Packaging
The Drive
The drive conforms to the dimensions set forth by the 2.5" form factor. It is made of metal to improve its durability and is only 7 mm thick, which makes it compatible with Intel's Ultrabook specification. Compared to the MX100, the surface finish has changed a little bit, and the screws to open the drive have been removed as it now uses a clam-shell design.
Like most recent SSDs, the Crucial MX200 uses the SATA 6 Gbps interface. It is compatible with any older SATA standard, but will, in such a case, work at reduced performance.
You will find the SSD controller and 16 flash chips on the PCB. A DRAM chip is also present. It provides the SSD controller with RAM.
Crucial is using the same Marvell 88SS9189 controller as on the MX100, which is a slightly upgraded version of the controller used on the M500.
The 16 MLC flash chips are produced by Micron and are built on a 16 nanometer process.