Legit Storage Reviews
Micron RealSSD C300 256GB SATA 6Gbps SSD Review
| Manufacturer: | Micron |
| Product: | MTFDDAC256MAG |
| Date: | Mon, Feb 22, 2010 - 12:00 AM |
| Written By: | Nathan Kirsch - |
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Inside The RealSSD C300
Since we have never seen what components are being used inside the Micron/Crucial RealSSD C300 we opened up our 256GB drive to see what the internals look like.
After removing the four small Philips head screws that hold down the RealSSD C300 cover we were able to lift off the cover and pull apart the drive.
The back side of the printed circuit board (PCB) is pretty bare as it has just eight 34nm MLC NAND Flash ICs and a lone memory chip that acts as cache for the Micron controller.
Flipping the PCB over to the other side we can see eight more NAND Flash chips and the SATA 6 Gb/s controller that makes the drive so special.
Here is a closer look at the Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 controller that features a native SATA III 6Gps interface. We were told that the controller uses a pair of ARM processors inside, but the firmware and algorithms for the driver are all propitiatory and done in-house.
The C300 uses a 128MB Micron branded DRAM chip with the part number OAD12-D9LGQ for caching. This plays a critical role in buffering and most SSDs these days contain a cache chip.
The RealSSD C300 drive takes advantage of Micron’s established 34nm MLC NAND flash memory. Micron’s 34nm MLC NAND supports the high-speed ONFI 2.1 standard, ensuring the NAND performance keeps pace with the faster SATA 6Gb/s interface. The Micron RealSSD C300 is the first SSD on the retail market to be ONFI 2.1 certified, which is impressive. Our specific C300 that we have in-house for testing used Micron branded 34nm MLC flash memory chips with the part number 0AB12 NW172. In total there are 16 chips and each IC is 16GB in density.
Next Page - The Test System
| Review Index |
|
Page 1 - RealSSD C300 Brings SATA 6Gbps Performance
Page 2 - Inside The RealSSD C300 Page 3 - The Test System Page 4 - HD Tach v3.0.4.0 Page 5 - HD Tune v4.01 Page 6 - HD Tune v4.01 - Random Access Page 7 - SiSoftware Sandra 2010 Page 8 - CrystalDiskMark v3.0 Page 9 - ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.41 Page 10 - PCMark Vantage Page 11 - IOMeter Page 12 - AS SSD Benchmark Page 13 - Final Thoughts and Conclusions |
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