Crucial BX300 240GB SSD Drive Review

There is no doubt that SSDs (Solid State Drives) are the way of future when it comes to PC storage.  While SSDs may not be the most cost effective storage solutions on the market they are by far one of the fastest and work well when matched with a storage drive.  Much like with most components that make up a computer the assembly process can make a difference when it comes to overall performance.  For instance using faster ram on a video card can deliver faster framerates and plays a part in overclocking.  The same can be said for the NAND used on a SSD.  SLC, MLC and TLC are different types of NAND that have different performance characteristics.

MLC and TLC NAND are what you find in consumer SSDs and tend to have faster wear rates over higher quality chips like the SLC NAND found in enterprise drives.  MLC and TLC NAND are also slower than SLC leading to the extreme cost difference between the different drive types.  You can tweak these known differences by changing the way the NAND is constructed, namely by going vertical.

In this review I’ll be looking at the Crucial BX300 240GB SSD (CT240BX300SSD1).  This is one of the few SSDs currently on the market which uses the new vertical NAND process and is sold by the company who invented it.  The BX300 is using the Silicon Motion SM2258 controller and might not be the fastest SSD you can buy but, is one of the most cost effective drives on the market.

• More than 300% faster than a typical hard drive
• More than 45x more energy efficient than a typical hard drive
• Protect your data with more durability than a hard drive – no small moving parts that are prone to failure
• Available in capacities up to 480GB in 2.5-inch form factor
• Make installation and data migration easy with our step-by-step install guide and free access to Acronis True Image HD software
• Compatible with the Crucial Storage Executive tool for easy drive maintenance
• 3-year limited warranty

Brand Crucial
Form Factor 2.5-inch internal SSD
Total Capacity 240GB
Warranty Limited 3-year
Specs Crucial BX300 240GB SATA 6Gbps 2.5" Internal SSD / 555MB/s Read, 510MB/s Write
Series BX300
Product Line Client SSD
Interface SATA 6.0Gb/s
Device Type Internal Solid State Drive
Unit Height 7.0mm
Form Factor 2.5-inch (7mm)
Package Content Crucial BX300 2.5-inch 7mm SSD, 7mm to 9.5mm spacer, Acronis True Image HD certificate