A Gen4 SSD with very conservative speeds
The XPG S50 Lite is a different type of NVMe PCIe Gen4 SSD, in the sense that, unlike most other Gen4 SSDs on the market, the S50 Lite hardly takes advantage of this fact, achieving speeds marginally faster than a single. High-end PCIe Gen3 SSD.
THE GOOD
PCI-Express 4.0 compatibility
Five year warranty
Compact design
THE BAD
Slightly higher speeds than a PCIe Gen3 SSD
High temperatures with the included heatsink
In recent years, SSD drives have been replacing mechanical drives, and today we can find them in any new computer. This is because SSDs have a much higher performance, they are getting better and more affordable.
Today we have the opportunity to bring you an analysis of the XPG S50 Lite, a PCIe 4.0 SSD with some curious features.
Design and features
The XPG S50 Lite is presented in a small red box with a holographic effect, along with the image of the product on the front, and some information about its capacity and other characteristics.
On the back we find some more information, translated into several languages, and also a QR code that takes us to the product page, where we can find more detailed specifications and download its software.
Once the box was opened, we found a clear plastic package with the XPG S50 Lite, along with its metallic heat sink which, in the case of our version, comes separately, the user being responsible for deciding whether to use it.
XPG announces that this heatsink helps reduce temperature by 20%, but at first glance we have doubts that a heatsink with such a modest amount of metal could give us remarkable results. Anyway, we think the generic heatsink on our motherboard will give better results.
As for the XPG S50 Lite, is about an SSD with PCIe Gen support4, in M.2 2280 format, with dimensions of 80 x 22 x 3.3mm, to which we must add 1mm more thickness if we install the included heatsink.
The printed circuit board is black and contains memory chips on both sides, totaling four chips, two on each side. With regard to the memoirs, it is about de memories with 3D NAND TLC technology, manufactured by Micron (which has renewed ADATA), along with the DDR4 DRAM memory module.
To finish, we have controller SM2267G, manufactured by Silicon Motion, which is responsible for providing PCIe 4.0 × 4 connectivity, and which in theory allows us to achieve sequential read speeds of the order of 3900 MB / s, and sequential write speeds of up to 3200 MB / s, conservative speeds for a Gen4 SSD.
The technical specifications of this model are:
| Capacity | 512GB / 1TB / 2TB |
| Interface | PCIe Gen4x4 |
| Maximum sequential read | Up to 3900MB / s |
| Maximum sequential write | Up to 3200MB / s |
| Format | M.2 2280 |
| Dimensions | 80 x 22 x 4.3mm (with the original heatsink) 80 x 22 x 3.3mm (without heatsink) |
| Memory type | 3D NAND |
| Controller | SMI SM2267G |
| Operating temperature | 0 ° C – 70 ° C |
| TBW (512GB / 1TB / 2TB) | 370TB / 740TB / 1480TB |
| Warranty | 5 years |
Evidence
All the tests carried out throughout this analysis were carried out at an ambient temperature of 20ºC, using the following hardware:
| Cash register | LANCOOL II Mesh Performance |
| Motherboard | MSI B550-A PRO |
| CPU | Ryzen 5600X |
| GPU | AMD RX6800 |
| RAM | Corsair Vengeance RT 3600MHz |
| PSU | Corsair RM850x |
Once the benchmarks are finished, and the results analyzed, we confirm our suspicions about the efficiency of the heatsink that accompanies the S50 Lite, since, as you can see below, eThe performance suffered greatly due to the temperatures, which reached 72ºc in the first seconds.
That said, we decided to repeat all the tests with the heatsink included with our motherboard, to evaluate the difference between both heatsinks and, in fact, we confirmed that it is the best option, since the maximum temperatures reached were 50ºc, avoiding any throttling by high temperatures.
Crystaldiskmark 8 – XPG Heatsink
Other benchmarks (ATTO & ASS) – XPG heatsink
Crystaldiskmark 8 – Motherboard Heatsink
Other benchmarks (ATTO & ASS) – Motherboard heatsink
software
Like any other manufacturer of SSDs, ADATA also offers software for its storage drives, the ADATA SSD ToolBox, which allows us to validate the health status of the drives, information such as temperature, SMART values, perform drive diagnostics, force TRIMM, or even update the firmware of the SSD.
But nevertheless, this software leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to its interface and navigation, since it not only presents problems with the interface itself, but we can also find untranslated texts. In addition, the process of updating the software itself is bad, preventing us from manually uninstalling the previous version.
In our opinion, these softwares are totally unnecessary – especially this – once all this information and functionalities (except the firmware update) can be accessed through other better quality softwares.
Verdict and alternatives
The XPG S50 Lite is a curious SSD drive, since unlike most PCIe 4.0 SSD drives on the market, the S50 Lite does not take advantage of the fact that it is Gen4, achieving slightly better performance than a high-end PCIe Gen3 SSD.
In addition, it is also important to pay attention to the use that you are going to give it, since you may notice performance problems due to high temperatures. In this aspect, We advise to use the motherboard’s own heat sink, which in most cases should give better results.
In short, although the XPG S50 Lite is not a bad product, It is one of the slowest Gen4 SSDs, and it is quite difficult to recommend buying it right nowSince it is possible to buy other models with much better performance and efficiency, such as the Samsung 980 PRO, for the same price (S50 Lite – 316 euros vs. 980 Pro – 318 euros).