Conclusion
In today’s SSD market, most of the key factors between drive series lie with their associated feature sets. True performance differentiation in real-world scenarios is hard to come by and it that fact which makes the BX100 so appealing. It isn’t a synthetic benchmark junky or an SSD that can pull double duty in a workstation environment but Crucial’s newest addition offers enough grunt to satisfy just about anyone and does so at a ridiculously affordable price.
One of the BX100’s more interesting bullet points is its use of the relatively unknown Silicon Motion 2246EN controller. While we will see this chip again as other companies roll out their competing wares, Crucial took an educated leap of faith and ended up with a very capable back-end for their value-market darling.
When placed directly against the MX200, it becomes obvious that the BX100 has been left to fight alone in the budget marketplace but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a certain amount of overlap going on here. For those who care about raw performance the MX200 may cost nearly 20% more but it offers quite a few more features and, at times, leaves its little brother in the dust.
If anything the BX100 shows how quickly SSDs have come in a short amount of time. The M550 was launched less than a year ago and its 1TB version cost $530 and now we have an entry level drive that either beats or matches its performance….and costs $130 less.
Since the BX100 has a meager 4 channel controller it tends to be easily outclassed by a lot of mainstream SSDs. But that is to be expected as it does not have to compete against mainstream options. Rather, it only has to outclass the aging SF2281 based drives or Samsung TLC NAND based options which have dominated the value SSD marketplace in recent quarters. In either such comparison the BX100's abilities are sure to please. Consumers not only get better overall performance, but also better, more durable NAND. Such a value is to us the very epitome of what a true budget drive should strive for.
Thanks to Crucial's constant efforts to improve the SSD market they are now in the enviable position of having <i>two</i> of the best value drives money can buy. More importantly, we think the BX100 will help pave the way for even more options in the low-cost, high quality segment and that is something the SSD marketplace is in dire need of.
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<img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/akg/Storage/BX100/di.png" border="0" alt="" />
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Conclusion
In today’s SSD market, most of the key factors between drive series lie with their associated feature sets. True performance differentiation in real-world scenarios is hard to come by and it that fact which makes the BX100 so appealing. It isn’t a synthetic benchmark junky or an SSD that can pull double duty in a workstation environment but Crucial’s newest addition offers enough grunt to satisfy just about anyone and does so at a ridiculously affordable price.
One of the BX100’s more interesting bullet points is its use of the relatively unknown Silicon Motion 2246EN controller. While we will see this chip again as other companies roll out their competing wares, Crucial took an educated leap of faith and ended up with a very capable back-end for their value-market darling.
When placed directly against the MX200, it becomes obvious that the BX100 has been left to fight alone in the budget marketplace but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a certain amount of overlap going on here. For those who care about raw performance the MX200 may cost nearly 20% more but it offers quite a few more features and, at times, leaves its little brother in the dust.
If anything the BX100 shows how quickly SSDs have come in a short amount of time. The M550 was launched less than a year ago and its 1TB version cost $530 and now we have an entry level drive that either beats or matches its performance….and costs $130 less.
Since the BX100 has a meager 4 channel controller it tends to be easily outclassed by a lot of mainstream SSDs. But that is to be expected as it does not have to compete against mainstream options. Rather, it only has to outclass the aging SF2281 based drives or Samsung TLC NAND based options which have dominated the value SSD marketplace in recent quarters. In either such comparison the BX100's abilities are sure to please. Consumers not only get better overall performance, but also better, more durable NAND. Such a value is to us the very epitome of what a true budget drive should strive for.
Thanks to Crucial's constant efforts to improve the SSD market they are now in the enviable position of having <i>two</i> of the best value drives money can buy. More importantly, we think the BX100 will help pave the way for even more options in the low-cost, high quality segment and that is something the SSD marketplace is in dire need of.
<div align="center">
<img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/akg/Storage/BX100/di.png" border="0" alt="" />
</div>
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