Micron C400 mSATA (128GB) SSD Review
by Anand Lal Shimpi on April 10, 2012 8:00 AM ESTTRIM Performance
To ensure TRIM's functionality and understand the SSD's behavior in a highly fragmented state I wrote sequential data across all user addressable LBAs and then wrote random data (4KB, QD=32) for 20 minutes across all LBAs. Finally I used HDTach to give me a simple visualization of write performance across all available LBAs (aka the Malventano Method):
This pattern is what we've come to expect from the C400/m4. TRIMing the drive completely restores performance of course, but if you're running a highly random workload you're going to see a fairly sharp drop off in performance as the C400/m4 were really only designed for client workloads.
Power Consumption
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shaik umair - Friday, April 20, 2012 - link
ya an can get it.... cal me @ 09032293363..........just pay me rupees 2400 for 128gb and rupess 3300 for 500gbConficio - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
Thanks Anand,for presenting this new technology and testing it out. As it is so new, it would be good to hear what platforms, i.e. laptops, motherboards, extension cards do offer support for this mSATA technology.
Meaker10 - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
I know the new Gene from Asus will and GT60 and GT70 (with the right attachment) MSI notebooks.Penti - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
It's not that new. It's been around a year and some notebooks uses it. There is also mSATA > SATA 2.5" adapters. Some Ultraportables uses mSATA too. Like Dell XPS 13 or HP Folio 13. Those would be kinda hard to upgrade since they are not really serviceable though. But possible and easy to varying kinds of degree.Motherboards and other stuff has started using it too of course. But they appear to be SATA2/300 on the mSATA port only. Not sure what system they use to bench the drives here. Probably using a desktop system with a adapter.
critical_ - Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - link
I've been using an Intel 310 mSATA in my Lenovo W520 (i7-2960XM, 32GB of RAM, nVidia Quadro 2000M w/ 2GB) and it's served me well. I'd love a slightly faster and bigger mSATA drive so the 256GB version may be it for me. I'm a bit confused as to why Intel has not released much larger mSATA drives yet.Penti - Wednesday, April 11, 2012 - link
There are plenty of other vendors though. Micron/Crucial as article, Samsung, SanDisk, even Toshiba and players like OCZ and Plextor/Liteon too. They all have 256GB /mSATA SSD drives. Intel doesn't seem to see them as proper system drives, much of their mSATA lineup is touted against RST, Microsoft ReadyBoost. Like companies such as Kingston, ADATA etc specifically turns against those.Normally many workstation lappys supports mSATA now days, I think the list for some of those goes like Lenovo X220/T420/T420s/W520 (plus others) and on Dell M4500/M4600/M6400/M6500/M6600. Some Toshibas and Sony is also using it.
The 310s are just using 34nm NAND and old Intel controller to begin with. It's all much higher density now. Those larger drives at the time used many more chips and channels to the controller.
Casper42 - Saturday, April 14, 2012 - link
Take a look at the recent Z77 Mobo roundup for the upcoming Ivy Bridge release.Lots of boards there will starts to use it.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Laptops with the same connector in 2 months when Ivy Bridge goes mobile either.
Iketh - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
A refreshingly pleasing article to read :DI couldn't tell by the article if this drive plugs into a pcie slot and you need an adapter for sata or vise versa, or if i'm even sane in thinking this is possible...
Meaker10 - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
mSATA ports are shaped like mini PCI-e ports and are needed to plug these in. They are in some netbooks already and the new wave of intel motherboards will find a few on there.kensiko - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
Considering this SSD would fit well in laptops or ultrabooks, the power consumption is pretty high, too bad.