Transcend 256GB SATA III 6Gb/s MSA370 mSATA SSD 370 Solid State Drive TS256GMSA370

This 64GB mSATA SSD has very fast (sequential) read speeds with notably slower writes. The 64GB size I bought is convenient for replacing small system drives or other embedded purposes, but will be on the small side for most modern storage purposes. I used mine in a MSI Cubi mini-PC, where it has been running 24/7 for the past six months. Despite the low-end system (and presumably low-end controller), this Transcend clocked sequential read-speeds well above 450MB/s. The mSATA format itself is obsoleted by the M.2 (and U.2) format; given the choice, go with the newer formats. M.2 will generally cost no more than mSATA, offer a greater range of sizes, and M.2 interfaces often accommodate non-SATA drives as well. Here's how FreeBSD 11 saw the drive in my Cubi: ada1: <TS64GMSA370 O1225G> ACS-2 ATA SATA 3.x device ada1: 600.000MB/s transfers (SATA 3.x, UDMA6, PIO 1024bytes) ada1: Command Queueing enabled ada1: 61057MB (125045424 512 byte sectors) I usually think of Transcend as a removable media manufacturer, but I suppose it's not a big leap from flash-based media to flash-based SSD products. I've been pleased with this unit's performance and would buy again.

I decided to give the 512GB version a try after reading an excellent review on a tech site. The review was correct--the 512GB version offers excellent performance at a very low price. (The smaller drives are not as fast.) I used this to replace a Samsung 840 Evo of similar capacity, which has been subject to repeated firmware problems. I much prefer the Transcend. The Transcend has similar performance but has been free of firmware problems. I also like the fact that it uses MLC flash memory rather than the TLC that is used in the lower-end Samsung Evo drives. For those who care, this Transcend drive also provides excellent compatibility with Linux--no problems whatsoever. If you are looking for an inexpensive mSATA drive with excellent performance and reliability, this drive is a great choice. My Samsung 840 Evo is headed to eBay!

I've got a half dozen of these so far (64GB size), and all are working perfectly. I just ordered several more. My use imposes only a very light write-cycle load, so I do not particularly care that the 64GB size has rather slower write-speed capacity than the larger sized units. I am experimenting with these for use in an embedded system that is based on the PC-Engines APU platform running FreeBSD 10.2 with the UFS file system.

The drive went into an 11 year old Thinkpad T41 retrofitted with a PATA to mSATA tray [v.v. why court disaster with an 11 year old Hibachi DeskStar [DeathStar] drive; and, it sure beats using a SanDisk 64GB micro Thumb Drive for the boot]. It's cheap at 60% of a contemporary higher performance mSATA drive. With caddy, replacing the original, still operational mechanical drive was $62; Easeus DiskCopy works fine, and its free ... but, be sure to disable to Chines Hackware that DiskCopy will leave behind. Debian Jessie is both happy and snappy on the new drive, I have a 14-inch 1280-960 screen, and plenty of room to capture and store thousands of micrographs. This drive isn't spec'd for high performance. However, drive performance far exceeds the old laptop's maximum IDE bus write speed. Transcend uses a Samsung controller with Micron MLC's, so I hope that the drive holds out for another few years of use..

No real issues. Just plugged it in and started loading from a portable DVD drive. Seems fast but since the machine is a firewall/router drive speed doesn't seem to matter too much. Size is much more than needed, probably could have gotten by with a smaller drive. But, bigger is better, isn't that so?

Don't expect fast performance, you get what you pay for.

Originally purchased this in March. Around October it started having problems so I reinstalled windows. Now it is completely dead. Won't even be detected by the BIOS. I use that computer about once a week so it did not see heavy usage.

Have a commercial printer/copier/scanner- sharp MX3070N. Got an error, chased it down to a likely failure of an SSD on an internal PCB that is a temp storage for images... replaced it with this Transcend, pulled the image off the old failed drive (THAT took 4 hrs!), but fixed the problem. Service call would have been $450. Probably a million to one shot if anyone fixing an MX3070N will see this review. Maybe 10 million. ;)