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