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Following up on our recent review of the ADATA XPG SX300 mSATA SSD, we are now going to be running a similar analysis of the 256GB version of the same family.
We have been curious as to what this particular review would hold, as we had done a review of the MyDigitalSSD SMART 256GB mSATA SSD some time ago and identification of that mSATA SSD displayed that it was a rebranded XPG SX300 256GB device exactly as we are testing today.
If we find that the two are indeed one in the same SSD with a different sticker, the next question would have to be with respect to the pricing model as the MyDigitalSSD representation of this drive released, and is still available, at some of the best pricing one can find today for a ‘LSI SandForce Driven’ mSATA SSD, much less one that has been able to maintain the typical binary capacity points of 64, 128 and 256GB.
SPECIFICATIONS
The ADATA XPG SX300 mSATA SSD is a 6Gbps mSATA SSD and available in capacities of 64, 128 and 256GB. Of benefit to the consumer is the fact that ADATA is the first to produce an mSATA SSD with typical binary capacities while employing the LSI SandForce Processor, whereas, typical capacities prior were 64, 120 and 240GB.
This means that the consumer gets an additional 7% capacity in purchasing this SSD. The XPG SX300 is available now and a quick look at Amazon
reflects prices of $100.87 (64GB), $157.37 (128GB) and $318.36 (256GB) which is high in comparison to the MyDigitalSSD rebranded SX300, also on sale at Amazon. The SX300 also carries a three year limited warranty.
COMPONENTS
The XPG SX300 weighs about 7 grams, is a third the size of a credit card and just a bit higher than a 25 cent piece. On it’s face, we find the LSI SandForce SF-2281 Flash Storage Processor (FSP) along with two modules of 25nm NAND flash memory, accompanied by two other memory modules on the back.
ADATA has yet to reveal exactly what memory is in use, only to state that the memory in use is synchronous and absolutely the cream of the crop which enables their manufacturing of this SSD in typical binary capacities.
We do know that each chip is 64GB in capacity for a total RAW capacity of 256GB. Once formatted, total capacity available for the users needs drops to 238GB. For testing in our Main Bench, we typically use an mSATA to SATA 3 adapter such as this:
the sx300 256GB costs $270 @ Newegg…
How do we know if it is compatible with Lenovo T420s? Manufacturer website does not provide such information. Kindly suggest.
A simple Google search always helps.
Does the SandForce controller on this msata ssd is good than other controller? Which msata sdd is fast and best quality?
This is an excellent mSATA SSD and the fact that it offers 7% additional space just might be key here. With respect to controllers, the main competitors in the market today (SandForce, Marvel, Samsung) have all earned a reputation of quality simply because of company development and experience in the industry.
I recently purchased this mSATA SSD for my HP Elitebook 2740p and performed a clean install of Windows 8 RTM. The SSD is a ADATA ASX300S3-256GM-C MSA which they list on their website as the XPG SX200.
I frequently experience a Blue Screen on Windows 8 after resuming from sleep.
The SSD is my boot disk. It’s about half full. Running chkdsk at boot time shows no errors. Windows Disk Management reports the drive as healthy.
The Crash Dump analysis output (all the dumps are similar to this) shows the following:
ERROR_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0xc00000c0 – This device does not exist.
BUGCHECK_STR: 0x7a_c00000c0
DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: WIN8_DRIVER_FAULT
I checked again today and I can confirm I have the latest firmware for this model.
Thanks for that Sol. I was just about to purchase this mSATA SSD to install Windows 8 on it on my ASRock PC! Will now just replace the standard HDD with a SATA SSD with the likes of a Vertex 4 or so. Thanks again for posting this 🙂
Where is firmware 5.0.3/5.0.4?
Work on windows 8?
Of course…all storage device work in recent OS releases.
Be aware – I bought this from Amazon and returned it and tried again…. both times, this card does NOT WORK on the Drobo 5D.
Great reviews. My question is simple, Crucial M4 256GB vs ADATA XPG SX300, what difference,if any, is there between these 2 ssd’s The m4 is 50+ dollars cheaper. Is the Adata msata drive , although better on paper, going to give me better performance on my laptop in the real world?
And real-world use, you, or even an SSD expert, cannot visually tell a difference in typical day-to-day operations. Both solid-state drives would do great in your system. Both have great reputations. Unless you are looking for something specific where higher incompressible data testing is necessary, I would simply look at the price.
Thanks when you say “visually” I interpret that to be things like boot time, program opening, shutdown times etc. It is the write speed that stands out for me the Adata being in the 500mb+ per second and the m4 not breaking 300mb per second. Those numbers really mean nothing in term of real life use?
Real life user in typical use yes. Unless you are transferring large incompressible files you will never be able to visually see a difference.
In real world i think the m4 ssd will perform as well as the ADATA drive. ADATA drive (sandforce driven) will never reaches the announced performance. It relates only an optimal situation with compressible data.
Yes but compressible data is what we see in operating systems and software and can’t be overlooked. In the typical user scenario, it would be impossible to tell the difference.
So I bought the adata sx300 256gb drive I installed it but it appears to give me only 238.5 gb is that correct? I understood from your review that this drive gives us that 7% lost space or is that not the case?
That is exacty the case as shown in our report and explained.
this is what I took from your report -For those LSI SandForce lovers, it is like getting an extra 7% capacity for free. I guess what i was wondering was is 238.5 gb typical for this drive?
oK I found the available drive space in your Anvil Storage Utility snapshot 238.5 thanks.
Please join the forums and posts screen shots of your system and not with the CPU states altered please.
Which Adata sdd would you recommend today: the SX300, or SP310? Almost the same price (SP310 a tad cheaper).
I have had two of these drives fail in my Msi GE70 within a year. I’m going back to conventional HDD’s.
You need to ask yourself what occurred…. Were they fresh installs? What was similar betwen both instances?
Here are a couple of similarities:
1. Both were Adata SX300 mSATA 256GB SSD’s
2. Both were installed in the same system (MSi GE70 Core-i7-3630M, 8GB DDRIII RAM, Nvidia GeForce 660M)
3. Both crashed within less than 6 months
4. Both crashed after waking up the laptop from sleep
5. Both were gone from the BIOS after the crash
After a couple of searches on Google I found out that I’m not suffering alone as these are crashing all over the place. It looks like it might be a problem with the Sandforce controller – but don’t take my word for it – I’m an accountant.