MyDigitalSSD BP3 256GB mSATA SSD Review Storage   Page 1

Reviewer: Jon Coulter Article Publish Date: 7/12/2012

 

 

 

 

Introduction

 

 

 

MyDigitalSSD has just updated firmware for their new budget friendly line of SSD’s, the Bullet Proof 3 series. The drive we are going to take a look at today is the BP3 256GB mSATA drive from MyDigitalSSD. MyDigitalSSD's new Bullet Proof 3 series SATA 6Gbps mSATA takes aim directly at the low cost, mainstream performance category. The BP3 is the successor to the Bullet Proof 2, an mSATA 3Gbps series of drives. Yesterday, Matt Dawson, owner of MyDigitalSSD, was kind enough to email us a new firmware for the BP3. The previous firmware was actually a modified version of BP2 firmware. The new firmware (S8FM03.2) is built exclusively for the Phison S8 SSD flash processor that finds its home at the heart of the BP3 series of drives. BP3 drives are powered by a Phison S8 Controller that’s paired with 24nm Toshiba Toggle NAND. Phison (click here) is company that many of you have probably not heard of. Phison is a company known for building high quality products for OEM’s with a very low failure rate. Phison produces their products in the same factories as Toshiba uses to produce their OEM SSD’s. Phison’s new S8 controller is one that will be making a considerable amount of noise in the world of SSD’s starting today.

 

MyDigitalSSD is dedicated to bringing innovation and value to the consumer of memory products. The BP3 is their latest attempt to bring value and performance to the table. Here is what MyDigital Discount themselves, have to say about the BP3:   

 

UltraBook, Tablet, and Hybrid HDD/mSATA owners rejoice!

The cost efficient high speed mSATA upgrade you've been looking for is here with the reliability you've come to expect from MyDigitalSSD Bullet Proof SSDs.

Introducing MyDigitalSSD Bullet Proof 3 (BP3) 50mm mSATA III solid state drives for Notebooks, Ultrabooks, Tablets, and Desktop computers. BP3 drives are easy to install SSD upgrades that eliminate the bottle-neck of stock hard drives (HDDs) and double the performance of SATA II SSDs with speed boosts that not only increase productivity but lower energy consumption, prolonging battery life.

Backwards compatible with SATA II applications, BP3 drives will peg SATA II BUS speeds in most cases.

 

About the Controller

MyDigitalSSD BP3 SSDs feature the Phison S-Module III S8 controller to deliver all the advantages of Flash Disk technology with the Serial ATA III interface, fully compliant with standard mSATA form factor. The S-Module III S8 is based on the mSATA form factor which is generated by JEDEC, designed to operate at a maximum operating frequency of 300MHz with 40MHz external crystal. Its capacity could provide a wide range up to 256GB. Also it can reach 500MB/s throughput based on ONFI/Toggle NAND (with DDR3 cache enabled and measured by CrystalDiskMark). Also the power consumption of mSATA module is much lower than traditional Hard Drive.

 

Highlights

• Unequaled price to performance ratio
• 24nm Toshiba Toggle-Mode NAND Flash
• Large storage capacity
• Easy remove and replace installation
• SATA Revision 3.0 compliant: High-speed SATA 6Gb/s interface
• Compatible with SATA 1.5G/s, 3Gb/s interface
• Support DDR3 I/O interface
• Power management supported
• NCQ command set
• TRIM support
• RAID support
• Three year replacement warranty

Features

• High and Reliable ECC capability up to 24bits/sector
• Bit error monitoring and management
• Dynamic and static wear-leveling
• Dynamic bad block management
• ONFI2.0 and Toggle2 Interface support
• Supports 1.8V and 3.3V voltage level
  - Supports 1.8V for ONFI Flash
  - Supports 3.3V for conventional Asynchronous Flash
• DDR3 Interface
  - 16 bit data bus
  - Clock Rate: 480MHz

 

 

Some of you may not know it but, Real World Labs is owned by the world’s foremost storage reviewer, Chris Ramseyer Last night I began running the BP3 mSATA 256GB through our review gauntlet. It immediately became apparent that the BP3 had undergone a performance transformation with this new firmware. I shot Chris a few benches and he, like myself, was blown away by the performance.  So here we are today bringing you a first look at the MyDigitalSSD Bullet Proof 3 256GB mSATA drive with firmware revision S8FM03.2