Introduction
The ADATA SC740 1TB External SSD Storage device is a small, compact, efficient all-in-one external storage drive for portability with a built-in USB Type-C cable that’s all the time attached. The ADATA SC740’s claim to fame can be its 1.22m MIL-STD drop resistance, allowing it to survive accidental drops and jarring for outdoor environments, or people on the go. The ADATA SC740 is a USB 3.2 Gen2 SSD rated at a read/write speeds of as much as 1,050MB/s read and 1,000MB/s writes over a 10Gbps Type-C interface. It is available in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB capacities for portable storage.
ADATA is a well known manufacturer of memory, storage, and computer cases since 2001. Under ADATA’s consumer External SSDs/External Hard Drives, you’ll find many forms of external storage with different interface options, capacities, form aspects, and performances. ADATA’s external storage lineup, the “SC” line consists of the SC730, SC740, and SC750, all are USB 3.2 Gen2 10Gbps drives; the SC740 is a brand new drive. The drives vary by form factor, use case, and performance. The SC740 is among the many fastest of the SC series.
ADATA SC740 1TB External SSD
At its heart, the ADATA SC740 has a quoted and rated performance of as much as 1,050MB/s read and 1,000MB/s write. It relies on a USB 3.2 Gen2 10Gbps interface, using a Type-C connector. This makes it compatible with devices like game consoles, portable laptops, and even mobile devices like phones with iPhone 16 support, and supports multiple operating systems. It is available in capacities of 500GB, 1TB and 2TB. It has a rugged operating temperature from 5c (41F) as much as 50c (122F).
The ADATA SC740 has two unique features, the primary is the built-in transfer cable. The Type-C connector cable is all the time attached to the USB and is stored in a convenient clip on the backside, folded up when not in use. It may well be unclipped and provides 5″ (inches) of extension length. The opposite claim to fame is the indisputable fact that the ADATA SC740 meets the MIL-STD-810G 516.6 impact resistance standard to survive accidental drops and jarring. The MIL-STD-810G 516.6 standard means the device has passed drop-testing from a height of 1.22 meters.
On the box, you’ll find the speed rating specified, in addition to the interface connection type, which is vital, and the capability. There may be also a logo to point that this SSD will work with the PS5 and XBOX Series X and S. Free backup software may be downloaded from ADATA that may work with this SSD. Otherwise, contained in the box is a straightforward manual and the drive itself.
Above, you’ll be able to see a screenshot from CrystalDiskInfo. The ADATA SC740 runs utilizing the UASP Serial ATA interface, not NVMe. That is akin to a SATA SSD, though faster because it is running UASP (USB Attached SCSI Protocol) over a USB Type-C 10Gbps interface. The ADATA SC740 was pre-formatted in an exFAT partition with a 128MB reserved partition. We were in a position to delete partitions, and format into NTFS as well, and it must be noted that exFAT cannot run the TRIM command; you’ll need to format to NTFS for that functionality.
We’re testing the ADATA SC740 1TB External SSD on an ASRock X870E Taichi Motherboard with an AMD Ryzen 9 9950X, and the external storage device is connected via the USB4 40Gbps Type-C connector.
Throughput Benchmarks
CrystalDiskMark
In CrystalDiskMark we’re achieving a result beyond the quoted and rated performance. In CrystalDiskMark the ADATA SC740 1TB External SSD is providing 2,114MB/s read and 1,849MB/s sequential write performance, despite the drive being quoted and rated at 1,050MB/s read and 1,000MB/s write performance. This performance result exceeds expectations by quite a bit, and really puts it into a very good light on performance.
It was shocking to see it so fast; nevertheless, the result’s true, and we tried it many alternative ways to confirm, in addition to on different USB ports. We even searched the net for other SC740 reviews and verified that our result does match other reviews as well, so evidently the ADATA SC740 1TB External SSD consistently performs faster in CrystalDiskMark sequential testing across the board for all reviews. We aren’t going to complain; faster is all the time higher. Within the random performance, we’re getting 300MB/s for Q32T16 read and 351MB/s for Q32T16 write. For random Q1T1, we’re getting 32MB/s read and 63MB/s write performance.
