Apacer ssd as350 panther 512gb review

Originally posted by Midnight Fawn

https://avidityid.com/apacer-as340-panther-120-gb-2-5-ssd-unboxing-review

“Conclusion

Apacer AS340

Overall, the product’s presentation is awesome. With affordable price/GB ratio, this SSD is actually worth it. With standard 2.5″ size, it can fit most desktops, laptops and notebooks today. Although Apacer claims the AS340 SSD is able to reach its read up to 505 MB/s and write up to 410 MB/s, practical use and benchmark will not actually reach that high. It’ll probably reach around 200 – 400 MB/s. But hey, at least it’ll be much faster than the traditional HDD speed, even the 7200 rpm one”

Found a review for this, albeit from 2016:”ConclusionApacer AS340Overall, the product’s presentation is awesome. With affordable price/GB ratio, this SSD is actually worth it. With standard 2.5″ size, it can fit most desktops, laptops and notebooks today. Although Apacer claims the AS340 SSD is able to reach its read up to 505 MB/s and write up to 410 MB/s, practical use and benchmark will not actually reach that high. It’ll probably reach around 200 – 400 MB/s. But hey, at least it’ll be much faster than the traditional HDD speed, even the 7200 rpm one”

Apacer introduced the AS350 Panther solid-state drive, beginning (we hope) with a 120 GB variant. Built in the 7 mm-thick 2.5-inch form-factor with SATA 6 Gb/s interface, the drive features 120 GB of TLC NAND flash memory. It offers sequential transfer rates of up to 440 MB/s reads, with up to 125 MB/s writes, and 4K random access performance of up to 26,000 IOPS. The drive could take up an entry-level price-point, and is backed by a 3-year warranty.

#1 DeathtoGnomes

so the fancy cover meant to be mounted behind a window. :banghead:

Posted on Jul 4th 2017, 15:09 Reply #2 Nuckles56

That thing is so very fast, I love native TLC speeds for my SSD

Posted on Jul 4th 2017, 15:17 Reply #3 RejZoR

125MB writes… I know they aren’t that important, but c’mon, it’s been years since we’ve maxxed SATA3 and yet they still release garbage like this. One would expect all SATA SSD’s without exception to be reaching 500+ in both directions, be it cheap or top end. This is just lazy and unless this costs like 50€ for 512GB, it’s worthless pile of crap.

Posted on Jul 4th 2017, 15:40 Reply #4 blobster21

RejZoR125MB writes… I know they aren’t that important, but c’mon, it’s been years since we’ve maxxed SATA3 and yet they still release garbage like this. One would expect all SATA SSD’s without exception to be reaching 500+ in both directions, be it cheap or top end. This is just lazy and unless this costs like 50€ for 512GB, it’s worthless pile of crap.

Totally agree with this ! Same performances as those cheap Kingdian knock-off i bought from aliexpress last month !

Totally agree with this ! Same performances as those cheap Kingdian knock-off i bought from aliexpress last month !

Posted on Jul 4th 2017, 16:30 Reply #5 silentbogo

Unless it’s in $35 ballpark, there is no reason to even look at it.
With Apacer’s current pricing they are losing to almost every brand in ” best bang for the buck”, or even “as cheap as it gets” categories.
Heck, nowadays you can get 3D NAND drives with 500/400 RW in $60 range, or a decent 120-128GB MLC for $50-$60 or so.

Posted on Jul 4th 2017, 18:35 Reply #6 bonehead123

cheap is as cheap does 😀

And ize got nuthin mo to say bout dat !

Posted on Jul 4th 2017, 22:32 Reply #7 OneMoar

There is Always Moar

this is only marginally less terrible looking then the assault stapler
its also overpriced

Posted on Jul 5th 2017, 11:50 Reply

Alright, so when you dress up an SSD in a Panther skin, you just know the manufacturer forfeited and is covering something else. After yesterdays stapler release, Apacer now also offers AS350 Panther Themed SSD. 

The TLC nand based unit has okay read speeds, but the write perf is rated at 125 MB/sec with IOPs  (4K Random Write) at a very low 26.900 IOPS. From what i could tell only a 120 GB version is available, which explains the low write perf (they use likely just two NAND ICs, limiting the data-channels and this write perf). TLC is very susceptible to that. 

