INTRODUCTION

   Although we've been trying to focus on bringing some of the latest HDDs, SSDs and USB Flash Drives to hit the market over at NikKTech for testing you might have noticed that we haven't done so with mSATA drives mainly because hardly anyone has asked for such reviews and since we feel we need to test (at least primarily) whatever our readers ask SSDs and HDDs with USB Flash Drives following closely are the things we try most to acquire. However recently some of you asked our opinion about the somewhat new SATA DOM (Disk On Module) drives which are used both in tiny systems and some NAS models (other devices feature such connectors as well) either as boot drives just for the needs of the OS or as storage media for the firmware. Well not many manufacturers make such devices currently and the majority of the ones that do are currently offering them just to system integrators and NAS manufacturers so they are not really available in the market for consumers so the moment Mach Xtreme announced that they are launching their own DIY SATA DOM product line we wasted no time in asking for one to see how it does.

   Mach Xtreme Technology was established in early 2010 and is constructed of a combination of elite professionals who have had years of exceptional exposure and involvement in the storage industry. MX-Technology achieves the highest performance possible through its continuous research & development which ensures rapid advancements of SSD, memory and Flash drives. MX-Technology enable their customers to achieve maximum efficiency with matching performance to make time spent on work more convenient and productive. MX-Technology is the first computer hardware company in the world to join force with renowned world class artist to generate unique and stylish representation of Mach Xtreme. The first artist to work with Mach Xtreme is a genius graffiti artist from Europe named "Does". MX-Technology through their full dedication and commitment, its users will be able to continually enjoy the latest high performance products with ultimate reliability at a competitive price point.

   We've reviewed quite a few NAS Servers here and I’ve used even more in my life but not many really feature a SATA DOM connector (for example the most recent example of a NAS that has is the N5550 by Thecus) so this market seems to be in its infancy. One of the reasons for that is because most NAS Servers use SATA DOM models with capacities of just 1-2GB so there isn't much reasons for manufacturers to take things onto a new level (hopefully since the DIY SATA DOM by Mach Xtreme is available in capacities of up to 64GB and in both MLC and SLC versions this could change soon). On top of that we have tried in the past to benchmark some SATA DOM models found in some NAS Servers without much luck since we were unable to finish all of our tests (some failed from the very first test in Crystal Disk Mark while others failed during the 2nd test in HD Tune Pro). Aside disappointing in terms of durability this is also a large problem for us since without a base performance to compare the new DIY model this review can't be complete (although we did figure out another way as you will see later on). Well the DIY passed all our tests with flying colors and although we never expected it to compare to a regular 2.5" SSD (it's many times smaller) it actually did surprisingly well.