MyDigitalSSD BP4 240GB mSATA Review

Introduction

We've already published reports of MyDigitalSSD's 2.5" Bullet Proof 4 (BP4) in the 2.5" size and found it to be the least power-hungry SSD on the market. MyDigitalSSD also has a new mSATA version that uses the same Phison S8 controller and new firmware that increases the drive's overprovisioning. In our testing, the new firmware came with more than just a significant performance increase from the BP3 - also increased battery life.

MyDigitalSSD set new battery life standards with the BP4 and at this time they are equal to the early SandForce B02 stepping products that we've tested in the lab. In a month we'll be at Computex Taipei 2013 and B02 should be all over the place in new products, but until then, MyDigitalSSD's BP4 is the battery life king... and they might even have the crown after Computex, too. The main difference for those buying today, the BP4 is available now and has been on sale at Amazon for over a month already.

MDSSD's BP4 uses the same controller found in the BP3, the Phison S8. As we've mentioned before, most SSD's are just simply FPGA chips and the programming / firmware is more important than the actual silicon, most of the time. Holding that statement true today, the Phison S8 in the BP4 is programmed for increased overprovisioning - that's why the marketing capacity is now 240GB. The data performance is also faster on the BP4. Random data is quicker due to new programming, and sequential performance is faster thanks to new Toshiba 19nm Toggle Type B flash.

The mSATA market is really starting to heat up and several notebooks / ultrabooks cut the red ribbon in around a month's time. In order to meet low pricing demands by customers, many of the OEMs have turned to older, slower designs that cost less than new exciting products. Soon to market low-cost ultrabooks with small cache SSD's paired with HDD's will require an upgrade to full flash based mSATA drives to make your ultrabook perform like your desktop with an SSD in it now. With the slots present, dropping in a large SSD is still the best bang for the buck upgrade most users can do, without diving under the notebook skin too deep.