Usually, when you hit the back of the hall during a large-scale expo, you expect to find a few of the smaller brands strutting their stuff. However, I was completely mistaken when it came to Computex because dominating one of the back corners on the expo floor was the Adata and XPG Gaming booth, with a massive display luring us all in like moths to a flame.
And man, was I glad to be a moth for this one. Not only did we get to catch up with some heavy hitters in the industry, but we also got a glimpse at all the new SSDs, RAM, their cooling counterparts and even a new handheld console coming from out of the Adata factory this year.
As someone who sports dual XPG NVMe drives in my big rig at home, you can bet I was more than excited to see what was on offer.
Here are some of our favourite picks from the booth:
Project Neonstorm SSD:
Project Neonstorm is essentially a dual-cooling system for an SSD, taking full advantage of the PCI-e Gen 5 capabilities on offer. Reaching read speeds of 14GB/s and write speeds of 12GB/s means that this SSD requires some serious cooling, so XPG combined liquid and air cooling to create a thermal system that can dissipate up to 10% more efficiently than traditional air-cooled SSD systems. Plus, only a few things look more badass in a chassis than a liquid cooler on an SSD.
Legend 970 Pro SSD:
For those of us who are still too scared to mix liquids with highly expensive, very electrical tech, Adata has us covered with the Legend 970 Pro, another blazingly fast SSD. It reaches the same read and write speeds as Project Neonstorm: 14GB/s read and 12GB/s write. The Pro edition of this SSD tops out the standard Legend 970 by an additional 4GB/s and 2GB/s, respectively. Utilising a miniature fan coupled with a double-layer aluminium heatsink, the Legend 970 Pro can increase its cooling efficiency by 20% over heatsink-only SSD coolers.
XPG Lancer Neon RGB DDR5 Memory:
XPG’s DDR5 Lancer Neon memory is not only visually stunning, showing off a full, tessellated RGB plate, but it’s also blisteringly quick. Utilising either AMD EXPO or Intel’s XMG technology, users are able to boost the Lancer Neon to a hot and heavy 8000 MT/s while still managing its power, making it more efficient than DDR4. The Lancer Neon modules also feature a 50% recycled materials heatsink and are made with an environmentally friendly in-mold transfer process, making it the first eco-friendly RGB memory module available.
External SSD Selection:
Alongside the crazy internal Gen 5 PCI-e drives on display, Adata also had a slew of external SSDs and USB-C flash drives that tickled our fancy. Starting off with the more traditional-style external drive is the SD810. It is a compact, rugged IP68 portable drive that can reach speeds of up to 2GB/s with USB 3.2 Gen2 x2 and even boasts compatibility with the latest generation of consoles. The SC750 is a USB-C SSD that you can plug directly into your Android or iPhone 15 and is quick enough to capture footage directly to the drive. Weighing in at only 11g, you won’t even know it’s there if you don’t look at it. The SC720 was my favourite of the external drives as it comes with both a USB-C port and a USB-A port. While it might not be as quick as the SC750, at 600MB/s, its versatility makes it an excellent gadget to have in your bag.
XPG NIA:
The handheld gaming industry is flourishing, with brands releasing consoles of their own, hoping to have learnt from the mistakes of the early adopters. XPG is no different here. They teased us with a stunning-looking handheld console that we were unfortunately not allowed to touch, even if we tried to bribe the crew with a NAG magazine. Beneath its plastic protector, the XPG NIA sat in all its glory. Its sliding display sets the NIA apart from the rest of the pack. Gamers can slide the screen into different angles, making it playable even when you’re sitting like a shrimp on the couch. While not yet confirmed, it’s rumoured that this handheld will have an AMD processor, support up to 64GB of RAM, 8TB of disk space, and be modding-friendly.
To watch our jaws drop at the Adata XPG booth at Computex this year, don’t forget to check out our Daily Computex videos on our YouTube channel.