ADATA Legend 710

The ADATA Legend 710 is a 2TB PCIe Gen3 NVMe drive aimed at budget builders and older systems. Its 2,400 MB/s read and 1,800 MB/s write speeds are middle of the pack, but random performance is surprisingly strong for a DRAM-less drive. Pricing varies wildly, from $210 in the US to EUR 363-462 in Europe, so shop carefully. It's a decent buy at the low end of the price range, but Gen4 drives make more sense if you're paying premium prices.

The sequential numbers are solid for Gen3. 2,400 MB/s read and 1,800 MB/s write put this drive right around the middle of the pack for speed, which sounds underwhelming until you remember that Gen3's theoretical ceiling is about 3,500 MB/s. In real-world terms, you're looking at game load times and file transfers that feel fast but not dramatically different from a SATA SSD in day-to-day use. The jump from a hard drive is massive. The jump from a good SATA SSD is noticeable but not life-changing.

Random performance is where this drive actually shines a bit more. 200K random read IOPS and 150K random write IOPS land it in the upper quarter of drives we've tested. That's better than the sequential numbers suggest, and it matters more for everyday responsiveness. Opening apps, booting Windows, multitasking with a dozen browser tabs, that's all random I/O. The DRAM-less design usually hurts here, but ADATA's controller choice seems to compensate reasonably well. The Realtek RTS5766DL isn't a name that gets enthusiasts excited, but it's doing decent work keeping this drive snappy in real use.

The competitors listed for this drive are an interesting bunch. The Samsung 9100 PRO, Micron T710, Crucial T710, Lexar NM1090 PRO, and WD_BLACK SN7100 are all Gen4 or Gen5 drives. That's not really a fair fight in terms of raw speed. Those drives will absolutely demolish the Legend 710 in sequential benchmarks, often doubling or tripling the read and write speeds. But they also cost significantly more, and if your system can't take advantage of Gen4 or Gen5 speeds, you're paying for performance you'll never see.

The more realistic comparison is against other Gen3 drives in the same price bracket. Against something like a Crucial P3 or a WD Blue SN570, the Legend 710 holds its own. The random performance is actually better than many budget Gen3 drives, and the included heatsink is a genuine differentiator. The trade-off is the shorter warranty and the lack of brand recognition. ADATA isn't Samsung or WD when it comes to storage mindshare, and the tiny review count doesn't help. If you want peace of mind and a longer warranty, a WD or Crucial drive might be worth a few extra bucks. If you want the most storage for the least money with a heatsink thrown in, the Legend 710 makes a case for itself.

Here's where things get a little weird. The Legend 710 is positioned as a budget drive, but the pricing across vendors is all over the place. In the US, you're looking at $210 to $220, which is reasonable for 2TB of NVMe storage. But in Europe, the spread is wild. EUR 363 to EUR 462 depending on where you shop. That's a EUR 99 difference for the exact same drive. If you're in Spain, France, or Italy, you absolutely need to shop around before buying. The cheapest listing we found is nearly a hundred euros less than the most expensive one.

At the low end of that range, the value proposition is decent. You're getting 2TB of TLC NAND with a heatsink and hardware encryption for roughly what you'd pay for a bare budget drive without those extras. At the high end, it's a much harder sell. Once you're paying EUR 400+ for a Gen3 drive, you're in territory where Gen4 drives with dramatically better sequential performance start looking very attractive. The CAD 549 and GBP 315 prices also feel steep for what this drive offers. If you can find it at the lower end of the price range, it's a reasonable deal. If you're seeing the higher prices, keep looking.

The ADATA Legend 710 is one of those drives that makes you do a double take. It's a 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD with a heatsink, hardware encryption, and a price tag that sits in budget territory. On paper, it looks like a steal. But the specs tell a more interesting story once you dig in. This is a PCIe Gen3 drive in a world that's rapidly moving to Gen4 and Gen5, and ADATA isn't pretending otherwise. They're aiming this squarely at people who need capacity and decent speed without paying a premium for bleeding-edge performance.

Who's this for? Budget builders, laptop upgraders, and anyone who wants to add a big chunk of fast storage to an older system. If your motherboard tops out at PCIe 3.0, you're not leaving performance on the table by skipping a Gen4 drive. The Legend 710's 2,400 MB/s read and 1,800 MB/s write speeds are right at the ceiling of what Gen3 can do. That's the sweet spot here. You get 2TB of TLC NAND, a DRAM-less design that keeps costs down, and enough endurance to last through years of normal use.

What makes this drive interesting is the trade-off ADATA made. They skipped the DRAM cache, which is common for budget drives, but they included a heatsink and hardware encryption. That's a slightly odd combo. The heatsink suggests they expect this in desktops or PS5-style enclosures, while the DRAM-less design is more typical of cheap laptop drives. It's a bit of a mixed signal, but the result is a drive that works fine in both scenarios, just without any single standout strength beyond the price-to-capacity ratio.

If you're building a new system on a modern platform with PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 support, skip this drive. You'd be leaving a lot of performance on the table. A Gen4 drive like the WD_BLACK SN7100 or Crucial T710 will give you dramatically faster sequential speeds for not much more money, especially if you're seeing the higher European prices for the Legend 710. The portability score of 16.5 out of 100 is also a red flag. If you want a drive for an external enclosure or something you'll be moving between systems, this isn't it. Look at something with better thermal characteristics and a more portable-friendly design.

Also skip it if you're the type who worries about warranty coverage. The 3-year warranty is shorter than the 5 years that Samsung, WD, and Crucial typically offer on their drives. With only 7 customer reviews, there's not much of a track record to lean on either. If peace of mind matters more than saving a few bucks, a more established drive from a bigger brand is the safer bet.

For budget builders and anyone still on a PCIe 3.0 platform, the Legend 710 is a perfectly serviceable drive. The 2TB capacity at the lower end of the price range is the main draw, and the random performance is better than you'd expect from a DRAM-less budget drive. The heatsink is a nice bonus if you're putting this in a desktop with limited airflow, and hardware encryption is a feature you rarely see at this price. If you're building a budget gaming rig or upgrading an older laptop, this drive will do the job without complaint.

But if you're on a newer platform with PCIe 4.0 or 5.0 support, or if you're seeing the higher European prices, this drive makes less sense. The sequential speeds are nothing special, the warranty is shorter than what most competitors offer, and the portability score is genuinely bad. This isn't a drive for external enclosures or frequent swapping. It's a set-it-and-forget-it internal drive for systems that can't use faster storage anyway. In that specific niche, it's a reasonable choice. Outside of it, there are better options.