ADATA has been at the forefront when it comes to Solid State Drives. With PCIe Gen 4 NVMe drives becoming mainstream as the cost lowers, Adata is one of the few brands to release a wide range of Gen4 SSDs with various speeds and capacities to cater to different users. In this review, we’ll take a look at ADATA’s flagship Gen4 SSD under the Legend line, the ADATA Legend 960 MAX 1TB SSD.
A Closer Look
The ADATA Legend 960 MAX 1TB Gen4 SSD comes in black packaging. Unlike Adata’s recent SSD packaging design, the Legend 960 MAX doesn’t have a red theme or anime-inspired design but instead, you have a shot of the SSD itself alongside the included heatsink.
Included in the box is the Adata Legend 960 Max SSD itself as well as the two-piece heatsink.
The Adata Legend 960 Max 1TB SSD is a beefy SSD with both sides of the device sporting NAND flash chips. You can also see the SMI SM2264 controller on one side as well as the DRAM Cache. The Legend 960 MAX 1TB is rated at 7,400 MB/s read and 6,800MB/s write. However, the Legend 960 MAX 1TB has a rated read speed of 6,400MB/s when plugged into a PS5.
The aluminum alloy heatsink is relatively easy to install provided that you don’t screw up in lining up the Legend 960 Max to the heatsink itself as the adhesive is super strong. Once installed though, you won’t have any problems apart from taking it off due to the aforementioned strong adhesive.
Test Bench Setup and Benchmark Methodology
Adata Legend 960 MAX 1TB SSD Testbench Specs
| CPU | Intel Core i9 13900K |
| COOLER | ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360mm V2 – Noctua NT-H2 Thermal Paste |
| MOTHERBOARD | ASUS ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming Motherboard |
| MEMORY | Kingston Fury Beast RGB 32GB(2x16GB) 6000 MHz DDR5 |
| GPU | Nvidia RTX 4090 FE |
| STORAGE | Adata Legend 960 MAX 1TB |
| POWER SUPPLY | FSP Hydro GT PRO 1000W 80+ GOLD |
| OPERATING SYSTEM | Windows 11 Pro Build 22H2 |
We use CapFrameX 1.7.2 Stable as our primary FPS capture and analysis tool for all our gaming benchmarks. The latest build version of Windows 11 Pro and WHQL-certified drivers are used for our benchmarks. Readings such as temperatures and power draw are recorded using HWINFO64, and other relevant software for cross-checking.
THROUGHPUT Performance
Developed by Noriyuki Miyazaki, CrytalDiskMark is a free benchmark tool that is being used by thousands of experts. This tool measures SSD’s sequential read and write speeds. That means how fast files can be read from and written to the drive, usually measured in MB/s.
IOPS Performance
IOPS or Input/Output Operations Per Second is a measure of how many inputs or outputs an SSD can perform in a short period. IOPS is a useful parameter to measure how fast it can process small amounts of workload that are similar to real-world usages, such as loading a webpage and launching apps.
ACCESS TIME
Access time or latency is just as crucial as sequential, random, and IOPS for an SSD. It wraps up all the values from the previous performance and shows the SSD’s responsiveness, whether it be small or heavy workloads.
AS SSD’s Copy benchmark simulates copying various file types namely, ISOs, Games, and applications. Different file types result in different transfer speeds.
ADATA Legend 960 MAX 1TB SSD Temperatures
PCIe Gen 4 SSDs are notoriously known for their outrageously high temperatures but newer drives such as the ADATA Legend 960 MAX 1TB have relatively cool temperatures with only a peak temperature of 64°C despite it being the fastest SSD in our test suite. Moreover, the aluminum heatsink surely did help in the cooling process as it has the lowest idle temp of only 42°C across all of our Gen 4 drives.
Performance Summary and Conclusion
The Legend 960 Max’s performance certainly trumps our test suite including the renowned WD SN850 Gen4 drive at a much lower asking price. The ADATA Legend 960 Max 1TB SSD is certainly one of the fastest Gen 4 drives you could purchase to date. That said, a price of Php 3,995 certainly seals the deal with this SSD. For only Php 500 more versus other Gen 4 and older Gen 3 drives of the same capacity, you’re getting a much faster and more reliable drive – Not to mention the added benefit of the included aluminum heatsink. So, if you’re looking for a fast and reliable storage for your OS drive, game drive, or even as your scratch disk for video projects, then the ADATA Legend 960 MAX 1TB SSD should be on the top of your list.
Grant is a Financial Management graduate from UST. His passion for gadgets and tech crossed him over in the industry where he could apply his knowledge as an enthusiast and in-depth analytic skills as a Finance Major. His passion allows him to earn at the same time help Gadget Pilipinas' readers in making smart, value-based decisions and purchases with his reviews and guides.
