MyDigitalSSD BP3 256GB mSATA SSD Review

We took a closer look at the new 256GB BP3 SSD ($279.99) from MyDigitalSSD and we tested it in a wide variety of notebooks to see just want this storage solution can do.

The BP3 mSATA SSD is meant to serve as a lower cost alternative mSATA SSD and it isn't meant to compete against the fastest SATA SSDs using Sandforce controllers. The key items of note with the BP3 are a capacity of up to 256GB (not common for mSATA SSDs at the time of this writing), faster performance and lower cost than a traditional SATA HDD, good reliability (MyDigitalSSD claims to have less than a 0.02% defect rate) and it likely outperforms the stock mSATA SSD shipped in current Ultrabooks or premium notebooks. 

The BP3 is backwards compatible with SATA II for older notebooks that don't have a SATA III motherboard that support 6GB/s speeds (more on that later in this review). Of course, regardless of whether you're using 3GB/s speeds or 6GB/s speeds the power consumption of the mSATA module is much lower than a traditional SATA hard drive.

Major Tom To Flash Control(ler)

The Phison S-Module III S8 controller in the MyDigitalSSD BP3 SSD is what allows the Toshiba NAND flash modules to take advantage of the Serial ATA III interface speeds. The S-Module III S8 is based on the mSATA form factor which is generated by JEDEC and designed to operate at a maximum operating frequency of 300MHz with capacities up to 256GB. MyDigitalSSD claims the controller can reach 500MB/s throughput based on ONFI/Toggle NAND (with DDR3 cache enabled and measured by CrystalDiskMark).

Additional Specification Highlights Include:

• 24nm Toshiba Toggle-Mode NAND Flash
• 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
• 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 (1.8V for ONFI Flash and 3.3V for conventional Asynchronous Flash)
• DDR3 Interface: 16 bit data bus, 480MHz clock rate
• Three year replacement warranty

Now let's take a closer look at the performance ...