Micron RealSSD C300 SATA III SSD Review

On the outside, the Micron RealSSD C300 looks very much like virtually all other 2.5" solid state drives currently on the market. It has a metal shell, with little more than some branding and a couple of visible data and power connectors.

 

 
The Micron RealSSD C300

Even still, the RealSSD C300 does stand out a bit aesthetically. The drive's case is an attractive gun-metal color with a grainy texture--no matte black here. Of course, it's not likely the drive will even be visible when installed in a system, but it's a good looking unit nonetheless. A decal with some specifications is affixed to the underside, while a "Crucial RealSSD" decal adorns the top.

 
The C300's PCB Exposed

While the outside of the C300 is somewhat unique amongst its peers, it's what inside the drive that really stands out, at least for now. The Micron RealSSD C300 is outfitted with 256GB of Micron MLC NAND flash memory that features a high-speed ONFI 2.1 compliant NAND interface, produced using an advanced 34nm manufacturing process. The Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 controller features a native SATA III 6Gps interface and is comprised of a pair of ARM processor cores. The firmware for the drive, however, was produced by Micron's in-house engineering team. On the underside of the C300's PCB a single 128MB DRAM chip, which is used for caching.  We should also note that the Micron RealSSD C300 also supports the TRIM command and has built-in idle garbage collection algorithms that work independent of the host OS.  These algorithms help the drive maintain its performance over use and time and also help extend its endurance and life expectancy.