Crucial M225 Overview
Out of all the solid state drives we have reviewed this is the largest one at 256GB. It is still the same size as all of the other 2.5-inch solid state drives we have reviewed. On the front there is a sticker that lets you know this is a 256GB drive. The back of the drive is plain but the exterior of the drive is made of brushed aluminum, which not only looks good, but will protect your drive as well.
Like all solid state drives the M225 has the necessary SATA power and data connections so no special connections are necessary. Instead of the normal screws in the assembly of the drive Crucial uses Torx screws; I guess this is to deter people from opening the drive up. Crucial has also integrated standard 2.5-inch mounting points around the drive for easily installation.
Just because the M225 has the Torx screws did not mean we were not going to be able to get inside. Luckily I do have a Torx screwdriver set and I was easily able to open the drive up to see what was inside. To my surprise the M225 was laid out a bit differently from other SSD drives based on the Indilinx Barefoot controller. It looks like this drive actually uses 2 PCB boards instead of just one, maybe because of the large amount of storage (256GB) 2 boards are actually needed. So when I opened the drive up I was looking at the backside of the memory board so I couldn’t even get a glimpse of the Indilinx Barefoot controller.
From what we know this drive is based off the Indilinx Barefoot controller and it also had the 64MB cache chip from Elpida. Here is an overview on how the Barefoot controller works.
