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The mSATA form factor is rising in popularity and more manufacturers are releasing high performance drives to target the growing audience. Today we are looking at the latest drive from ADATA, the XPG SX300 128GB.
In June we looked at the mSATA MemoRight MS-701 240GB mSATA and I was extremely impressed with the outstanding performance from the tiny drive. The ADATA XPG SX300 uses the same LSi Sandforce 2281 controller, so we should, in theory expect similar performance levels.
We test mSATA drives with an Aleratec MiniPCIe mSATA to SATA SSD Adapter as many of the current desktop motherboards use an mSATA connector which will be limited to SATA 3.0Gbps speeds.
After all, we are here today to test the raw performance of the ADATA XPG SX300, not a motherboard connector.
You really need to see one of these drives in the flesh to really understand just how small they are. They measure 51mm x 30mm, considerably smaller than a standard 2.5 inch Solid State Drive.
While we are reviewing the 128GB unit, ADATA also sell a 64GB and 256GB version. The company rate the drive at 550MB/s read and 500MB/s write. ADATA have incorporated 25nm NAND flash.
My dell laptop has one of these ports, im tempted to buy one, move out my 2.5 inch SSD in it – use that in my desktop. and then add a 1TB 2.5 inch drive to my laptop.
Win all round!
Slightly disappointed in the cost of these right now, it makes it hard to justify a purchase, even if the motherboard supports it.