Idle Power Consumption

Many SATA drives are getting close to the limits of what our equipment can measure for power consumption. It's hard to build a meter than has sub-milliwatt accuracy and can withstand the high peak currents drawn by devices like high-performance PCIe drives. Our test rig can't measure the deepest power saving modes (DevSlp), but we can look for any red flags that the intermediate modes aren't working.

Idle Power Consumption (HIPM+DIPM)

At this point in the review, it's obvious that the M6V has no trouble keeping power consumption down. There is technically room for improvement here, but not enough to matter.

TRIM Validation

A drive that didn't correctly implement the ATA TRIM command would be very surprising to find today, but it's a quick enough check. This test also demonstrates that, for better or worse, files that are deleted cannot be easily recovered.

ATTO & AS-SSD Final Words
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  • eek2121 - Tuesday, October 13, 2015 - link

    PCIE SSDs? Can you find me one with 500 gb storage for $169? The market isn't there yet. PCIE SSDs are in the minority and the price premium is still too high. The performance difference is minimal, especially for casual users.
  • Denithor - Tuesday, October 13, 2015 - link

    How's $173? Amazon has the Crucial MX200 500GB drive at this price point. And if you had asked yesterday, it was on sale for $140.

    http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX200-500GB-Internal...
  • coolhardware - Tuesday, October 13, 2015 - link

    I believe he was referring to any type of PCIe SSDs such as http://amzn.to/1Naj0E2 (Intel 400GB) or a M.2 drive, not a SATA drive as per your link (Crucial 500GB).
  • Luke212 - Tuesday, October 13, 2015 - link

    You mean in your circumstances. Most laptops dont support M.2 PCIe. So we are stuck buying M.2 Sata or 2.5" Sata.
  • SmokingCrop - Tuesday, October 13, 2015 - link

    HDD is too slow for OS/programs and PCIe is too expensive.
    SATA SSD's is the sweet spot in between.
  • usernametaken76 - Thursday, October 15, 2015 - link

    Some people have older systems and would like to freshen them without replacing the thing, you know? Not everyone can utilize PCIe storage (laptops for instance) and not everyone wants the drawbacks of spinning HDD storage. That's the nice thing about choice, dj_aris doesn't get to make the choice for everyone.
  • Denithor - Monday, October 12, 2015 - link

    And today only (10/12) the Crucial BX100 250GB drive is on sale at Amazon for $64. So this could make the whole question of best value for price moot, if you move quickly.

    :)
  • coolhardware - Tuesday, October 13, 2015 - link

    Ordered one myself! Currently Amazon's #1 selling SSD. http://amzn.to/1VPK7vk The 500GB drives are a nice price too.

    Just imagine, in a few years we should be able to get 2TB and 4TB+ for a fairly low price. That will be AWESOME.
  • nmm - Monday, October 12, 2015 - link

    I guess I can understand the compulsion to build a better SATA SSD if you're not already the market leader in SATA SSD's. It's much cheaper than plunging into uncharted territory. I do find it a little puzzling that there isn't more movement in the M.2/U.2 market. Seems like it would get tiresome constantly bumping up against the limits of the protocol for years on end.
  • Gigaplex - Monday, October 12, 2015 - link

    If these lower end SSD manufacturers targeted a faster protocol using tech that can't fully utilise SATA3, it's likely to be an uncompetitive product.

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