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INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

crucial bx200 960gba

   It's no secret that although SSD (solid state drive) prices have dived significantly this past year they are still nowhere close to competing with the price/capacity ratio offered by regular mechanical drives today. To that end as time goes by we expect even more (if not all) manufacturers to turn towards lower-cost (yet almost as durable) hardware components for their entry-level SSDs in order to offer a more tempting solution for consumers looking to get their hands on the next best thing in terms of performance compared to regular mechanical drives (TLC NAND was a good start with 3D NAND next on the table). Thanks to Silicon Motion and their SM2256A NAND flash controller several manufacturers begun to take their first steps towards the completion of that goal in late 2015 and today we're going to take a thorough look at yet another budget oriented SSD using that particular solution the BX200 960GB by Crucial.


   Crucial.com is a leading online retailer specializing in computer memory (RAM) and solid state drives (SSD), and is operated by a subsidiary of Micron Technology, Inc., one of the world's leading manufacturers of computer memory products. Crucial.com offers more than 250,000 compatible products for nearly every computer system: home and business, old and new, PC and Mac® computers. Utilizing a suite of easy-to-use, free online tools, including the Crucial® System Scanner and the Crucial Memory Advisor™ tool, crucial.com makes it easy to find a compatible upgrade to improve computer performance and restore system reliability.


   The BX200 line of SSDs is not only the successor to the quite successful BX100 line we had the chance to test over a year ago but it also happens to be the first model by Crucial/Micron to use their very own 128Gb 16nm TLC NAND flash (3D TLC should be right around the corner however). Now we've already mentioned in other reviews that TLC (Triple Level Cell) can't compete with MLC and SLC NAND flash in anything other than price (meaning performance and endurance) but thanks to the use of a "virtual" SLC caching layer (a small amount of TLC acts as SLC) and advanced error correction offered by controllers like the SM2256A by Silicon Motion that's not something casual consumers should fear (besides Crucial provides an MTTF of 1.5 million hours with a TBW of 72GB). Once again the SM2256A NAND controller used here includes a single 32-bit Argonaut RISC processor core which in turn features their NANDXtend ECC technology (LDPC & RAID5-like data recovery) and fully supports DevSleep (power save feature), TRIM (garbage collection), SATA v3.1, AES-256bit hardware encryption and TCG Opal 2.0. So the time has come for us to check and see what Crucial brings to the table with their very first TLC based SSD.

 



 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The box inside which Crucial ships the BX200 has a large product image at the front, their logo and the model capacity.

 

 

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The contents of the bundle are listed at the rear of the box right next to support information and above several certification and warning logos.

 

 

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Packaging is quite typical for such a product so the drive is placed inside a formed piece of plastic.

 

 

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Along with the BX200 Crucial also bundles a 7mm to 9.5mm bracket and a license key for the Acronis True Image HD cloning software.

 



 

THE BX200 960GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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If we were to place the BX100 right next to the BX200 it would be impossible to tell them apart so nothing new in terms of design.

 

 

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Once again on a large sticker at the belly of the drive we find the barcodes, serial number, part number, capacity, electrical requirements, installed firmware version, connectivity, country of manufacture and of course several certification and warning logos.

 

 

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The usual SATA power and data connectors are placed at the rear of the drive.

 

 

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Crucial secures the housing just with clips so to open it you just have to push those outwards.

 

 

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The side of the PCB facing upwards contains a total of 8 Micron NAND flash packages each 64GB in capacity.

 

 

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On the other side of the PCB we see 8 more NAND flash packages along with two 512MB LPDDR3 DRAM modules and the SM2256A 4-channel controller by Silicon Motion.

 



 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

cpuz3930ksystem

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

 

   After roughly 8 years of testing sold state drives i have concluded that it's almost impossible for any single benchmark suite to accurately measure their performance and that's why in certain benchmark suites we see amazing read/write performance numbers with some drives while in others things are quite different. The reason behind this is that some benchmarking suites are configured to read and write random chunks of data while others read and write constant (sequential) ones. So that's why i always use a very wide selection of benchmarking suites including AIDA64, HD Tach RW, HD Tune Pro, Crystal Disk Mark, Sisoftware Sandra Pro, AS SSD, IOmeter and ATTO. To get the most accurate results each test gets repeated a total of 6 times with the average performance numbers recorded into our charts. Also as of February 25th 2015 our results will also include the Storage Networking Industry Association’s (SNIA) IOMeter tests. These tests include a 12 Hour write test used to “simulate” performance degradation over time and a mixed workload test which basically shows what you can expect when using an SSD continuously for roughly two hours. Unfortunately due to the time required for these tests we repeat them a total of 3 times and not 6 as the above.


   Many people have made inquiries about our charts in the past so once again please do keep in mind that the Charts have the average performance numbers of each drive recorded and not the peak (highest) ones. Also although every single one of these programs can help potential buyers choose the right drive for their needs you should also remember that from any kind of benchmark up to real world usage the gap is not small (and usually most differences will go unnoticed by most people). All tests were performed in a fresh Windows 7 Ultimate x64 installation with every update installed up to April 18th 2016.

 



 

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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TEST RESULTS – AS SSD / IOMETER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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TEST RESULTS – IOMETER SNIA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

crucial bx200 960gbb

   Usually when a manufacturer releases a device in the market ment to replace another that device is better at least in one area and judging by our results the BX200 is actually quite faster in read performance compared to its predecessor the BX100. On the other hand write performance is just not as good in some tests and although this shouldn’t be the case (especially since the BX200 is set to replace the BX100 entirely) it really didn’t come as a surprise to us since TLC NAND is a lot weaker in that area compared to MLC. Unfortunately we didn’t have the chance to test the 960GB model of the BX100 line so although differences shouldn’t be huge this comparison between these two models is obviously not 100% on the spot (the 960GB BX100 model should however score even higher in terms of performance). I was somewhat impressed to see that the recently Mushkin Triactor which uses the same NAND controller (different brand TLC NAND however) scored higher in most tests but again since it was of a different capacity a comparison is not 100% valid. Last but not least Crucial gives good Endurance/Durability numbers (MTTF of 1.5 million hours with 72GB TBW) but still lower compared to those of other similar products like the Triactor line (MTBF of 2 million hours).


   TLC NAND based SSDs exist only because of their high price/capacity ratio so how much does the BX200 960GB cost today? Well today you can find the BX200 960GB SSD by Crucial for USD239.90 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 240Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). This price tag gives the BX200 960GB a price/performance ratio of roughly $0.25/GB a number which is just a tad higher compared to one of the equivalent Triactor model by Mushkin. Again however just like the Triactor the BX200 is aimed towards people who are looking for a high capacity SSD with very good read performance but with not really enough juice when it comes to writes. Overall although write performance is not it’s strong suit thanks to its very tempting price/capacity ratio (less than $0.25/GB) the BX200 960GB by Crucial gets highly recommended by us (especially to gamers).

 

PROS


- Very Good Price / Capacity Ratio ($0.25/GB)
- Read Performance Levels
- 3 Year Warranty
- Bundle (7mm to 9.5mm bracket & Acronis Migration Software)

 

CONS


- Write Performance Levels
- Endurance Numbers (Compared To Its Immediate Competition)