Introduction

Crucial, a subsidiary of Micron, a world leader in memory and flash production, brought us such wonderful SSDs as the BX100 and MX100, which also came at an aggressive price point.

Today, we are reviewing the Crucial BX200 SSD with an even lower price point than the BX100. It use a slightly newer Silicon Motion SM2256EN controller, as opposed to the SM2246EN which was introduced with the BX100. The big change here is the switch to Micron's new triple-layer-cell (TLC) flash, which is more cost effective because it can store more data per cell, although at less performance.

In order to boost TLC chip performance to make up for the ground lost over MLC, Crucial allocated a small amount of memory (6 GB on their 480 GB model) as SLC cache, which writes a bit to each TLC cell, instead of three. While much faster, such a setup is basically a speed vs. size tradeoff.

The BX200 comes in capacities of 240 GB, 480 GB, and 960 GB - a 120 GB model is missing.

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.


Like most recent SSDs, the Crucial BX200 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 eight flash chips on the PCB. A DRAM chip is also present; it provides the SSD controller with RAM.


The Silicon Motion SM2256 controller is the same as on the previous BX100 model. It is a more cost effective controller than the Marvell chips used on Crucial's higher-end SSDs.


The eight TLC flash chips, produced by Micron, are built on a 16 nanometer process.