The SSD has advanced wear leveling, 72bit / 1KB ECC, TRIM and NCQ functions. Power consumption is rated at 275 mA  (active) and 80 mA at idle. It’s impact resistance is 1,500 G / 0.5 ms. The external dimensions are W 69.9 × L 100 × H 7 mm, weight 60 g. MTBF is 1.5 million hours, product warranty is 3 years.

Apacer AS350 512GB

SSD in Bangladesh

Apacer AS350 512GB SSD comes with SATA Rev 3.0 (6Gb/s) interface, 2.5″ form factor. The Apacer AS350 512GB SSD is using the new generation transferring interface which has excellent transferring efficiency and compatibility to satisfy requirements from any kind of motherboard, notebook and embedded device. This will shock the industry and boost your computer to the next level in storage performance. It is also is able to accelerate the processing speed of consumer’s computer. This Apacer AS350 512GB SSD also provides the best data reading 560MB/s and writing speed 540MB/s with lowers power consumption. Its silent operation brings users a higher working efficiency. Although most PCs have poor performance, it is not caused by their CPU. It is because their hard disk accessing speed is too slow. Therefore, upgrading to Apacer AS350 512GB SSD is not only your smartest choice, but it also brings new speed to your PC by speeding up its boot/shutdown time and enhancing multi-tasking performance. This Apacer AS350 512GB SSD also has 0℃ ~ 70℃ Operation Temperature, 0°C to 55°C / 5% ~ 95% RH,non‐condensing Relative Humidity, 1500G Shock test, 1,500,000 hours MTBF.

ENJOY THE DECENT READING SPPED

Apacer AS350 512GB SSD operates at SATA III interface with the sequential read and write speed of up to 540MB/s, making it a perfect companion for budding gamers on a budget.

EFFECTIVELY ELIMINATES POWER CONSUMPTION

Operates with low power, 95% less than.conventional computer hard drives.

OPTIMIZED DURABILITY AND EXCELLENT PERFORMANCE AT HIGH STABILITY

Apacer AS350 512GB SSD has an extended life with improved operation stability, maintaining thep.erformance highly efficiency even after long-term usage.

A new budget friendly SSD was launched by Apacer, but can this Panther provide a speedy performance?

Nowadays the SSD has become one of the essential components for PCs, as it can provide faster loading speeds. But with the SSD being a new component, prices are higher than a conventional hard disk drive, but the flaw of the SSD is that it has less capacity. But now with newer SSDs coming out, some are providing bigger space and prices are becoming cheaper than before. Now Apacer has launched their newest line of SSD, which includes the AS340 Panther that is aimed for entry-level consumers with a tight budget. But can the Panther give a very impressive performance for its price tag?

Here is the specifications of the AS340 Panther:

• Interface: SATA III 6Gb/s
• NAND Flash Type: TLC
• Sustained Read Performance(MB/sec):
  • 120GB: Up to 500MB/s
  • 240GB: Up to 505MB/s
• Sustained Write Performance(MB/sec):
  • 120GB: Up to 375MB/s
  • 240GB: Up to 410MB/s
• ECC Support: Up to 72bit/1KB
• Shock: 1500G
• Vibration: 7~800Hz, 3.08Grms
• Low Power Consumption: 350mA (max.)
• MTBF: 1,500,000 Hours
• Humidity: 5% to 95%
• Standard Operating Temperature: 0 ℃ to +70 ℃
• Storage Temperature: -40°C to +85°C
• Dimensions: (L)100 x (W)69.9 x (H)7mm

As for the design, the AS340 Panther has nothing fancy in it, just the usual SSD design and with a leopard-like texture on the top panel along with the Panther logo in gold. It has three holes for screws to be place when placed to be mounted inside the PC.

As for the performance, we conducted a series of tests on the Panther and see how well it performs. After conducting some tests with the CrystalDiskMark, so far the results were really good, it’s reading and writing speed can go around 220MB/s and 170MB/s. Then we tested with another benchmark tool called HD Tune to find out its transfer speeds, and it still provide great results as it maintained an average of 180 MB/s.

