The Crucial MX200 range of SSDs come in the standard 2.5" SSD form, as well as M.2 and this, the mSATA version. Aside from the 2.5" model, which we’re led to believe uses a different controller, there’s not a lot of difference between the manufacturing processes and benchmark specifications.
The Crucial MX200 mSATA drive we have here is the 250GB model, with the only other model being the 500GB drive. The list of supported features is pretty impressive and includes Dynamic Write Acceleration, RAIN support, Data Defence, Power Loss Protection, Adaptive Thermal Protection and Active Garbage Collection. On top of all that, there’s also TRIM, S.M.A.R.T. and ECC support. Plus, Crucial has rated this drive with a million hours’ worth of life expectancy. The RAIN (Redundant Array of Independent NAND) feature is of particular interest. As you can imagine, this is similar to a RAID array, but instead it uses the data structure inside a NAND device. In reality, it’s more of an enterprise/business type function and has little use for the vast majority of home users. However, it does go to show the power behind the Marvell 88SS9189 controller and the customised Crucial-Micron 16nm MLC NAND technology used in the MX200 range.
Using the 8192KB transfer test in ATTO, we recorded a read speed of 562MB/s, while the write speed proved to be 513MB/s. The large file results were very good indeed, on a par with the Kingston and Transcend models in terms of the data read speeds, give or take a few megabytes per second.
The 4KB tests came back with a rather poor 138MB/s and the write speed was just 116MB/s. This seems to be in line with the M.2 version of the MX200 we’ve looked at before, with decent higher transfer rates with larger file sizes and lower speeds with the smaller data sizes.
Booting to our Windows 10 desktop took just a tad over eight seconds, which is a second slower than the mSATA drives we’ve already tested. To be honest, we can live with that.
The positives to look for here are the good read and write speeds with bigger file sizes, the 250GB capacity and the fact that the Crucial MX200 mSATA only costs in the region of £76. If you want to class the extra second boot time as a negative, then fair enough, but it's more likely that the much slower transfer speeds with smaller file sizes could be the deciding factor for some buyers.
Other than that, the Crucial MX200 mSATA is a good drive and will certainly serve you well probably for as long as you’ll own the machine it’s
installed in.