The ADATA Ultimate SU750 1TB SSD Review: Realtek Does Storage, Part 1
by Billy Tallis on December 6, 2019 8:00 AM ESTIdle Power Measurement
SATA SSDs are tested with SATA link power management disabled to measure their active idle power draw, and with it enabled for the deeper idle power consumption score and the idle wake-up latency test. Our testbed, like any ordinary desktop system, cannot trigger the deepest DevSleep idle state.
Note: Earlier this year we upgraded our power measurement equipment and switched to measuring idle power on our Coffee Lake desktop, our first SSD testbed to have fully-functional PCIe power management. The below measurements are all new, and are not a perfect match for the older measurements in our previous reviews and the Bench database.
The ADATA SU750 has fairly high active idle power consumption, though not at all unprecedented. The problem is that the desktop idle—using the SATA Slumber link state—barely saves any power and is basically completely broken. The more well-established SSD controller vendors have all long since ironed out their SATA power management issues and moved on to making a mockery of the more complex NVMe power management spec.
In spite of having a broken idle power mode, the SU750 has the highest wake-up latency out of all the SATA drives in this bunch. At 2.3ms it's not really enough to be a serious problem, but there's also no good reason for that number to be bigger than zero.
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sonny73n - Friday, December 6, 2019 - link
Realtek does audioRealtek does networking
Realtek does storage
Debbie does Dallas
RadiclDreamer - Friday, December 6, 2019 - link
Realtek may do all of these things, but it does them all poorly.FunBunny2 - Friday, December 6, 2019 - link
"Realtek may do all of these things, but it does them all poorly."Debbie wasn't so hot either. :):)
boozed - Friday, December 6, 2019 - link
I don't know that I'd call them poor. Good value, reliable (in my experience) and good enough for the vast majority of users.Other options are available for enthusiasts.
eek2121 - Friday, December 6, 2019 - link
The trouble is that you are talking about a few dollars for a much faster and more power efficient drive. This controller appears DOA as it brings nothing unique to the table.Samus - Saturday, December 7, 2019 - link
With what Intel charges for network controllers, it’s astonishing Realtek is in business when you consider how superior an Intel NIC is while being a few dollars more. And wireless is a whole different story. I’d put Realtek at the absolute bottom of the list. Atheros/Qualcomm, Intel, Agere, Lucent, Broadcom, all have better reliability, support (which is shocking when you consider how vastly used Realtek products are) and generally - performance, than competing Realtek solutions.I think where Realtek scores is availability. Their volume shows commitment to OEM’s that require dependable shipping schedules. This can be as important is BOM pricing, and when you look at the numbers, it seems (and I’m speculating) Realtek designs products for volume production more than anything else. The incredibly low pin count and a 2 channel controller back this up. We are talking about possibly the most basic SATA SSD controller in production and that means they will be able to make a shitload of them really fast really cheap.
And unfortunately OEMs will bite because they know 90% of the people buying this crap don’t care about the inner margin performance of an SSD. Most people buy on price, reliability and warranty.
This shitty SSD May have all 3 bases covered considering the quality binning of Micron NAND.
close - Saturday, December 7, 2019 - link
"a few dollars more" adds up when buying by the truckload. With millions of devices that have a network chipset that's quite some money.jabber - Sunday, December 8, 2019 - link
Yeah amazing how many people don't realise how shaving just 50 cents off a product that will sell hundreds of thousands to millions will save a company a fortune and help with profit.A good example is to watch the documentary "Building a Faster Horse" on how Ford designed and built the 2016 iirc Ford Mustang. Every single part and component was scrutinised to see if it could be either removed/simplified or made cheaper.
That's why Realtek exists still. Their parts are 50c cheaper than Intels.
Manch - Monday, December 9, 2019 - link
Ford been making the Mustang cheaper and cheaper while charging more and more. Started with the Getrag MT-82 grenade and got worse with the crap IRS, corner cutting everywhere. Add on top of it a horrid design (Looks like a 2 door Focus) and they wonder why they're losing customers.hanselltc - Saturday, December 7, 2019 - link
Killer