MyDigitalSSD ‘Bullet Proof’ 128GB mSATA SATA 2 SSD Review

Our evaluation today will be a detailed analysis of the MyDigitalSSD 128GB 50mm ‘Bullet Proof’ mSATA SSD and the price point ( a mere $179.99) and timing of this SSDs arrival couldn’t be better.

Considering the latest entries of laptops with dual mSATA/HDD storage access along with the first round of new Ultrabook family releases, mSATA SSDs are making an impression in a big way.  Their low price point is vital to upcoming Ultrabook releases and consumer availability is a huge plus.

INTRODUCTION

If you are technology geek like I,  you have discovered the amazing world of Ultrabooks in the last while where we are seeing portable solutions as light as 2.46 lbs and as thin as 0.63″.  True to form, thin is in and when we add a slew of other positive characteristics, to include high performing, lightweight, quick boot time, a decent price and long battery life, the Ultrabook just can’t be beat.

The trick here, of course, is that to achieve many of these characteristics, use of a mSATA SSD is absolutely a must which brings us right back to our choice of an mSATA SSD, once again, for review.

SPECIFICATIONS

The MyDigitalSSD SATA 2 SSD is available in capacities of 16, 32, 64 and 128GB and performance specifications for this SSD are listed at 270MB/s read, 235MB/s write with 35,000 IOPS, regardless of the capacity selected.  In comparing prices of the MyDigitalSSD family against other available mSATA SSDs, they have the lowest price point that we could find for mSATA SSDs to date.  Pricing ranges from $37.49 for the 16GB all the way up to $179.99 for 128GB capacity and the price point falls below even the Intel 310 Series 80GB mSATA SSD which is significantly less in capacity.

COMPONENTS

The MyDigitalSSD 128GB mSATA SSD is comprised of a printed circuit board (PCB) that is only 50mm in length and weighs less than 10 grams.  It houses the Phison PS3105-S5 controller, along with four modules of Toshiba Toggle Mode 32nm NAND flash memory with each being 32GB in capacity.

Advertised capacity of this SSD is 128GB, however, final user capacity after formatting is 119GB.  Other than SandForce based SSDs, all others that we can think of use a cache to assist in the lifespan and performance of the drive, the 512Mb Nanya module clearly visible on this SSD as well.

If there is one thing that I have developed over the past five years of reviewing SSDs, it is the ability to recall similarities in drives and this is no different.  Notice how similar the components are on this SSD compared to that in our review of the Patriot Torqx 2 128GB SSD some time ago?  Here’s a picture to assist.

So what’s the difference between the two?  The MyDigitalSSD mSATA SSD uses Toshiba NAND of twice the capacity (32GB), has 385Mb of additional buffered cache and weighs about 9.5 times less than the Patriot Torqx 2. I wonder how performance compares?