Thursday, October 3, 2013

Crucial 256GB m4 mSATA CT256M4SSD3 - Review

Overview
The advent of Solid State Drives is a revolution in data storage technology. The revolutionary mSATA (mini-SATA) design was first introduced by Samsung and was later accepted as a standard that served as a new category of SATA storage devices. Measuring merely 1.2" X 2" in size, the 256GB Crucial m4 mSATA CT256M4SSD3 comes both with capacity and performance packed together. Currently, the mSATA SSDs are available in the market mainly for the Ultrabooks and other high-end gaming laptops. The Crucial m4 256GB mSATA SSD helps speed up the booting process dramatically, besides being added up as an additional storage capacity.

Performance
The Crucial m4 mSATA CT256M4SSD3 comes with the Marvell 9174 controller, 4 NAND Flash chips and a Cache which deliver indisputable performance. The performance of Crucial m4 mSATA is superior than it's competitors at a much lower price. The results emphasized the speed and efficiency of reading and writing data, copying the data from one location to another on the SSD. It can deliver a sequential read up to 500 Mb/s and sequential write up to 260 Mb/s. Installing the mSATA SSD has significantly improved the long-term performance of the Ultrabook.

Flexibility
Unlike the traditional IDE or SATA drives, the Crucial M4 SSDs tiny form factor with the 7 pin connector helps you mount the drive quickly into the mini-SATA socket provided on the motherboard additionally helping in saving considerable amount space. The Crucial's 256GB mSATA SSD is an excellent choice for people who wish to add extra storage while choosing value and fair price. The Crucial m4 SSDs have always been trusted for their sturdy design and for the performance, and have constantly lived up to their name in the digital market.

Reliability
The Crucial m4, being a division of the famed Micron, a chip manufacturing company promises reliability even at a higher and faster transfer rates. The Crucial M4 mSATA CT256M4SSD3 comes with a mini-PCIe Edge connector and complies with the JEDEC MO-300A standards. Most SSD manufacturers use the Marvell host controller due to its cost effective solutions for connecting Serial ATA (SATA) peripherals to a PCI Express interface. This SSD does not differentiate between compressed and uncompressed files, due to which the transfer rates are much higher. It is specially designed to work with the Intel® Smart Response Technology and NVELO Dataplex™ caching software to work both as a cache and an additional storage chip.

Our opinion
Micron's proprietary firmware and fast synchronous MLC NAND have made the Crucial m4 SSD stay on top of the market consistently. The Crucial m4 mSATA CT256M4SSD3 is a mix of good performance, high capacity 6gb/s interface, speedy, relatively low price compared to its competitors and a 3 year warranty. Its minuscule form factors along with the faster read and write speeds, robust performance make it a  truly unique component.  If you are looking for boosting the capacity of your Ultrabook, then the CT256M4SSD3 is the best option. It is available in 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB capacities. 

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