Micron RealSSD C300 SATA III SSD Review

Performance Summary: The Micron RealSSD C300's performance was nothing short of impressive. In almost every benchmark / test we ran, the C300 finished well ahead of competing offerings from OCZ and Intel, even when the drive was connected via SATA II. With the RealSSD connected via SATA III, however, its performance was significantly improved--especially with regard to read throughput, where its margin of victory increased dramatically. Quite simply, the Micron C300 is the fastest SSD we have tested to date.

Over the past few months, a number of excellent solid state drives have landed in the HotHardware labs, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. There was a time when choosing one SSD over another meant making compromises in one area or another, but today that's not really the case.  Sure, synthetic benchmark tests will reveal one drive's technically superior performance over another with a given specific workload, but in terms of real-world, perceptible performance, there are a handful of excellent SSDs currently on the market that all significantly enhance the desktop computing experience over standard spinning hard drives.  Of course there is still the intrinsic cost trade-off that comes with any SSD on the market currently.

With that said, we'd love to add the Micron RealSSD C300 to the growing list of excellent SSDs currently being sold. Quite frankly it is one of, if not the most impressive solid state drives we have ever tested and its performance speaks for itself. Unfortunately, the drive isn't readily available just yet. But when this drive hits, it is going to be a serious contender. If Intel's X25-M Gen2 is a Manny Pacquiao, the Micron RealSSD C300 is Floyd Mayeather, and OCZ's Vertex is Sugar Shane--all pound for pound greats.

We're told, the 256GB model we tested here will carry an MSRP of $799. Pricey? Yes. But in terms of cost per gigabyte, the RealSSD C300 will be quite competitive at that price point  Comparative to Intel's 160GB X25-M which retails for around $480 currently (or $3/GB), the C300 weighs in at just a slight premium of $3.12 per GB. Current generation 256GB SSDs sell for approximately $750 as of today, which puts the C300's price premium of only about 6.7% above other, similarly sized SSDs. Looking back at the numbers, that extra few percentage points are well worth it in our opinion and this new SSD is worthy of our Editor's Choice award.