Lite-On S900 SSD 256GB Review

Introduction
Solid state drive (SSD) is much powerful and faster than normal HDD. And it is getting cheaper each day. There is no more reason not to use it on desktop PC. Of course, it is still expensive to use it as large file archive storage. However, it will perform far better as operating system drive because its file access latency is much smaller. Lite-On S900 SSD 256GB (SCS-256L9S) is the star today. It is Lite-On latest consumer SSD which similar to L9S Series – LCS-256L9S (client product for OEM notebook). And its specifications are very similar to Plextor M6S SDD as well. How does LiteOn S900 SSD 256GB perform? Let’s find out…

Packaging and Design

LiteOn S900 SSD 256GB comes with a simple packaging. As you can see from the plastic cover, there are 3 sizes to choose – 64GB (SCS-64L9S), 128GB (SCS-128L9S) and 256GB (SCS-256L9S). As usual, the biggest capacity SSD has the best writing speed. Therefore, always get the highest writing speed if your budget is allowed.

Specifications
Sequential Read / Write – 530 / 420 MB/s
4K Random Read / Write – 94K / 79K IOPS
Host Interface – 6.0 Gb/s (Backward Compatible to 1.5/3.0 Gb/s)
Command Set Support – TRIM, S.M.A.R.T., NCQ, ATA/ATAPI-8, GC
Form Factor – 2.5″ @ 100 x 69.85 x 6.8 mm @ 60g
MTBF – > 1 million hour
Warranty – 3 years

Performance Results
SSD performance is highly depended on your host controller. It performs better on newer and powerful system. Therefore, the results that I have might not be the same as yours. But should not be far on similar system. By the way, here is the system that I use to test 256GB Lite-On S900 SSD – Extreme Gaming & Video Editing Computer System. Lite-On adopts True Speed Technology on their SDDs. It provides highly stabilized long-term performance and to prevent the drastic write speed losses that can occur with SSD. True Speed is designed to prevent dirty-state slowdown with advanced garbage collection and Instant Restore technology. Therefore, these can bring the drive’s performance back to near clean-state level. I did not have the chance to test Lite-On True Speed Technology yet, but TRIM function is working fine here.

CrystalDiskMark is one of my favourite disk benchmark applications. LiteOn S900 shines like a star with 507 MB/s read and 420 MB/s write. Writing speed matches to its specifications while reading is a little slower. Do take note about 4K QD32 test, this is where SSD outperform HDD. As you can see, it gets 383 MB/s read and 316 MB/s write. You won’t get this kind of result on normal HDD.

It manages to get better reading speed in ATTO Disk Benchmark with 523 MB/s while maintaining the writing speed. Good job, Lite-On!

AS SSD Benchmark is the best way to test SSD performance because it includes access time latency which CrystalDiskMark doesn’t have. The smaller value of access time, the faster response to read and write files. Again this is the place where HDD poor at.

HD Tune Pro shows slower result in both reading and writing speed. However, LiteOn S900 performs consistently across all disk space from 0 GB to 256 GB. And having around 375 MB/s burst rate.

PCMark 8 Storage test which based on traces recorded with Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office and a selection of popular games. You can get LiteOn S900 SSD real-world performance here. Wow… The loading speed is a lot faster.

Conclusion
Lite-On S900 SSD 256GB is an affordable SSD with high performance. It may not have highest read and write speed but other SSDs can’t beat its value price. This is the cheapest 256GB high performance SSD that I can find in Malaysia market. Be sure to look for it when planning to buy a new SSD for your desktop or laptop. Interested? Get yours here.