Accessories: 3 out of 5
If there is one blatantly obvious weak link in the SC740 product stack it is the accessories they all come with. While it is indeed true the SC740 does ‘come with’ an integrated USB cable and does ‘come with’ an integrated USB clip to secure said cable while in transit… both are not perfect. Bluntly put this combination darn near doubles the length of this device when the cable is in its ‘secured’ or ‘travel’ position. Considering this is already a rather long drive to begin with AData may want to revisit this deign and move the clip further downward on the chassis… and… maybe think about including some free software to sweeten the deal a wee bit?
Read performance: 30 out 30
We loath giving perfect scores, and yet with reads that peak at twice (in ATTO, but “only” 160 to 180 percent in CDM and AS-SSD) what this drive is rated for it is kind of hard to knock the read performance.
Write performance: 35 out of 35
Once again, it is hard to believe how much faster at writing the SC740 is in the real world compared to what it is rated for… and while we do wonder what is going on with the specifications vs. hardware of the SC740 it is kinda hard to complain about getting more than what you pay for.
Warranty: 8 out of 10
While they are not the only company doing 5-year warranties on their external storage solutions, for example, MSI now routinely offers 5 years, most are not. Most companies consider three years going above and beyond the ‘industry standard’ one-year warranty period. So while AData’s RMA process is not the best we have ever used it is not the worst by any stretch of the imagination. Thus when you combine an excellent warranty period with an average RMA process the end result is still above average. Still room for improvement, but rather good overall.
Value: 15 out of 20
There is no getting around the fact that the SC740 is going to be controversial. Right now it is an insanely good deal. One where you get great performing drive housed inside a good (and easily moddable into an excellent) chassis that is then backstopped by a very good warranty. On the other hand… AData has made it clear they only guarantee 1050MB/s performance levels. This is another way of saying “silent upgrades” may occur without warning in the future. Hell they may already have. As such one is taking a risk on paying $75 for a USB 10Gbps drive and hoping they get 20Gbps performance. We have split the difference and called it 16 but highly doubt many will agree. Most will either consider it a phenomenal 20 out of 20 or a mediocre 10 out 20. Adjust your final score accordingly.
Final Score: 93 out of 100
Based on the performance our sample exhibited throughout testing the AData SC740 1TB is easily the best value portable storage device going. It is a hidden gem. It is gong to be a cult classic. It hopefully will not randomly (and silently) change in the future… but probably will. As such we recommend picking one of these boys up while they are still red hot!
