[section_title title=”Closer Look”]Closer Look
So starting out with the packaging, the Crucial MX100 256GB SSD comes in a primarily blue box with a silhouette style MX on the right-hand side. There is an illustration of the MX100 drive itself in the centre and in the bottom left hand corner has information pertaining to the size; in this case 256GB but the MX100 is also available in 128GB and 512GB sizes.
The rear features information regarding the contents but surprisingly nothing whatsoever on the specifications of the drive; quite strange in my opinion. It does however drive you to a URL which includes an install guide and warranty information; this is in multiple EU languages and Russian.
Inside the box, we have the Crucial MX100 256GB SSD itself which comes in a sealed anti-static bag and underneath the plastic insert, is an Acronis True Image HD activation code; a nice touch but it would have been nice to have a quick installation guide, for those not to competent at doing it themselves. There are however links on the back of the packaging as previously mentioned to a location on the Crucial website as to where you can download them from.
Now for the feature of the review, the Crucial MX100 256GB SSD itself. The MX100 features a 7mm design which is easily compatible with Ultrabook’s and is classified as a 2.5” drive; unlike regular HDDs which sit in the 3.5” category. It has a very nice silver metallic finish around the main casing of the drive with a blue sticker which has a silhouette MX logo across the majority of it; same as the design on the packaging. I actually like the contrasting silver and blue design; it looks premium and for a budget drive, it actually feels premium too.
Also featured is mounting holes which can also be found on the sides; this allows this particular SSD to fit any chassis that supports 2.5” storage drives.
The Crucial MX100 256GB SSD features the Marvel 88SS9189-BLD2 controller based upon 16nm MLC NAND; Micron of course. It is run over an SATA 6GB/s interface with 16 flash chips in total installed onto the PCB which also features a DRAM chip. Although Crucial are using the same controller as featured on the previous M550, it features 16nm chips instead of 19nm ones which should make for some very interesting testing; it should be competitive with drives which sit above it in cost.
Although this is a 256GB SSD, you need to be aware of storage provisioning which leaves around 238.5GB usable once the drive is installed into your system; standard with any consumer SSD or HDD.
Last but not least we have the rear of the drive which features the same metallic silver finish as the rest of the drive. The white label sticker is a feature on literally every SSD and in particular, this one features all the relevant information such as serial number, brand, model number and country of origin; in his drives case, China.
Upon first impressions with the specs of the drive, the current price and the very nice aesthetics, I can’t wait to put this drive on the test bench…
