Introduction

In our first Crucial solid state drive review we tested the companies first generation product at the same time other companies were releasing their second and third generation drives. As you can imagine, the drive didn't perform as well as the newer drives. A few months after the review, Lexar, the parent company of Crucial, announced that a new SSD was headed our way, but after weeks of waiting we found out that the product wouldn't materialize. Looking back now it is easy to see why Crucial let the paper launch turn into vaporware; JMicron drives were all the rage and even though everyone knew about the issues that accompanied them, the companies still released the drives, all except for Crucial.

We have tested several Indilinx Barefoot drives from a wide range of manufacturers and have yet to find an issue that would keep us from recommending the controller to both notebook and desktop users. It is obvious that Crucial does their fair share of internal product testing which goes a long way with end users who want a product that already has the little issues worked out. The solid state market is moving along very quickly and the M225 Series might be a little late for the power users that must have the latest and greatest as soon as possible. But Crucial recognizes that the Barefoot controller has been out for a few months now so they are going to compete on a different level, cost.

When we reviewed the G.Skill Falcon we made a point to show that the drive was one of the first Barefoot drives on the market and that the drive had the lowest price point of all the 128GB drives with the same controller. Since then we have observed that the Patriot Torqx (256GB) has a Newegg price of 699 USD, the Super Talent UltraDrive ME is 619 USD and the G.Skill Titan (JMicron controller) is 599 USD. The Crucial M225 has an MSRP of 599 in 256GB capacity and we should see the drive priced lower once it hits the e-tail market. In short, right from the launch the Crucial M225 in 256GB capacity is the lowest priced Barefoot controlled SSD on the market. Let's move on and see what else the M225 has to offer.