Mushkin Source 250GB 2.5″ SATA3 SSD Review

Introduction Mushkin Source 250GB 2.5" SATA3 SSD Review Mushkin announced the Source SSD back in January and it has been available on the market for some time. Today, I'll take the 250GB 2.5-Inch model (product link) for a spin on my test bench and see what kind of performance and endurance it can deliver. It is a classic SATA3 drive which does set some limitations when compared to the newer NVMe drives. Mushkin Source SATA3 SSD Muskin created the Source in two different form factors, each with four different capacity options. There's a traditional 2.5-inch version as well as a modern M.2 form factor. Both of the form factors have the same capacity options of 120GB, 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB. With such an arsenal of options, compatibility with your systems shouldn't be an issue. There's one for every usage scenario. Muskin utilises the Silicon Motion SMI SM2258XT controller which is a DRAM-less controller. It is designed for low write environments which does set some limitations but also allows the products to be affordable. The controller is coupled with Micron 64-layer 3D TLC memory which always is a great choice. Drive Performance, Endurance, and Warranty The performance goes a little bit up and down depending on the capacity, but not a lot. The 250GB model which I'm testing today has a maximum sequential read and write performance of 560MB/s and 515MB/s. The random performance is rated at 54K and 81K IOPS when reading and writing. There is no official TBW rating available for this drive, but we do get an MTBF of 1.5 million hours. Mushkin backs the Source with a 3-year warranty. Features Every SSD needs a long list of features to perform as we've come to expect it. For Mushkin drives, all those features are combined in the MEDS system. MEDS stands for Mushkin Enhanced Data-protection Suite which ensures that your valuable data is protected. The suite includes Built-in LDPC ECC and StaticDataRefresh technology for data integrity. Also included are Data shaping and global wear-levelling for increased endurance. The performance numbers are boosted by SLC caching which accelerates burst performance, a common method. Other drive features include Device Sleep mode (DEVSLP) which allows the drive to consume less power when the device is put into sleep mode. Basics such as Security Erase, S.M.A.R.T., and TRIM are also part of the package What Does Mushkin Have to Say About the Drive? Source SSDs are ideal for mainstream computing – from gaming desktops and notebooks to mini-PCs (NUCs) and everything in between. Offered in 2.5” and M.2 2280 form factors, the Source Series is an excellent choice for almost any system. “The market has never been more ready for SSDs,” says Brian Flood, Director of Product Development for Mushkin Enhanced MFG. “With the ultimate balance of value, capacity, and performance, the Source Series leverages all of the great benefits expected from an SSD without breaking the bank.” Feature Highlights High compatibility with M.2 and 2.5-inch models Available from 120GB and up to 1TB Micron 64-layer 3D NAND and Silicon Motion SM2258XT Controller 3-Year Warranty Package and Accessories Mushkin packed the Source in a simple blister packaging. While it's simple, it has the advantage of showcasing the included product really well. There's an inlet too which highlights some of the advances of the drive. Inside the box is the drive itself, but also a small thank you for the purchase note and a sticker for your chassis, laptop cover, or somewhere else where you'll want to show that you own a Mushkin product. Testing & Methodology In a bid to make our testing as thorough and as accurate as possible, we have devised a testing methodology that will give us the maximum amount of data. While this means that testing each drive will take considerably longer – easily up 36 hours – the overall picture that we can gather is bigger too. It helps both you as the reader and us as the reviewer’s to gain a clearer view of the drive’s overall performance, strengths, and weaknesses. It also provides a more accurate analysis of how each drive performs under different conditions. Data Fillage There are many ways to test a storage drive, and we have chosen to include close to every test possible. We will start with a typical benchmark analysis of the formatted drive with various village scenarios. However, depending on how a drive is built, the performance may differ depending on how much data it is already storing. Testing this, the drive will be tested empty as well as with 25%, 50%, and 75% space usage. For these tests, we will be using Anvil’s Storage Utilities, AS SSD Benchmark, ATTO Benchmark, and CrystalDiskMark. Application and Gaming Besides these synthetic fill tests, the drive is tested with PCMark 8’s storage benchmark to get real-world performance results. Plain Drive Performance Following the fillage tests, the partition gets removed, and we check the drive’s raw performance. These tests will determine the hardware’s capabilities while eliminating any interference from the set file system. AIDA64’s storage benchmark and IOmeter are both great tools for this, and they help us paint an even clearer picture of the drive. The IOmeter tests I run are quite different from the rest as they will give a final result after a longer performance test rather than a maximum or average score; this gives us yet another view of the tested drive over the regular tests. Drive Conditioning Durability is a vital factor when it comes to NAND-based drives as the chips only can be rewritten so many times before they’ll stop working properly. Modern SSDs come with wear-level algorithms to increase the lifetime and reduce this factor as much as possible. We also take this into consideration in our reviews even tho it would take years to simulate this under real-world conditions. Luckily, Anvil’s Storage Utilities comes with an endurance test that can perform this action much faster, but it is still a time-consuming process. Depending on the hardware, this can easily take several days, and we write thousands and thousands of small files in various sizes and compressibility to drive over and over. Following this conditioning process, all of the previous benchmarks will be run again in the same scenarios and the same order. This will give us a great view of how a drive will perform after prolonged usage, and that is a very vital factor when you pick out your storage drive. The Preparation and In Between The drive will be formatted as NTFS with default settings, as most users will do. The quick format option isn't used as that might affect the performance the first time data is written. Modern operating systems all take care of the TRIM command in the background and it isn’t something to worry about for regular users. However, for these reviews, I will add a waiting period between each benchmark to make sure that the TRIM command has been fully executed and finished. After all, we want a clear