Packaging and Contents

The Drive

The drive conforms to the dimensions set forth by the 2.5" form factor. It is made out of metal to improve its durability and is only 7 mm thick, which makes it compatible with Intel's Ultrabook specification.


The Mushkin Source 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 four flash chips on the PCB. As mentioned before, a DRAM chip is not included; more details on that later.


The Silicon Motion SM2258 is a four-channel flash controller; the used XT variant denotes support for DRAM-less SSD designs.


The four 3D TLC flash chips are of unknown origin. For cost optimization, Mushkin tests and bins the chips and puts them inside their own packaging.