INTRODUCTION

   The entire SSD (solid state drive) market may revolve around M.2 NVMe drives lately (largely thanks to their small form factor and impressive read & write performance numbers) but due to the vast number of consumers with "older" and "incompatible" systems (lacking M.2 ports/slots) SATA III models aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Now as many of you are certainly aware the SATA III interface has been maxed out by SSDs for many years now (at least in terms of maximum data transfer not sustained) but for people looking not to spend much on one or for people who don't have M.2 compatible systems these are pretty much still a one way (PCIex models are also an option but not nearly as popular). Crucial has released quite a few SATA III models over the past 3 years including the quite successful MX300 and BX200 lines and today we're taking a look at the 480GB variant of their brand new BX300 model.

       Crucial.com is a leading online retailer specializing in computer memory (RAM) and solid state drives (SSD), and is operated by a subsidiary of Micron Technology, Inc., one of the world's leading manufacturers of computer memory products. Crucial.com offers more than 250,000 compatible products for nearly every computer system: home and business, old and new, PC and Mac® computers. Utilizing a suite of easy-to-use, free online tools, including the Crucial® System Scanner and the Crucial Memory Advisor™ tool, crucial.com makes it easy to find a compatible upgrade to improve computer performance and restore system reliability.

   The new BX300 line of SATA III SSDs by Crucial is currently available in 120/240/480GB capacities and is based on the 4-channel SM2258 NAND flash controller by Silicon Motion (originally developed for use with TLC NAND) which they paired with Micron's 256Gb 32L 3D MLC NAND flash and LPDDR3 modules (512MB for the 480GB variant and 256MB for the other two). Silicon Motion has equipped the SM2258 quad-channel controller with various technologies including NANDXtend (error-correcting with data protection), Static Data Refresh (ensures data integrity), Direct-to-TLC and SLC Caching (algorithms for optimal sustained performance - 16GB of SLC write cache are present in the 480GB variant), global wear leveling (algorithm which evens program/erase count and extends SSD lifespan), DevSleep (device sleep), S.M.A.R.T, TRIM, NCQ, TCG Opal and hardware AES 256bit encryption. Finally Crucial covers the BX300 480GB drive with a limited three year warranty and reports a write endurance of 160TBW (80TBW for the 240GB and 55TBW for the 120GB variants) with an MTBF of 1.5 million hours. We expect very good results from the BX300 480GB so let's move forward with today’s review.