ATTO
In ATTO, we’re hitting a maximum of 1.98GB/s read and 1.71GB/s write, again exceeding the quoted and rated performance, which backs up the CrystalDiskMark results.
System Storage Benchmarks
3DMark
Not that you just would use the ADATA SC740 1TB External SSD as a primary gaming SSD, but we went ahead and ran 3DMark’s storage benchmark for the sake of it. The overall or overall rating was 1,172, which, naturally, is low, as expected. For comparison, the ADATA SE920 scored 2,060. The latency or average access times are quite low as well, for a primary gaming SSD, so we wouldn’t use this for gaming directly off of, but fairly for storage.
PCMark 10
The general PCMark quick system drive benchmark result was 1,068, which can be a low performance number in comparison with internal M.2 NVMe SSDs, or faster external drives just like the ADATA SE920. The ADATA SE920, for instance, scored 2,328 on this benchmark. The common access time was 130 here, and the ADATA SC920 was 55, so quite a giant difference.
PassMark PerformanceTEST
In PassMark PerformanceTEST Disk Mark, the entire rating was 13,170, which puts it within the 43% percentile. For this drive, that’s a very good rating, but in comparison with an NVMe-level performance from the ADATA SE920, you’ll find that it scores 31,375 within the 80% percentile.
Disk Copy & Gaming
DiskBench
With DiskBench, we are going to run 4 different tests. First, we place a 1GB single file onto the test drive. We copy this file from the test drive to a brand new folder on the test drive, volume to volume. This tests the performance of the drive’s ability to repeat a single large file from itself to itself, as if you happen to were copying files on the identical drive; it replicates this drive being your primary and only drive. Then we are going to do the identical thing with a 10GB file, a 50GB file, and a 100GB file.
Within the screenshots above, the time for file copy is in milliseconds, and we are going to start with the 1GB file to the very left, then 10GB, then 50GB, and eventually 100GB on the very right. The 1GB file copy was very fast, and consistent at lower than a second, at 0.977 seconds. The 10GB file copy was also consistent, and took 9.1 seconds at its fastest. Performance does start to actually decelerate once we hit the 50GB mark on this 1TB SSD, it takes 81 seconds or 1.3 minutes to repeat, in order that one you actually begin to feel it now. The 100GB file takes anywhere from 2.7 minutes as much as 3.2 minutes, and we begin to lose consistency run-to-run.
Within the file copy test above, we’re copying the massive 100GB file from our primary C: drive, which is an internal M.2 NVMe SSD (CORSAIR MP700 PRO with Air Cooler 2TB PCIe Gen5), to the ADATA SC740. In the primary screenshot, the ADATA SC740 is formatted within the default partition of exFAT, and we will see that we’re indeed hitting the quoted and rated speed of 1.05GB/s, so for this particular copy test, it is just not exceeding the speed like CrystalDiskMark showed. Within the second screenshot (right), we now have re-formatted the drive in NTFS and run TRIM before doing the test. The performance has now increased barely to 1.10GB/s-1.15GB/s on this file copy, so only a slight increase, but still near the rated speed.
Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Benchmark
In Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail Benchmark, the common total loading time was 8.682 seconds. Should you compare this with the ADATA SE920, it took 6.519 seconds, so the SC740 is slower, but not majorly slower; still, a marked and noticeable difference in performance.
Cooling
The goal of our temperature testing is to push the SSDs as hard as possible by performing a stress test of read and write. We run PerformanceTESTS’s advanced disk benchmark with a 10GB file, set to run each read/write test for two iterations, culminating in a 20-minute run. This is just not typical usage behavior, but our goal is to seek out the utmost limits of the cooling. We utilize HWiNFO64 for reporting SSD temperatures.
