INTRODUCTION

   Most people reading these pages are probably more interested in the upcoming PCIe 5.0 (Gen5) M.2 NVMe SSDs and the current record holders (PCIe 4.0/Gen4) in terms of performance but there are always people out there looking for something far more, "basic". Of course, with the current pace things are going it's easy to forget that not everyone out there is after the top performance and/or capacity when it comes to storage devices (SSD in this particular case) and that's obviously why such models are not the focus of many reviews lately. Still there are countless such models out there including the XPG Spectrix S20G 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD by ADATA which landed on my desk not long ago.

   XPG (XTREME PERFORMANCE GEAR) was established by ADATA to provide high-performance products to gamers, Esports pros, and tech enthusiasts. We are committed to developing products that deliver extreme performance and therefore work closely with the gaming and esports community to gain insight into the real needs of users. We provide a full range of products from systems, components, peripherals to devices, and create them with the highest standards of stability, reliability, and performance in mind. We also develop products with sheer cool designs that have earned us several prestigious international awards, such as iF Design and Good Design. Beyond products, we play an active role in sponsoring and supporting esports events and teams globally to realize extreme gaming experiences at the highest levels.

   The XPG Spectrix S20G 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD is a PCIe 3.0 (Gen3x4) v1.3 model that follows the typical 2280 form factor (80mm in length and 22mm in width), is currently available in 500GB/1TB capacities and features a top aluminum heatsink complete with RGB lighting (compatible with all the major motherboard RGB sync technologies). Unfortunately, ADATA is a bit "cryptic" when it comes to the specifications of the S20G but they do state that it uses 3D NAND flash and that it can achieve read and write speeds of up to 2500MB/s and 1800MB/s respectively (160-190k for 4KB random IOPS). In terms of features the XPG Spectrix S20G packs LDPC (low density parity check) ECC Technology together with SLC Caching (pseudo-SLC), Host Memory Buffer (HMB), TRIM and AES 256-bit encryption. As for durability this is set at 300TBW for the 500GB model and 600TBW for the 1TB model both of which feature and MTBF (meantime between failures) of 2.000.000 hours and are covered by a 5-year limited warranty.