Specifications, Availability and Pricing

The advertised numbers for the A-DATA S592 are pretty standard for base Barefoot drives. Our 128GB sample has a claimed rating of up to 250 MB/s read and 170 MB/s write speeds. A 256GB model is listed on the spec sheet, but we were unable to find the model in the wild or on A-DATA's order list that is on their website.

If you follow TweakTown and our solid state drive reviews, then you already know that solid state drives are much faster than platter based traditional drives. The S592 is a 2.5 inch form factor drive so it is perfect for use in nearly all notebooks. Enthusiasts also like to use SSDs in their desktop systems; the S592 uses standard SATA data and power connectors so this is a possibility, too.

On the inside we found a standard Indilinx Barefoot controller paired with Samsung flash memory. The S592 doesn't use the new ECO Barefoot that we found on the G.Skill Falcon II, so it does not support the latest 32nm flash memory. The new flash memory lowers the build cost, but so far the Falcon II is the only drive we have found to use the ECO. The good thing is that the original Barefoot appears to be a little bit faster in our testing, so no harm no foul, we will take the extra speed.

As mentioned previously, the S592 isn't available in the US through standard sources but it is possible to order the drive from EBay sellers in Hong Kong and Taiwan. I was able to find the 64 and 128GB drives all over Europe and Asia. A-DATA is a much larger player in those markets than they are in the US, so it is reasonable that they would release the drive there first.

This will be the first solid state drive we have tested this month, so I am really excited to get started. Let's take a look at the packaging.