The ADATA SC740 1TB External SSD reached a maximum temperature of as much as 81c based on HWiNFO64, and this tests the interior drive ASIC or composite temperature. While this is sort of a warm temperature, the drive has a sturdy temperature range it may well operate inside for this construct, and we didn’t detect any thermal throttling. The outer case does get quite hot at this temperature. Should you are going to be pounding on this SSD with constant writes, we recommend using it in a cool environment. Otherwise, it should work positive outside, on the go, especially in shorter bursts or with smaller file sizes; it won’t have any problem in harsh environments.
ADATA SSD ToolBox
Conclusion
The ADATA SC740 1TB External SSD Storage is a small portable SSD that is available in capacities of 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB. It has a rated performance of as much as 1,050MB/s sequential read and 1,000MB/s sequential write, for on-the-go performance utilizing a USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C 10Gbps connector. This makes it very compatible with the likes of gaming consoles, and mobile devices, in addition to, after all, laptops, notebooks, and desktop PCs. It is de facto the ‘on-the-go’ nature of this SSD that almost all of its form factor and features are designed for.
The ADATA SC740 1TB External SSD Storage offers an all the time attached 5″ cable that folds in and clips onto the backside. This makes it compact and in a position to be stored away in a short time when not in use. Then, you’ll be able to simply grab it, extend the cable, and plug it into whatever device you would like in any environment. The opposite notable feature is the MIL-STD-810G 516.6 impact resistance standard, allowing it to resist drops as much as 1.22 meters. It has a plastic shell, but rubberized grips.
Final Points
In our performance testing, the ADATA SC740 1TB External SSD Storage device performed extremely well, exceeding its specified performance. In CrystalDiskMark, we experienced speeds twice that of what it says it must be doing, delivering as much as 2,114MB/s of read performance, and 1,849MB of sequential write performance, well beyond the 1,050MB/s / 1,000MB/s it says it must be doing. This was also backed up within the ATTO benchmark. Hey, we aren’t complaining, and the result does appear to be consistent with other reviews; it’s just faster, and that’s nice. It also wasn’t a slouch in random performance, though it does suffer greater than an NVMe SSD, but we’re talking about an SSD that’s closer to SATA in spirit, though utilizing UASP.
When it comes to the general system drive benchmarks, the outcomes were as expected in 3DMark and PCMark 10, in addition to PassMark. The ADATA SC740 does perform well for its class, beyond well the truth is, but it may well’t compare to NVMe-based external SSDs in performance, but that isn’t the purpose, after all. It did well on the file copy testing, with consistent performance as much as about 50GB files in size. Once we reached to the 100GB file size, consistency run-to-run began to diminish, and the drive progressively gets slower on this 1TB capability drive; the 2TB model would suffer less of this, perhaps as much as a bigger file size. When copying from a quick NVMe to this drive, we consistently hit the 1.05-1.15GB/s write performance range that was quoted.
The ADATA SC740 1TB External SSD is just not going to be utilized as a primary gaming drive, for a DIY desktop PC, but that isn’t its goal anyway. It’s going to, nevertheless, work thoroughly for laptop or notebook storage on the go, or cell phone devices, in addition to a gaming console extra storage if needed, but we wouldn’t primarily use it for that.
We found that the ADATA SC740 1TB External SSD does appear to have what it must perform in additional extreme outdoor environments, or areas where things might get dropped or shuffled around quite a bit. Our only gripe is the plastic nature of the SSD. While the rubberized bits feel nice, the remaining of it feels a bit hole, light, and well, plastic-y; it really could use just a little more weight to it. The ADATA SC740 1TB External SSD is the type of drive you don’t should worry about damaging as much if you happen to move around quite a bit, or are continually storing and bringing out devices when you are on the move.
Should you are out there for a compact, efficient little drive for external storage and wish that robustness, with performance for quick storage, give the ADATA SC740 1TB External SSD Storage device a glance.