The Crucial m4 mSATA SSD delivers all of the award-winning performance and reliability of the Crucial m4 SSD – in a drive that’s an eighth of the size. It enables blazing fast system boot up and program launch on mSATA equipped desktop or laptop computers.
Award-winning performance. Tiny form factor.Measuring in at about one-third the size of a standard business card (3cm x 5cm), the Crucial m4 mSATA is designed primarily for ultrathin laptop users who want to dramatically increase their system's performance. Featuring the same advanced controller technology, Micron custom firmware and high-speed synchronous MLC NAND that have made the Crucial m4 SSD a mainstay on the market, the Crucial m4 mSATA SSD is engineered to deliver the same blazing-fast performance as the award-winning 2.5-inch SSD – in a smaller mSATA form factor.
Ultrathin form factor means flexibility.Because of its tiny mSATA form factor, the Crucial m4 mSATA SSD can do things that hard drives and other SSDs often can't. With the Crucial m4 mSATA SSD, save valuable system space by mounting it directly to the mSATA socket on your motherboard – and free up a hard drive bay in the process. Or just keep your existing hard drive and use the Crucial m4 mSATA SSD as a cache to accelerate the system's performance. Validated for Intel Smart Response Technology and NVELO Dataplex caching software, it's designed to work as a cache or as a standalone SSD for ultrathin laptops. No matter how you use the Crucial m4 mSATA SSD, experience high-performance storage in a tiny, low-power package.
Consistently fast speeds. No exceptions and no fine print.There's a reason that Crucial SSDs have garnered numerous international awards – they do what they're supposed to do. No matter what kind of files you're working with on a Crucial SSD, you'll experience high speeds with no drop in performance. Unlike other SSDs on the market, Crucial SSDs treat all files the same, regardless of whether they're compressed or uncompressed. This is important because the files most people use everyday – videos, mp3s, advanced graphics files and zip files – are compressed files and thus unable to be compressed any further. While many SSDs on the market achieve faster speeds by using file compression, many of the most common file types can't be compressed, resulting in SSDs that often deliver drastically slower speeds than originally advertised. With the advanced technology of a Crucial SSD, however, the advertised speeds are tied to real world use.
Crucial - quality you can depend on.Crucial is a trusted name when it comes to SSDs, and that's no coincidence. As a brand of Micron, one of the world's leading manufacturers of SSDs, Crucial engineers work tirelessly to design, refine, and support a powerful line of SSDs.
Learn more about the Crucial CT256M4SSD3
Model
Brand
Crucial
Series
M4
Model
CT256M4SSD3
Device Type
Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)
Used For
Consumer
Details
Capacity
256GB
Memory Components
MLC
Interface
Mini-SATA (mSATA)
Controller
Marvell
Performance
Max Sequential Read
Up to 500 MB/s
Max Sequential Write
Up to 260 MB/s
4KB Random Read
Up to 45,000 IOPS
4KB Random Write
Up to 50,000 IOPS
MTBF
1,200,000 hours
Features
Features
Powerful SSD performance in a tiny mSATA form factor
Ultrathin form factor provides lightweight mobility
Features blazing-fast speeds
Treats compressed and uncompressed files the same, resulting in consistently fast speeds
Nice SSD for Asus EP121 Tablet4/17/2013 1:38:25 PM
Pros: Very fast drive, easy to install, fit right into my Asus EP121 to replace the 32 GB SSD it came with.
Cons: Required some finesse to get the EP121 stable, had to find a modded BIOS version 704 and flash, but has been stable ever since (1 week)
Overall Review: Crucial advertises this drive as Guaranteed Compatible with the ASUS EP121 tablet PC. It fits nicely and is easy to replace. Easily load windows 7 via the ASUS recovery disks, do not need to preformat the drive or anything - just pop it in and start loading software. However, Windows will BSOD anytime I wake from sleep or hibernate. Did some searching through the Tablet PC Review forums, some opinions that this is related to some kind of timing issue related to the speed of the drive being much faster than the original SanDisk 32GB SSD that it came with.
There is a Modded BIOS available from CF77, be sure to flash this BIOS before installing this SSD! Will work perfectly only with that BIOS - None of the ASUS BIOS versions will work!
