A-Data LEGEND 960 MAX ALEG-960M-1TCS 1 TB

A compact M.2 SSD that is slightly out of the middle class and is part of the newly launched A-Data Legend product line. Unlike purely gaming SSDs from the Gammix and Spectrix lines, the A-Data LEGEND 960 MAX is a versatile device that is equally suitable for installation in a gaming PC, an audio processing workstation or a game console. The drive is based on the SMI SM2264 controller and meets 3 critical conditions for the full exploitation of all the benefits of the PCI-E 4.0 interface.

The flash memory array here is assembled from 176-layer TLC 3D NAND memory from Micron, there is a 1 GB DRAM buffer on board, and the well-proven Silicon Motion SM2264 controller controls the device. The linear write speed declared by the manufacturer is 6000 MB/s, the read speed reaches 7400 MB/s, which is two to three times higher than similar solutions with the PCI-E 3.0 interface and ten times ahead of conventional HDDs.

In general, high speed and responsiveness allowed the drive to pass the official strict selection by Sony and receive the "PlayStation 5 Ready" medal. In order to reduce overheating, the device is equipped with a neat low-profile black and gold graphene heatsink. This material provides the best thermal conductivity in terms of small thickness and is often used in top and near-top drives. Interestingly, the manufacturer did not stick the heatsink to the drive board, leaving the decision of this issue to the will of the user, who can stick it on his own or use the heatsink built into the motherboard, if any. This approach allows the user not to lose the 5-year warranty.