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The Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB arrives in a rather understated, yet attractive box which details the size on the front …
… and the specifications on the back. Yes, it supports Trim, which is always great to see.
The package contains a few information leaflets, a CD with the EZ Gig II Cloning software and a handy Sata to USB 2.0 converter cable.
The Crucial drive is designed in the same sunset coloured scheme as the box packaging. The rear has a serial number and other information on the drive.
The drive chassis is opened by removing four screws on the top side, please be aware if you do this at home you will void your warranty, that is why KitGuru is here … we laugh in the face of warranties.
Above we can see both sides of the Crucial RealSSD PCB. The drive controller is significantly larger than other controllers we have looked at, because it comprises several ARM9 processors which operate in parallel for maximum efficiency. There is also a 128GB DRAM cache on the PCB underbelly.
The Marvell controller is an extremely fast design and as such is going to need a SATA 6Gbps connection to hit its maximum performance, which is a whopping 355MB/s read speed. If you use this drive via a standard 3Gbps port then it is going to be ‘limited' to around 285MB/s. Crucial (Micron) are one of the leading suppliers of memory throughout the world and they are using 16 Micron 16GB modules – 34nm MLC NAND. The NAND is also Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFI) 2.1 certified which is one of the first ever used in a mainstream consumer model and theorectically allows the individual modules to achieve read speeds of 166 MB/s.
The more observant among you will have noticed already that we noted write speeds of around 215MB/s, this is significantly slower than the Sandforce unit which can reach a peak of around 270MB/s. That said, this unit isnt compressing data so it is a remarkable figure to be quoting, many SSD's with a similar design ethic are limited to around 180-190MB/s.
It is worth pointing out before we go any further in the review that the 128GB drive offers a much slower write speed, peaking at around 140MB/s – this is because writing to NAND is strictly dependent on density.
After formatting, there is 238.47GB available.
