Introduction

Crucial, a subsidiary of Micron, a world leader in memory and flash production, brought us such wonderful SSDs as the M500 and MX100. Their latest new release is the Crucial MX200 reviewed today. It is built on Crucial's well-tested foundation of a Marvell 88SS9189 controller with 16 nanometer flash chips by Micron.

Crucial added a new feature it calls "Dynamic Write Acceleration" to the MX200. It dynamically runs some of the drive's flash storage in (faster) SLC mode, but reverts to MLC mode when space becomes an issue. SSDs from competing manufacturers offer similar features, but only for a fixed-portion of the drive's capacity. Crucial's method, on the other hand, is fully dynamic.

The MX200 is available in capacities of 250 GB, 500 GB and 1 TB.

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.