought this the other day to replace a 2TB spinner, so far so good. You have to register it to get a free key for the acronis oem cloning software, which didn't work for me. Windows would reboot, but no cloning process started. I ended up just copying my steam folder from the spinner to this drive and calling it a day. I'll use the spinner for onedrive and music.
For boot drives (specifically Windows) I usually recommend a fresh install anyway.
Windows is too fickle these days, and UEFI seems to be hit/miss on being able to recognize a cloned win10 install (on a completely new drive anyway) And yes, that's even after changing boot order in BIOS

For basic back-up cloning or Data-drive cloning, I've never used Acronis. Macrium Reflect Free version has always worked well for me.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
 
For boot drives (specifically Windows) I usually recommend a fresh install anyway.
Windows is too fickle these days, and UEFI seems to be hit/miss on being able to recognize a cloned win10 install (on a completely new drive anyway) And yes, that's even after changing boot order in BIOS

For basic back-up cloning or Data-drive cloning, I've never used Acronis. Macrium Reflect Free version has always worked well for me.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree

Ya, Macrium or Clonezilla here. I have used Acronis and it is hit or miss. Clonezilla is powerful but it's all linux based, so isn't for the faint of heart if you need to stray from the predefined options.

I have traditionally gone with smaller SSD for boot disk and some programs, then a big mech hdd for steam library / everything else. Partly because of the cost involved, but also in case of failure it's nice to just swap in another OS SSD or move the HDD if needed. But times, they are a changin', and I guess now it'll be big M.2 NVME/SSD for everything?

I think on my current X470 asrock board I only have 1 m.2 for NVME and the second is just M.2 SATA. I need to look to see if the new x570 boards have more than 1 NVME. Because if not, I'm just wasting money buying a NVME instead of SSD for my steam drive. If there is even a big price difference any more.
 
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I've been looking for a good NVMe to replace the 512GB in my XPS 13.

Search over. Thanks, OP!!
 
Inland Professional is QLC
Not a "bad" drive and that's a nice sale price currently, but performance wise, it won't hold a candle to this one. It's all going to come down to your needs and budget.

From the jump, writes are a little more than half as fast, but will slow even further during continuous write sessions. Now that situation tends to plague all SSDs, but QLC (and cheap TLC) are the hardest hit because as data is cached, it is also doing the final writes to the NAND. The faster it can write the data to it's final home on the NAND, the less likely it is that the cache fills up.
Then there's the durability aspect, QLC having about half the life expectancy of TLC, though I think that is mostly a non-issue for most people, it's still a selling point.

I have used Inland Professional (misleading model name) in the past for secondary drives or even boot drives in budget builds, and it's fine, but don't expect amazing performance. I do prefer Inland Premium (TLC Model) as a go-to drive for a semi-budget drive with good performance, but only when it's on sale. Good to see MicroCenter aggressively pricing them on Amazon, but I hope that doesn't mean they're following in Tiger-Direct's footsteps.

EDIT: And FYI, they should note that their drives AREN'T B-Key, they are taking their marketing images of the underside of the drive. at first glance I thought "Why the hell are they selling a B-key model and calling it NVMe?"
 
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anyone have any experience with Western Digital Blue SN550 NVMe M.2 2280 1TB PCI-Express 3.0 x4 ? They don't have a 2tb option, but grabbing 2 1tb's seems to be a cheaper route...but haven't heard much on the drives.

Edit: NVM, after some searching I found the read/write speeds on this are nowhere near the OP's drive specs, still seems like a good budget NVME drive.
Unless you find them on deep sale, WD SSDs (AKA, rebranded SanDisk SSDs) tend to be overpriced.

Right now, the sweet-spot overall for price-per-Gigabyte is with 1TB drives (when on sale). When you go smaller, you tend to pay more per GB, and when you go larger you pay more per GB (or TB as it were). Since most people don't have many NVMe slots, getting as much capacity as you can afford on one drive is ideal. Also consider that most secondary NVMe slots run at reduced/shared bandwidth on mainstream chipsets, so the single top m.2 slot is going to be the performer unless you get into HEDT platforms.

The Drive I put in the OP is a higher-rated drive that has roughly the same Price-Per-Gigabyte as lower performing average priced 1TB drives, which is why it's a good deal. There are cheaper 2TB drives (even some under $200 with QLC) but you don't usually find ones that perform this well for less than $250. For a secondary drive, those lower-performance QLC drives tend to be fine unless you move large (40GB or more) files around constantly.

If you're looking for a good quality budget performer 1TB option, I don't see any below the $130 price right now, but you will see the 1TB Inland Premium (not Professional, that's QLC) hit $100-$110 fairly often.
For secondary drives, QLC is usually fine for most people, in which case, the Intel 665p is one to keep an eye on. Currently 2TB is $240 on Newegg with promo code . But I would pay the extra $7 for the one I posted in OP, regardless of usage.
 
For boot drives (specifically Windows) I usually recommend a fresh install anyway.
Windows is too fickle these days, and UEFI seems to be hit/miss on being able to recognize a cloned win10 install (on a completely new drive anyway) And yes, that's even after changing boot order in BIOS

For basic back-up cloning or Data-drive cloning, I've never used Acronis. Macrium Reflect Free version has always worked well for me.
https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree
Whew
I thought it was just me because my success rate for drive cloning is piss poor.
Of course half the time I'm doing it is because the customers drive and/or OS is a little flaky.
But yeah, Windows 10 and the additional UEFI boot security bs can be the straw that breaks the camels installation.

Clean install FTW.
 
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I paid $290 for this drive in Oct 2019. No issues. I still think it's the best all-arounder out there.
 
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Yeah, I don't have this drive in particular, but I've used several Adata drives over the years. Their lower-end stuff leaves a bit to be desired, but that's mostly in performance. Had 1 out of 8-10 DOA IIRC, might have been a PNY though.
The XPG stuff hasn't given me any issue with the 2 or 3 times I've used them. I combed through reviews and nothing seemed out of the ordinary though.
Brands don't mean a damn thing to me. I just look at each model typically, because all brands have shipped lemons.
 
Whew
I thought it was just me because my success rate for drive cloning is piss poor.
Of course half the time I'm doing it is because the customers drive and/or OS is a little flaky.
But yeah, Windows 10 and the additional UEFI boot security bs can be the straw that breaks the camels installation.

Clean install FTW.
I have done over 50 images in the last 3-4 years. HDD to SSD, SATA to NVME... No problems. Only thing I watch for is SATA vs AHCI in the bios.
Macrium Reflect, 100% free never had issues.

I have had an adata drive for like 3+ years now, no issues. The 8200 is one of the top performers too, was just looking at this recently.
 
Installed mine today. No problems cloning the original onto the XPG. I used Ease-US ToDo Backup.
 
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These are great drives. Ive got a 512 thats roughly 1 1/2yo and a 1tb thats a couple of months old. Never had an issue with either. If i needed more space i would definitely grab the 2tb.
 
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