Review | Transcend SSD220S 120GB SSD

On this review, we are taking a good look at the Transcend SSD220S. What we’ve got is the 120GB model in the 2.5″ form factor, featuring TLC NAND flash memory inside. The SSD also features a Three-year Limited Warranty, which is good enough for a TLC based drive.

The Transcend SSD220S has 4 models to choose from, with 240GB, 480GB and 960GB at bay. Transfer speeds are rated up to 550MB/s read and 450MB/s write. Learn more from the official product page and get it at PCX.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:

Capacity	120GB, 240GB, 480GB, 960GB
Dimensions	100mm × 69.85mm × 6.8mm (3.94″ x 2.75″ x 0.28″)
Weight (max.)	63g (2.22oz)
Storage Media	TLC NAND flash memory
Operating Voltage	DC 5V
Operating Temperature	0°C (32°F) to 60°C (140°F)
Certificates	CE, FCC, BSMI
Warranty	Three-year Limited Warranty (Warranty does not apply when SSD Scope’s wear-out indicator displays 0% within 3 years.) Please access here for more information about the Transcend Warranty Policy.
Note	Speed may vary due to host hardware, software, usage, and storage capacity. For Mac users please visit our Apple Solutions here.
Package Contents	SSD220S

PACKAGING AND ACCESSORIES:

The packaging is the usual Transcend storage colorbox we used to see from the rest of their line-up. Nothing new here as far as design is concerned.

Inside, you’ll find 4 screws for the mounting and a few paper works. No spacer here in case you want to use the SSD on a 9mm drive bay.

DESIGN, LAYOUT AND CONNECTIVITY:

The drive is not much different aesthetic-wise from the older generation Transcend devices we’ve tested. It is 6.8mm slim though, which is perfect for notebooks that could house 2.5″ drives inside.

The drive features an aluminum casing and is quite light. Again, perfect for notebooks. It has mounting holes at the side and at bottom.

The Transcend SSD220S is powered by the Silicon Motion SM2256KAB controller combined with 16nm TLC NAND flashes.

TEST SETUP AND METHODOLOGY:

Our storage device reviews revolves around the use of various storage benchmark tools and real world benchmarks. Our setup fills up the test drive to at least 50% of its capacity. This is done so to negate the FOB (Fresh Out the Box) performance of the drive; ensuring that we are testing the drive near its expected usage. The drive is formatted under NTFS and is attached to its natively supported interface. This is to ensure the system is at its optimal testing state.

TEST SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS
PROCESSOR	Intel Core i5-6600K
MOTHERBOARD	ASUS Z170-A
CPU COOLER	Cryorig C1 Top Flow
MEMORY KIT	Crucial Ballistix Tactical @ 2666MHz 4x4GB Kit
GRAPHICS CARD	ASUS GTX 1060 STRIX OC 6GB
INTERNAL STORAGE	Crucial BX200 480GB
POWER SUPPLY	CORSAIR RM850X 850W
DISPLAY	27″ DELL U2715H + LG 43UF680T 4K UHD TV
OPERATING SYSTEM	Microsoft Windows 10 Pro

This review has been made possible with Banggood‘s photography equipment. Learn more from this link.

THROUGHPUT PERFORMANCE:

Throughput performance measured in MB/s is measured with CrystalDiskMark. First up on the test is the Sequential read and write performance, measured with a block size of 1MB and a 1GB transfer size. This test is more in line with large file transfers; similar to watching a movie.

The second one is the Random 4K read and write performance, measured with a random block size of 4KB and a 1GB transfer size. This test is more in line with small file transfers; similar to transferring installation files and reading game data.

Sequential transfers rate is good for both read and write – able to achieve 501.6 MB/s for the read and 332.9 MB/s for the write. Random 4K performance is also good at 101.3 MB/s for the write and 27.2 MB/s for the read respectively. The drive reached its advertised speed at the Sequential and 4K benchmarks using 64 Queue Depth.

IOPS PERFORMANCE:

Input/Output Operations per Second is is measured with AS SSD. The Random 4K-64Thrd read and write benchmark is used for this test. Performance is measured with a random block size of 4KB, a 1GB transfer size and 64-thread IO requests. This tests the storage medium’s ability to use Native Command Queuing (NCQ) at higher Queue Depth. A Useful metric for server side applications.

IOPS performance seems good enough for the write, while read performance hovers around the 34064 IOPS mark. Excellent Write IOPS performance, while the Read IOPS is just decent.

ACCESS TIME PERFORMANCE:

The read and write latency is measured with AS SSD using a 512KB block size. Access Time is just as important as the throughput and IOPS performance of the drive; allowing us to peak into how fast or slow a storage medium can access a given data. Latency is measured in milliseconds.

Read latency is recorded at 0.039ms, while the write latency is at 0.051ms. This is already a good access time performance even for an SSD.

REAL WORLD PERFORMANCE:

Our real world performance test consists of 3 file folders containing 6GB worth of text files, images and videos each. The files are copied within the drive using TeraCopy to evaluate the storage medium’s performance. File copy performance is measured in seconds.

While the Crucial BX200 beats the Transcend SSD220S on most of our synthetic benchmarks, the drive in review shines the most on our real world benchmarks. Its SLC cache is way better than the BX200’s when it comes to large file transfers.

WRAPPING IT UP:

The Transcend SSD220S in 120GB flavor is an SSD with a $50 MSRP. It is intended to function as a value oriented drive and it did not miss its mark.

Performance wise, there’s actually nothing out of ordinary from the SSD220S compared to other TLC SSDs we’ve tested in the past. The BX200 is an exception on our real world performance figures since that SSD’s buffer is just not cutting it when it comes to larger file transfers. That said, the SSD220S easily beats it at the said test. Not bad for a $50 value drive.

The 120GB Transcend SSD220S is a true value oriented SSD allowing the average consumer to easily upgrade from a mechanical drive. Sure it’s not the fastest SSD we’ve tested, but it is a worthy drive even for the price alone.

EXCELLENT FILE TRANSFER PERFORMANCE GOOD ACCESS TIME 6.8MM SLIM DRIVE GOOD VALUE FOR THE MONEY

4K READ IOPS PERFORMANCE BUNDLE COULD BE BETTER