Final Thoughts
I really like the idea of mSATA solid state drives. While they have not really caught on that much on the desktop market now that M.2 is here, they have great applications in laptops and smaller form factor PCs like the Gigabyte BRIX that we recently reviewed. Having such a small form factor means that you can have SSD speeds in pretty much any device. Not only that, there are no moving parts so that means a drive like this is unlikely to fail.
When it comes to performance the SX300 mSATA performed pretty much right up to its specifications. In most of our tests we saw right around 500 MB/s for both the read and write. In ATTO Disk Benchmark, which we use as our definitive benchmark for solid state drives the SX300 mSATA scored 547 MB/s read and 516 MB/s write. We also used this drive when reviewing the Gigabyte BRIX projector and it was great having a super fast OS drive! Of course if you are looking at this drive to replace a mechanical drive you are going to see a huge performance difference.
When it comes to price the SX300 is about $20 more than other 120-128GB mSATA drives at $112 at my favorite online retailer. ADATA does back this drive with a 3 year warranty, so that should put your mind at ease when purchasing this drive. Overall ThinkComputers gives the ADATA SX300 mSATA Solid State Drive a 9 out of 10 score.
Pros:
– Small form factor
– Solid performance
– 3 year warranty
Cons:
– A little more expensive than other mSATA drives
