As we have seen before with TLC NAND SSDs, the SLC cache is used first for gaining a respectable speed boost and once this one gets filled up, the write speed will start dropping gradually, sometimes under 100MB/s. This particular aspect does not recommend the drive if our workload does imply writing large files frequently onto the drive, but even when we are writing straight to TLC, the access times do remain smaller versus mechanical drives. For a better compatibility, A55 256GB does ship with a 7mm form factor, while the integrated DRAMless Silicon Motion SM2258XT controller does come with support for TRIM command and Garbage Collection technology.

In order to show the speed drop aspect, we have transferred no less than 168GB to the drive; while the first stage of the copy process occurred at respectable (near MLC Flash) speeds, the SLC buffer did fill up so we have effectively started to write straight to the TLC portion of the packages. In our test, the speed stabilized to about 79.6MB/s:

The HD Tune Pro Write Test does show the times when the SLC cache kicks in (quite frequently):

The Silicon Power A55 256GB drive can be found online for about 86 Euros, while the 128GB model can be picked up for about 51.54 Euros; the 512GB and 1TB models are not yet priced.

Silicon Power A55 256GB 3D NAND SSD is Recommended for:

We would like to thank again to Silicon Power for making this review possible!