Hands-On: A Second mSATA-Based SSD Emerges

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When it comes to storage, the 3.5” and 2.5” form factors are most popular. But they're not always suitable for notebooks and netbooks. Samsung is the second vendor to introduce an mSATA-based SSD, after Intel demonstrated its SSD 310 earlier this year.

Comparison Table And Benchmark Setup

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Manufacturer Samsung Samsung
Family PM810 PM810
Model Number MZMPA064HMDR MZ5PA256HMDR
Capacity 64, 128 GB 64, 128, 256 GB
Flash Type MLC MLC
Controller Samsung MAX Samsung MAX
Form Factor mSATA 2.5"
Interface SATA 3 Gb/s SATA 3 Gb/s
Cache (MB) 128 MB 128 MB
NCQ yes yes
Height 3 mm 9.5 mm
MTBF Unknown 1 500 000 hours
Operating Temperature 0-70°C 0-70°C
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System Hardware
Hardware Details
CPU Intel Core i7-920 (45 nm, 2.66 GHz, 4x 512 KB L2 Cache, 8 MB L3 Cache)
Motherboard Supermicro X8SAX
(Socket 1366) Revision: 1.0, Chipset Intel X58 + ICH10R, BIOS: 1.0B
RAM 3 x 1 GB DDR3-1333 Corsair CM3X1024-1333C9DHX
HDD Seagate NL35 400 GB, ST3400832NS, 7200 RPM, SATA 1.5Gb/s, 8 MB Cache
Power Supply OCZ EliteXstream 800 W, OCZ800EXS-EU
Performance Measurements h2benchw 3.16 PCMark Vantage 1.0.2.0
I/O Performance IOMeter 2008.08.18 Fileserver-Benchmark Webserver-Benchmark Database-Benchmark Workstation-Benchmark Streaming Reads Streaming Writes 4k Random Reads 4k Random Writes
System Software & Drivers
Operating System Windows 7 Ultimate

If available, test results include hard drive performance data to facilitate a direct comparison between the two SSD types (mSATA versus 2.5”), and hard drives in the 3.5” and 2.5” form factor. Unfortunately, our lab in Germany did not have an Intel 310 SSD available to generate directly comparable performance numbers.