Sweet having 256GB on what is my favorite Windows Tablet ever!
Overall Review: I bought my m4 over a year ago, and installed it in my Inspiron XPS17. I take this laptop on my back (on my bike) to and from work every day, so it went through a couple of standard hard drives. I was bitten by the infamous bug in the initial firmware release, and had to reformat and reflash the firmware (Version F). Since then, the drive has been flawless while being heavily used every day. I triple boot win7, win8 and Ubuntu on the drive, and also run some VMWare images.
CrystalDiskInfo says it still has 98% of its life, after a Power On Count of 1190 and a Power On Hours Count of 5563.
Other tech info - in that 5563 hours of use, crystaldisk info reports 0 erase failures, 0 program fails, 0 Sata Interface Downshifts, 0 Error Corrections, 105 unexpected power loss count (when Ive forced it to power cycle) 0 write errors.
This thing is the most awesome laptop upgrade I've ever bought.
Pros: .
- Blazing fast speeds
- Marvell controller is solid and virtually bug free
- Plays nicely with my Intel DQ77MK motherboard
- Works great on Linux and supports TRIM
Cons: .
None
Overall Review: A few things to note... although this SSD is rated at SATA III 6 Gbps speeds, most desktop motherboards I have encountered in the wild connect the mSATA port to the slower SATA II bus. Fortunately, in real world usage tests, I hardly notice the difference in performance.
Also, if you are using the GNU/Linux operating systems, be sure to enable TRIM support via the discard option in your fstab or create a cronjob to initiate a TRIM command every day, in order to keep the drive speedy.
best upgrade after initial purchase2/25/2013 10:03:41 PM
Pros: A lot of memory for a very small form factor. I have a Clevo/Sager custom laptop. The card was very easy to install. It took longer finding some of my drivers for my printer and downloading Windows updates (I need to check that they all downloaded.), than it did to initially put the card in and load Windows on it. Very fast.
Cons: I can see where some would complain about the lack of instructions, but you need to do your homework before install. Especially in laptops, compatibility and setup are not necessarily for the novice or light hobby person. So I'm listing this as a con only to warn you that if you don't know what you are doing, think about having someone who knows what they are doing install it.
Overall Review: I only wish my budget would have allowed me to put this in when I purchased the laptop. Great upgrade.
Pros: Small (like any mSATA), fast, not Sandforce. High capacity.
Cons: Doesn't include the mSATA mounting screw, but that's really not the fault of the drive. That would be a nice "extra" to include with it though.
Overall Review: Using this on the underside of an ASRock Z77-ITX. That's only SATA 3Gb/s, but the drive is much faster than the 6Gb/s hybrid drive I was using before. If you need a large mSATA SSD, there's nothing not to like here. The mobo didn't include a mounting screw, but an old screw from a graphics card's heat sink fit.
It was AWESOME... for 4 months...8/2/2013 10:41:42 AM
Pros: Never had a problem with it until now. It was blazing fast!
Cons: It lasted a few months!
Overall Review: I was using my laptop and suddenly noticed that I couldn't open any programs. About 5 minutes ago it had booted without a hitch and now it isn't even detected in the BIOS.
Pros: Very fast drive, easy to install, fit right into my Asus EP121 to replace the 32 GB SSD it came with.
Cons: Required some finesse to get the EP121 stable, had to find a modded BIOS version 704 and flash, but has been stable ever since (1 week)
Overall Review: Crucial advertises this drive as Guaranteed Compatible with the ASUS EP121 tablet PC. It fits nicely and is easy to replace. Easily load windows 7 via the ASUS recovery disks, do not need to preformat the drive or anything - just pop it in and start loading software. However, Windows will BSOD anytime I wake from sleep or hibernate. Did some searching through the Tablet PC Review forums, some opinions that this is related to some kind of timing issue related to the speed of the drive being much faster than the original SanDisk 32GB SSD that it came with. There is a Modded BIOS available from CF77, be sure to flash this BIOS before installing this SSD! Will work perfectly only with that BIOS - None of the ASUS BIOS versions will work! Sweet having 256GB on what is my favorite Windows Tablet ever!