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Round-Up: 10 mSATA SSDs From Adata, Crucial, Mushkin, And OCZ

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The first mSATA-based SSDs we reviewed wowed us with diminutive dimensions, but not as much with performance. Today's best efforts are a lot more like their desktop equivalents, though. We round up 10 models between 64 and 256 GB and nail down a winner.

PCMark 7 And Power Consumption

Crucial's m4s deserve special recognition. The 128 and 256 GB versions are almost exactly as fast as each other; that's notable because competing 120 and 128 GB models are a bit slower. And the 64 GB m4 holds its own against larger competing SSDs.

All discussion of other drives is rendered almost needless by the fact that Crucial's 256 GB m4 currently sells for $60 less than its closest competitor. It is worth pointing out, however, that OCZ's Nocti drags along at the bottom of our chart.

That 256 GB m4 gets even more attractive when you take a look at its power consumption under load. It ducks in under 1 W, lower than any other mSATA-based SSD in today's round-up and followed by the other two m4s.

At the other end of the spectrum, higher-capacity drives with SandForce controllers use notably more power under load. The Adata XPG SX300 and Mushkin Enhanced Atlas families don't fare particularly well. 

They're all pretty close together at idle, with the exception of OCZ's Nocti, which uses very little power indeed.

22 Comments Comment from the forums
  • trumpeter1994 07 January 2013 11:30
    I just got a 256GB Crucial m4 msata SSD for the laptop I'm typing from. I love the thing its so nice to have in my y580
    Reply
  • weatherdude 07 January 2013 11:49
    Nice to see mSATA SSD's performing so well. Looks like laptops can now benefit from SSD's without having to compromise on storage space by giving up HDD's.

    Also the award is something new. I guess the "Recommended" and "Approved" awards are gone for 2013?
    Reply
  • cangelini 07 January 2013 12:43
    weatherdudeNice to see mSATA SSD's performing so well. Looks like laptops can now benefit from SSD's without having to compromise on storage space by giving up HDD's.Also the award is something new. I guess the "Recommended" and "Approved" awards are gone for 2013?Approved is still one of the awards we're using. Recommended Buy is replaced by Smart Buy to better-convey the emphasis on value, and Best Of is replaced by Elite to better convey the emphasis on "this is the best damn product in the segment that we can recommend." Elites will continue to be something you rarely ever see, except when we want to make a point to honor a piece of hardware.
    Reply
  • abbadon_34 07 January 2013 19:04
    Seems kinda underwhelming, seeing only 4 in the market, 2 of them years old. Ironically puts Intel's SSD and OCZ's in the same boat.
    Reply
  • tsnor 07 January 2013 19:23
    Excellent article. Nice. Much better than typical.

    Some discussion of trim, and the effects of using drives with a few days of use would have been good. The assumption is that the 'clean drive' performance tested is a good indicator of what people will see when they've used the drive for a month needs to be tested, the perforamnce order might change sharply. A 6 hour random write workload would go a long way to showing what to expect. Especially given the broken TRIM on SF 5 firmware and the slow speed of the fixes to existing SF drives.
    Reply
  • jaquith 07 January 2013 20:35
    Yep, no argument the Crucial m4 mSATA 256 GB stole the show. It's both the fastest & cheapest -- what's the catch? I hope none.

    BTW - $179.99 or $0.70/GB (Promo Code: EMCYTZT2757) NewEgg - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148613 Just noticed the sale from a NewEgg email.
    Reply
  • Onus 07 January 2013 20:45
    I've got a 256GB Crucial M4 in the little clip on my Maximus V Gene as the boot drive. It's been performing flawlessly there for months.
    That's a bit crazy I know, but I had originally had it on the underside of an AZRock Z77E-ITX board until that board died.
    Reply
  • sna 07 January 2013 22:21
    May I ask why is the Samsung 830 msata drive not present in this review?

    as I recall it outperforms the M4 and all the drives here.

    Reply
  • edlivian 08 January 2013 01:02
    oh great, now newegg and crucial are going to jack up the prices on the m4 line.

    I love the m4 drives, but now its going to get too much attention.
    Reply
  • jacobdrj 09 January 2013 04:28
    snaMay I ask why is the Samsung 830 msata drive not present in this review?as I recall it outperforms the M4 and all the drives here.Because they are pretty much EOL with the 840 series out.


    I want to know when AMD laptops are going to start including msata slots... It is the budget laptop guys that would get the best benefit from msata with a standard HDD together...
    Reply