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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.
thats a hell of a drive, shame the 128GB version is significantly slower with write speeds.
550 quid is just too much money for me, but if you had money to spend on this, its a good choice. nice size too,. Interesting info about onboard controllers not being up to the grade either, didnt know that.
Yah, other sites mentioned onboard controllers not being up to the 6 GBps grade either.
It really is such a confusing market, so many controllers out there, indilinx etc. and it seems every new one is that much faster. has to stop soon, we are now in a situation when the onboard controller chips, even on new 6GBps boards arent up to the task!
I went into this review with trepidation, thinking it might suck and thankfully it rocks 🙂 I ordered one a few days ago. I hate ordering stuff before I read reviews about it (well i did on another site but they suck).
Can we have a review of the 128GB version please? the 256gb is too much for me and i want to know if the write speed of the 128GB causes it to be vastly inferior.
Well this is rather sexual 🙂 £550 is a bit much for me, my missus would have my family jewels mounted to a pole if she saw this coming out of our bank account.
Id go for the 128gb model, shame it wasnt reviewed.
There has to be some serious performance for £550, and I think this delivers. Is it worth it? thats another point. for me personally yes it is, and I just ordered one from Crucial direct. ordered from them before and they use special delivery which is quick and reliable 🙂
My Dog died last month and I need cheering up. ordered this for my new intel system. ill regret it later when my credit card bill appears, but right now I dont care. thanks for the review.
Well I just ordered this from crucial and am now going to scan to buy the controller. I cashed in some shares. cant wait 🙂
256GB ? SSD? 350MB/s second? too fast for onboard controllers? ekkkkk. I need one now, but I also need a new car. maybe I could walk to work for a few months? :p
Christ almighty, I take a 2 week holiday and dont have net connection, I come back and ive to read around 20 reviews ! this site kicks some serious ass ! you guys filter all the crap hardware out and review the sweetness !
That performance is stunning. I too would have liked to see the 128GB version reviewed also, as I can’t afford £550
Wow this is incredible. performance is higher than I thought. I wish I could afford this, 128GB model review soon please !
Great review KitGuru, now to sell my wife to make up the money, might get £50 for a start at least.
ah come on man, 256GB, I know this is KitGuru and we love high end hardware, but why not review the 128GB model as well ! its at least in the grasp of some of us. I think 🙂
Great to see some real world testing, I couldnt give a rats ass about some of the synthetic benchmarks sites use,. so while you use them also, a few things like boot time are handy as a quick compare. gives a more rounded overview of the whole thing. Very impressive design from crucial and their teams. I think one of these will be my next purchase whenever I get the opportunity to do so.
Thanks for the writeup, very helpful
The performance is quite staggering really when you see the need for a dedicated controller board to maximise throughput. The only downside obviously is the cost, but in a way this is helping mechanical drive sales as ive seen 2TB hard drives in the UK now for under £100.
Well I think sandforce has just had its ass handed to it 🙂
I have read about the Mobo onboard controller problems so I use the SATA 3GB/s ports and have 2 in RAID 0. This still gives very fast performance loading Win7 in about 18 seconds.
Needless to say that this article went live and the poor guys at YOYOTech sold out almost immediately.
As of Sunday evening:-
– Novatech is showing 3 in stock at £496 – ready for shipment
– Amazon is showing 5 in stock at £508 – but suspiciously they can’t be delivered for 2-4 weeks (well dodgy)
– Misco have loads – probably because they are at the astronomical price of £649
Never tried buying anything from Misco, but if they throw is a couple of return flights to Paris – then maybe they are worth the extar £150 over Novatech 😉
I have 2 C300 64gb drives in RAID 0, and I get 755MB/s read speeds in Sandra!