 

When tested for loading speeds, it can load the Adobe Photoshop in just 3 seconds and loading a Windows 8.1 from boot up to the windows screen was just at around 4-5 seconds. Loading speed on games are also faster when compared to HDDs, as it can provide around 40% faster loading speeds.

Overall, the Apacer AS340 Panther is a decent SSD that can provide great performance with a less expensive price tag. Users who are considering to shift to an SSD for their operating systems may prefer on getting this as their first SSD and even to those who are looking for an entry level drive.

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Once known as the toy for the loaded enthusiasts, SSD nowadays has become more affordable with the introduction of the lower cost MLC and TLC NAND Flash, at the cost of lower durability compared to a SLC NAND Flash. Paired with a proper memory controller, a TLC NAND Flash SSD is able to deliver a performance close to a higher-end MLC NAND Flash SSD, at a beefy read and write speed of 500 MB/s.

In today’s review, we will be taking a closer look at the gaming oriented budget SSD from Apacer, the AS340 Panther 240GB SSD – special thanks Apacer for making this review possible. Aimed for gamers on budget, the Apacer AS340 Panther SSD retails at a very affordable price of NT$ 1190 (approximately RM155) for the 120GB variant and NT$ 1990 (approximately RM260) for the 240GB variant.

Specifications

Unboxing

Apacer’s Panther lineup as well know, offers cost efficient memory products such as memory kit and SSD for the entry level users. Allows your PC to run like a panther, an impression which Apacer wanted to embedded into to the end user’s mind when they upgrade their current mechanical hard drive to the AS340 Panther SSD.

At the back of the box, you’ll find a brief description on the OS compatibility, notice on the actual capacity along with a proper explanation of it, etc. Apacer didn’t specifically mention the read and write speed of the AS340 Panther SSD on the packaging, but just so you know, the 120GB variant is capable of 500 MB/s read and 375 MB/s write, and the 240GB variant is capable of 505 MB/s read and 410 MB/s write.

Apacer AS340 Panther SSD comes in the same design as its predecessor, the AS330, which its design remind us of the skin texture of a lizard.

The back of the enclosure is the label sticker with the SSD’s product serial number, model name, capacity and a fair warning of not to tamper with the seal on the enclosure.

Anvil’s Storage Utilities

By far the most complete SSD Benchmark utility available. The Anvil’s Storage Utilities not only comes with the standard SSD Benchmark function, it also includes other functions such as endurance testing and threaded I/O read, write and mixed tests and option to configure the compressibility of the test data.

AS SSD Benchmark

Widely used SSD benchmarking utility that uses incompressible data to simulate the worst possible scenario for an SSD and thus giving a much lower sequential read and write speed result than what has been stated by the manufacturer as a result of the heavy workload.

CrystalDiskMark

Developed by a Japanese coder that goes by the nickname Hiyohiyo, CrystalDiskMark is one of the most frequent used SSD Benchmark utility to measure SSD’s read and write performance.

ATTO Disk Benchmark

The most frequently used benchmarking utility by many manufacturers for performance specification. As ATTO Disk Benchmark uses compressible data rather than compressible data, it results in higher benchmark scores. We’ve run the benchmark with transfer size ranged from 0.5KB to 8192KB and a total length of the test to be 256MB.

Real World Performance

We’ve run several test using several SSD with at least 40% capacity occupied with various commonly used software to simulate the real world scenario.

The Apacer AS340 as we can see from the chart above, manage to get the job done pretty well even if it’s not the fastest SSD in the list. With 69% of its total capacity occupied, the Apacer AS340 managed to pull it off with a pretty decent performance across the real world performance test we have conducted.

Final Thoughts

While it’s not the fastest SSD in the market, the Apacer AS340 Panther SSD is still a pretty solid performer that is able to fulfill the needs of most users who is looking for a performance boost for their system, especially those who is on a tight budget – given that it’s backed by a standard 3-year warranty and a very competitive pricing of NT$ 1190 (approximately RM155) for the 120GB model and NT$ 1990 (approximately RM260) for the 240GB model.

• Pros
  • Very competitive pricing
  • Decent performance
  • Comes with a standard 3-year warranty
• Cons
  • No extra accessories provided
  • No technical specifications on the box
  • Doesn’t comes with any SSD software