Crucial BX300 480GB SSD review - Specifications & Features

Specifications & Features

Crucial is offering three versions of the BX300 which includes 120GB, 240 and 480GB capacities. The sample that has arrived for testing is the 480 GB version of the drive. The BX300 series as stated will be fitted with Triple level cell written NAND flash memory from Micron's 3D NAND (vertically stacked) node. This allows Crucial to offer the big storage volume at a lower price point.  

Crucial MX Series
Volume	BX300 480 GB	MX300 750GB	MX200 500GB	MX200 1TB
Form Factors	2.5"	2.5"	2.5", mSATA, M.2	2.5"
Controller	Silicon Motion SM2258XT	Marvell 88SS1074	Marvell 88SS9189
NAND	Micron 64-layer 3D MLC	Micron 32-layer 3D TLC	Micron 16nm 128Gbit MLC
DRAM	512MB	512MB	512MB	1GB
Sequential Read	555MB/s	530MB/s	555MB/s	555MB/s
Sequential Write	510MB/s	510MB/s	500MB/s	500MB/s
4KB Random Read	95K IOPS	92K IOPS	100K IOPS	100K IOPS
4KB Random Write	950 IOPS	83K IOPS	87K IOPS	87K IOPS
Sleep Mode	4mW	4mW	2mW	2mW
Idle	75mW	75mW	100mW	100mW
Max Power	5.2W	5.2W	4.7W	5.2W
Endurance	160TBW	220TBW	160TBW	320TBW
Warranty	Three years
Price	$149.99 (MSRP)	$199.99 (MSRP)	$139.00	$269.94

For the BX series Crucial moved  from planar towards 3D (vertically stacked) NAND, and that should give it a nice boost in performance compared to the BX200 series. 3D NAND is physical vertical NAND cell stacking not to be confused with chip stacking in a multi-chip package. In 3D NAND, NAND layers, not chips, are stacked in a single IC. The good news is continued cost reduction, smaller die sizes and more capacity per NAND chip. Also, installed NAND toolsets in the wafer fabs can, for the most part, be reused, thereby extending the useful life of fab equipment. The NAND ICs are driven by a Silicon Motion SM2258XT controller,  there is a chunk of SLC written NAND (SLC cache) to speed up writes as well as a DRAM cache.

Caching and write buffers

• 120 GB / 256 MB DDR3 DRAM / 4GB SLC Write Cache
• 240 GB / 256 MB DDR3 DRAM / 8GB SLC Write Cache
• 480 GB / 512 MB DDR3 DRAM / 16GB SLC Write Cache

• Sequential reads/writes up to 555/ 510 MB/s on all file types
• Random reads/writes up to 95k on all file types
• Over 90x more energy efficient than a typical hard drive
• Accelerated by Micron 3D NAND technology
• Dynamic Write Acceleration delivers faster saves and file transfers
• More durable than a hard drive – no small moving parts that are prone to failure
• Adaptive Thermal Protection allows for adaptive cooling
• Includes free Acronis True Image HD software for easy data migration
• Compatible with the Crucial Storage Executive tool for easy drive maintenance
• 3 year limited warranty

Pricing

I just pulled some numbers from some online e-tailers. Crucial is able to keep the prices very competitive as this product is made 80% in-house. Prices are € 149,- EURO inc. VAT for this 480 GB model (roughly 30 cents per GB). Not bad, especially when you consider that this is a mainstream class SSD that offers enthusiast class SSD performance (as you are about to find out from our benchmarks).