picture of the drive’s performance with minimal interference from the operating system. On each page that follows with the benchmark results, I have inserted result screenshots from the benchmarks, created drive analysis chart for the fill-level performance, and added drive comparison charts where possible. Hardware Supermicro C7Z270-PG Intel Core i7-7700K Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 2400MHz (4x8GB) Toshiba OCZ VX500 512GB SSD be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 (1200W) Noctua NH-D15S Cooler Master HAF XB EVO with Noctua NF-A14 FLX fans Software AIDA64 Storage Benchmark Anvil's Storage Utilities AS SSD Benchmark ATTO Benchmark CrystalDiskMark IOMeter PCMark 8 Storage Benchmark Windows 10 AIDA64 AIDA64 is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for home users with a broad range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring. The app has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives and is compatible with most Microsoft Windows operating systems. It also has a disk benchmark tool, and that is the one I'll be using. Fresh Drive The Linear Read and Write tests measure the sequential performance by reading or writing all sectors without skipping any. It gives us a view of the drives overall performance from start to end. The Random Read and Write tests measure the random performance by reading or writing variable-sized data blocks at random locations on the surface of the drive. The Random tests are a combination of both speed and access times as it moves the position before each new operation. The Access time tests are designed to measure the data access performance by reading or writing small 0.5KB data blocks at random locations on the drive surface. Conditioned Drive The Linear Read and Write tests measure the sequential performance by reading or writing all sectors without skipping any. It gives us a view of the drives overall performance from start to end. The Random Read and Write tests measure the random performance by reading or writing variable-sized data blocks at random locations on the surface of the drive. The Random tests are a combination of both speed and access times as it moves the position before each new operation. The Access time tests are designed to measure the data access performance by reading or writing small 0.5KB data blocks at random locations on the drive surface. Drive Performance Analysis With the performance analysis, we get a good view of the drive's consistency. The straight line and a higher average performance are the things to look for here. Anvil's Storage Utilities Anvil’s Storage Utilities is a complete benchmark solution used to test any writeable storage drive. It also has a drive endurance test that consistently reads and writes data to the selected medium to deliver days, months, and potentially even years of use in a shorter period. Fresh Drive Conditioned Drive Drive Performance Analysis With the performance analysis, we get a good view of the drive's consistency. We want as straight a line as possible for a good result. Drive Comparison For the drive comparison, we will use the performance figures from empty drives here. AS SSD Benchmark The AS SSD software determines the performance of Solid State Drives (SSD). The tool contains five synthetic and three practice tests. The synthetic tests determine the sequential and random read and write performance of the SSD, and they aren't using the operating system cache. The copy tests are cached and as such not viable results at this time. Fresh Drive Conditioned Drive Performance Analysis With the performance analysis, we get a good view of the drive's consistency. We want as straight a line as possible for a good result. Drive Comparison For the drive comparison, we will use the performance figures from empty drives here. ATTO The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Measure your storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customise your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. Fresh Drive Conditioned Drive Performance Analysis With the performance analysis, we get a good view of the drive's consistency. We want as straight a line as possible for a good result. Drive Comparison For the drive comparison, we will use the performance figures from empty drives here. CrystalDiskMark CrystalDiskMark is a small HDD and SSD benchmark utility that allows you to measure a drive's sequential and random performance. Fresh Drive Conditioned Drive Performance Analysis With the performance analysis, we get a good view of the drive's consistency. We want as straight a line as possible for a good result. Drive Comparison For the drive comparison, we will use the performance figures from empty drives here. IOMeter IOMeter is an I/O subsystem measurement and characterisation tool for single and clustered systems. As a benchmark and troubleshooting tool, it is configurable to replicate the behaviour of many popular applications. One commonly quoted measurement provided by the tool is IOPS. Sequential Performance Random 4K Performance Drive Comparison IOmeter is run on an unpartitioned drive. PCMark 8 Storage Benchmark PCMark 8 Storage benchmark tests the performance of SSDs, HDDs, and SSHD hybrid drives with traces recorded from Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office and a selection of games. You can test any recognised storage device, including local external drives. Unlike synthetic storage tests, the PCMark 8 Storage benchmark highlights real-world performance differences between storage devices. Fresh Drive Conditioned Drive Drive Comparison For the drive comparison, PCMark runs with an empty drive. Final Thoughts Pricing and Availability At the time of this review, Mushkin's Source with 250GB can be yours for as little as £34.42 or $45.51. Final Thoughts We can't really get too surprised by any SATA-based SSD these days, they are what they are and we've seen a lot of them before. That said, they're far from bad and a great step up from mechanical hard disk drives. Especially for the operating system. Mushkin offers the Source in the classic 2.5" form factor as well as the newer NGFF M.2 format. Both versions come with a capacity from 120GB to 1TB. The drive has a solid list of features with all the things you'll want, from SMART to ECC error correction code. Performance and Endurance The performance of the Source isn't groundbreaking, but it isn't bad either. It's a budget-oriented drive which means that this is to be expected. In return, you get it a lot cheaper than the faster models. Endurance isn't a problem either as the drive didn't show any difference between the fresh and conditioned tests. Pros High compatibility with Standard form factors and SATA3 interface Low asking price A cheap upgrade from your ageing HDD Available with up to 1TB Cons Not as fast as NVMe drives "Muskin Source is a classic SSD which is affordable through a low asking price. What's not to love about that?" We would like to thank Mushkin for this sample.