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REPORT ANALYSIS AND FINAL THOUGHTS
The MyDigitalSSD Smart Series 256GB mSATA SSD was unexpected to say the least. I had not returned two days from Computex and the MyDigitalSSD package arrived. My admiration and choice of review for mSATA drives has never been a secret and I had been anxiously awaiting the ADATA XPG SX300 for testing as it would be the smallest, highest performing and largest capacity SSD in the world, that was until Matt Dawson’s package with the new MyDigitalSSD Smart Series 256GB SSD (AKA SX300) arrived.
How Matt managed to wrestle this mSATA SSD out of the hands of ADATA, even before their release, simply amazes me. And then to see that it is still clearly labeled as the SX300 is truly icing on the cake. Simply, MyDigitalSSD now has the top performing and highest capacity mSATA SSD in the world right now and until another company can achieve 256GB capacity in an mSATA form factor, this won’t change. Add to that the fact that My Digital SSD, a relatively small guy in the big pond, has the reputation of ADATA to rely on and this was a stroke of marketing prowess. ADATA is definitely a big fish.
Examining performance, the fact that this is one of the top five SSD results we have had in typical SSD form factors says it all. It reaches lightning fast SATA 3 speeds with ease and this was as obvious as can be when conducting transfer speed tests with AS SSD Copy Benchmark. Having this in any of todays ultrabooks is pure gold. MyDigitalSSD includes a standard three year warranty, whereas, the XPG SX300 will be five years when released but this is by no means a deal killer. As well, I would like to know exactly what specifications the NAND flash memory hold and will update the report once confirmed.
Last but not least, we need to examine pricing. Technically, as this is the highest performing and highest capacity mSATA SSD in the world, and that very few mSATA SSDs have reached consumer sales just yet, should mean that having a premium mSATA SSD will demand a premium price; not so in this case. A quick look at Amazon shows clearly that the MyDigitalSSD Smart Series SSD is the second lowest priced mSATA available today, the first being the MyDigitalSSD Bullet Proof 3 Series which we we will get to in a few days time. For now, here are some prices to check out:
MyDigitalSSD 64GB Smart Series SATA III (6G) SandForce mSATA SSD “ S99.99
MyDigitalSSD 128GB Smart Series SATA III (6G) SandForce mSATA SSD “ $179.99
MyDigitalSSD 256GB Smart Series SATA III (6G) SandForce mSATA SSD “ S319.99
Trust me when I say that, any thoughts of playing the waiting game here, will result in the loss of a great drive because they won’t last. The MyDigitalSSD Smart Series 256GB is perhaps my favorite evaluation to date and easily earns our Editor’s Choice Award!
will this 256gb drive work for upgrading the Samsung series 9b 2012 13 inch model?
Of course it will…
When will we see the BP3 review?
By days end… just doing up the final report now!
“Up until recently, ATTO was the only benchmark created specifically for SSD testing and it uses incompressible data.” I think you mean AS SSD
OOops! Tx!
from a press release today, the actual ADATA XPG SX300 SSD (256GB) is being sold for MSRP $299 so I’m hoping there’s a $20 coupon or something coming from MyDigSSD…
I dunno if links are allowed or not, but the press release for the other one (or I guess the same one) with the $299.99 price is here:
https://www.guru3d.com/news/adata-xpg-sx300-and-premier-pro-sp300-msata-ssds/
great website! ill admit im a bit of a noob when it comes to SSDs. ive recently purchased a lenovo y580 and im looking at possibly upgrading the HD since it is definitely the bottleneck of the system (1tb 5400rpm).
maybe you could clarify a few things for me, is there a large gap in performance between a msata and sata ssd drive? im considering buying the 64gb version of the mydigitalssd smart series based on your reviews (mostly for the OS and because I can still use the capacity of the 1tb HDD that came along with the y580). would the 64gb version perform similarly to the 256gb version you reviewed? does this sound like my best move or am i better off buying a regular ssd?
The question you ask is key in knowledge of SSDs and, for the most part, it’s answer can change drastically depending on the tasks you have in mind for its use.
Simply, unless you have a specific task in mind that will put excessive stress on the SSD, there is nobody that can tell the difference from one SSD to another regardless of size or form factor and that is because most of the ‘typical’ performance upgrade comes from an SSDs disk access time, all being somewhere in the area of 0.01-0.02ms typically.
The key question with that laptop will be whether the mSATA can be used independent of a caching solution or will always be a cached SSD.
thanks for your reply! okay, would i benefit more from
1)using a 64gb msata as fully cached ssd.
2)using a 128gb msata as a boot drive/main apps and the HDD as a storage drive for things such as music, videos, and random games
i am also just considering replacing my hdd with a regular 2.5 ssd but lack of capacity has me concerned.
My personal choice would be the larger as a boot drive for OS and apps with secondary storage of the rest.
no coupon! its overpriced as usually by mydigss
FYI, the main reason we were able to release it 1st is because I have been spending the last 3 months convincing them to build it. 🙂
I’ve noticed that you can buy the “ADATA XPG SX300 ASX300S3-256GM-C mSATA 256GB ” for $249 at Newegg.com. While there may be some similarities between this product and the one that MyDigitalSSD is offering in this review, I expect there are probably some key differences (firmware, warranty, etc) as well that account for the $70 difference in price. As I’m new to the msata SSD scene, can someone help me understand what the differences might be in simple terms?
The only difference will most likely be the warranty as ADATA has already stated that this will be a five year warranty.
hey guys. What type of configuration can you this SSD with a primary boot drive? I am asking because I am interested in purchasing a new Alienware M18x. When I am configuring my drive options there’s a 500GB 7,200 RPM + 32GB Super Cache mSATA SSD. I was thinking of swapping the 32gb to a higher gb mSATA SSD. Would a RAID 0 2 x 500GB 7,200 RPM (1TB) be faster than a 500GB 7,200 RPM + 32GB Cache mSATA? I am doing intense editing of HD files + long renders. I would like to understand the logic of this hybrid solutions vs. the more practical but pricier solutions. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Any news on when these might be available again. Everywhere I can find them listed for sale they say they are back-ordered 🙁
They are on and off again at Amazon and, yes, they are a very hot item.
I wanted to purchase this ssd for my asus ep121 slate but currently unavailible. I noticed your adata sx300 comparison, found the adata but the part number is as
asx300s3-256gm-c with the c on the end not the b will this work? i am assuming the b was for beta and c for consumer if i am guessing right
Yes it will work just fine. Enjoy!
Hi sandor! Did you upgrade your EP121 with a 256GB-SSD? Could you please share your experience?
I would like to upgrade my Slate, too. But can’t find any helpful information about working SSD’s in the Slate.
Hi, I noticed the power consumption on the mydigital smart series drives is much larger (3W) than the BP3 series (<0.9W), does this have a huge impact on laptop battery life? Also, does the 5.02 firmware have the same TRIM problems as the other brands that use the same sandorce firmware? Thanks
Any luck on identification of the memory modules? Are these the same used as ADATA?