Conclusion:

Crucial has a very appealing line of solid state drives on their hands with the RealSSD C300 series. By utilizing a controller capable of SATA 6Gbps transfers, they have taken the high speed performance expected of SSDs and taken it to another level.

Testing showed the read speed to be as good, if not better than, the published specifications. Considering the specifications rate if for a blazing fast maximum of 355MB/s, that is definitely impressive. The maximum write speed is listed at 140MB/s, which is a far less amazing number than what we have on the read side of things. Testing confirmed that this speed is definitely achievable, but many other drives on the market are able to go this fast, or faster.



While I would obviously like to have the best of both worlds, with blazing fast read and write speeds, if I had to choose only one to optimize it would be the read speed. In typical every day usage, more read operations will be performed, and more of these will be time critical events... Booting up, launching applications, playing games, and so on.

Crucial also offers this drive with capacities of 64GB ($149.99) and 256GB ($649.99), so they have the typical capacities covered, as well as quite a large price range. What has not been mentioned so far is that while the maximum read speed is the same at all three capacities, the write speeds vary greatly. The maximum for the 64GB drive is rated for just 75MB/s, we have seen that the 128GB drive performs just above the rated 140MB/s, and the 256GB drive is rated for 215MB/s. The 256GB drive seems like a performance monster, and its just too bad those write speeds weren't available at the other capacities.

The RealSSD C300 series of solid state drives can be purchased from a variety of online retailers. The 128GB version sells for about $300 (US) or more at the time this review was posted. You can buy it directly from the Crucial store for $299.99 (with free shipping), or you could go to Newegg.com where it will set you back $369.00 plus $3.99 for shipping. It is rare to see Newegg not have the best price on something, but here they aren't even close and buying direct seems like a no-brainer. That said, the price for this SSD is $50 to $100 more than 128GB units from other manufacturers, although none of these other drives can offer the read performance of the RealSSD C300.



Pros:

» Capable of blazing fast read speeds
   » Exceeded 355MB/s rated read speed during testing with SATA 6Gbps controller
   » Still fast on SATA 3Gbps connector (365MB/s)
» Supports everything you might expect and more: NCQ, SMART, TRIM, SATA 6Gbps
» 3-year warranty

Cons:

» Write speeds for the 128GB model are just average
» Each capacity comes with different write speed specifications
» Price tag

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