Micron RealSSD C300 SATA III SSD Review

Name: Micron RealSSD C300 SATA III SSD Review - Page 2
Brand: Micron

by Marco Chiappetta — Thursday, February 18, 2010, 12:25 PM EDT

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.

Tags: SSD, Micron, Storage, Data, drive, solid state, Crucial

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com