Storage boosters: Six mSATA format SSDs on test

Back-to-school hand-me-down upgrade time

View from the test bench

To test the drives I used a StarTech SAT32MSAT257 mSATA to 2.5in drive convertor which was then connected to the SATA 6Gb/s port on the motherboard of one of my test rigs.

I also took power readings for the drives by using a meter on the wall socket to measure the complete system power usage with peak reading taken during a run of the Anvil's Storage Utilities benchmark.

Here, the idle figures are pretty much the same across the board, but you can see how when under load, being equipped with the Samsung 850 EVO takes an overall bigger draw than the Crucial MX200 or one of the slower CrystalDiskMark scorers, such as the seemingly eco-friendly Kingston mS200.

Overall, the benchmark results show the more recent drives from Crucial and Samsung are the most consistent performers, with the CrystalDiskMark sequential write scores revealing where the others come unstuck. Transcend puts in a respectable showing as a good all-rounder and you get 6GB more for your money. If endurance is more important than speed, then alternatives such as the mS200 from Kingston should fit the bill. ®

Thanks to Overclockers UK for the loan of the Intel and Kingston SSD review samples.

ATTO results – longer bars are better

CrystalDiskMark read and write results – longer bars are better

CrystalDiskMark 4k read and write results – longer bars are better

50GB mixed files copy throughput (MB/s) long blue bars and short green bars are better

Measured at wall, power consumption test. Peak figure taken during run of Anvil's Storage Utilities – shorter bars are better