Mtron Mobi 3000 SSD Review

by Kevin O'Brien

The 1.8" Mtron Mobi 3000 is a PATA SSD targeted towards a specific niche of users: those who own an Apple MacBook Air and certain netbooks. Offering low power consumption, high transfer speeds, and low seek times this drive gives users the ability to upgrade their computer, even with the not-so-common 1.8" form factor. In this review we take a look at the Mtron Mobi 3000 from RocketDisk and see how well it performs compared to other SSD’s and hard drives we have reviewed.

Mtron Mobi 3000 1.8” PATA SSD Specifications:

• Interface: 1.8” ZIF IDE, ATA 7 Standard
• SLC NAND Flash Memory
• Capacity: 32GB
• Form Factor: 1.8”
• 100MB/s Sustained Read
• 100MB/s Sustained Write
• 0.1ms Average Access Time
• Retail Price: $229

Mtron Mobi 3000 SSD next to iPod Shuffle for size comparison

Packaging
Normally we don’t bat an eye at the packaging a hard drive is shipped in, but Mtron really impressed us with the box housing the Mobi 3000. It is loaded with foam, protecting the drive with about an inch top and bottom, and probably 2 or 3 inches around the sides. The drive sits in the center inside an anti-static baggie, with another block of foam sitting on top of it to completely encase it within the foam shell. While it is normal to see stickers holding anti-static baggies shut, we think Mtron should use a different sticker for this sleeve. It doesn’t instill confidence in a consumer when the bag you open to take out the drive has “warranty will be void if this seal is broken or removed” sticker keeping it closed.

Performance
Mtron claims the Mobi 3000 has a sustained read and write speed of 100MB/s, which is right around the max transfer range of a PATA connection. With the SLC NAND flash, the interface is the bottleneck, instead of the internal drive transfer speeds. To test the Mobi 3000, we used one of our desktops and a 1.8” ZIF to 3.5” IDE adapter.

With the drive completely loaded with files, our first run of HDTune showed impressive results. Normally HDTune shows drops in transfer speeds between memory segments or during caching phases on SSDs, but this model stayed between 90 to 93MB/s during the entire test. This clearly shows that the drive had no problem keeping up with the slower PATA interface, where if it was using the faster SATA-150 or SATA-300 it would have had higher speeds. Now when compared to the original 80GB 1.8” Samsung hard drive in our original MacBook Air, the Mobi 3000 is three times faster, and with a much lower access time. The Atto benchmark had similar results, showing transfer speeds between 100MB/s and 90MB/s for read and write respectively.

Mtron Mobi 3000 1.8" PATA 32GB SSD	80GB Samsung 4200RPM 1.8"HDD
Mtron Mobi 3000 1.8" PATA 32GB SSD	OCZ Vertex 30GB 2.5" SATA SSD

Heat and Noise
The drive consumes very little power and during our tests only warmed up to 88 degrees Fahrenheit in open air. Compared to some SSD’s we have reviewed in the past that were almost too hot to touch after they had been on for a few hours, this was excellent. Noise levels are not a problem with any SSD, since they have no moving parts. The drive is completely silent, making your processor whine and cooling fan seem louder than before.

Power Consumption
Measured power usage was higher in both idle and load than the 2.5” OCZ Vertex SSD, and higher in idle than 5400rpm Hitachi and Seagate hard drives. Compared to the drive that comes standard in the MacBook Air, power consumption differences should be negligible. The main difference might come in where the SSD has less time under load, since it works faster and can process requests quicker and go back to idle quicker.

Hard Drive	Power Idle/Active
OCZ Vertex 30GB	0.41/0.76W
Mtron Mobi 3000 1.8" PATA 32GB SSD	0.90/2.00W
Hitachi 5k500.B 500GB	0.66/2.31W
Seagate 5400.5 250GB	0.85/2.31W
WD Scorpio Blue 500GB	1.00/2.68W
Hitachi 7k320 160GB	0.85/2.71W
Seagate 7200.3 320GB	0.95/3.03W
Seagate 7200.2 120GB	1.00/3.51W
WD Scorpio Black 320GB	1.00/3.51W

Conclusion
Bottom line is compared to the stock 1.8” standard hard drive inside the MacBook Air, this drive is significantly faster in every way. Transfer speeds and access times are much higher than the stock MacBook Air hard drive, which translates into faster boot times, less time needed to open applications, and less time needed to move around files. The only negative points of this drive are its price and capacity compared to a standard hard disk drive, but most of us would be willing to accept that for the higher speeds. To pick one of these SSD’s up today, head on over to the RocketDisk website, where they are currently listed as in stock and ready to ship.

Pros:

• Excellent packaging, soccer proof
• Fast transfer speeds, only the PATA interface is holding it back
• Low heat output

Cons:

• Expensive compared to full-size SSD options
• Not much difference in power consumption over a HDD

 

1.8" ZIF SSDs Compared Moved to http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-1-8-zif-pata-ssds-available.html#post6861746.


Mobi 3000 on a ATA100/UDMA5 system as from here.

Thank you for the informative review. I am curious which mode the MTRON was running in to get > 90MB/s transfer rate? Intel ICHxM chipsets PATA interface is limited to ATA100/UDMA5 maxing out at 87MB/ shown here here. A Dell D430 user got 71.5MB/s here. Note: 0.9W/2W idle/active power consumption is *higher* than Toshiba 1.8" ZIF HDD's 0.4W/1W shown here, as supplied with HP Mini 100x, Dell Mini 12, Dell D420, HP 2510P + more. So the mobi SSD will reduced battery life.

 

This is my desktop board:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16813131028

The main chipset is a ICH8R, but the IDE might be going through the JMicron JMB363 RAID chipset. I will check when I get home so you know what it is flowing through.

 

I just purchased an HP Mini 1035NR and plan to upgrade to an SSD sometime down the line. Would this be compatible?

Can I expect the price of a 64GB to drop significantly in the next year?

Thanks

 

This SSD will be 100% compatible with your 1035NR. I have used the same in my NR1035 and it has made such a jump in overall performance over stock HDD. I have sold my NR to a friend though and now selling my SSD. It's a great SSD drive and I can assure you - i was the best upgrade I have made to my netbook.

 

i ordered a kingspec 64gb myself. Much more for the money, it seems to have slower read/write, but i'm just into the access time myself to make the system snappier.

 

I'm thinking that this could be useful for the Dell Inspiron Mini 12, right? The Mini 12 has 40GB, 60GB or 80GB 4200rpm hard drives using the PATA interface.

 

Still seemed like it consumed a lot of power for being so small in capacity and size.

 

I am not sure if power consumption of this drive bigger than of 1.8" HDD's. I have had HDD and SSD in my VAIO TZ, but with SSD battery lasted LONGER. And for sure TZ became a fast machine.

 

I got one of those to replace the 4200rpm disk in my 2710p. it sure was an awesome difference. suddenly, my tiny 12" tablet was faster in usage than my quadcore. from 5min boots to 40sec or so. firefox with all addons from 1min to 2-3sec.

even while the size is small, it was worth every cent.

nowadays, i wouldn't buy any notebook without sata, but if i would, i'd put that drive in everywhere.

and i won't ever use, without being forced to, a system without an ssd anymore. anyone having a 1.8" zif 4200rpm drive (there aren't pata 5400 1.8" contrary to the tipp of one of the posters above, or are there now?) should really get such a drive, and experience the difference. it's amazing.

and yes, i had vista on it + visual studio + dj software + music software + office + other software + all my music + all my other data except for movies and most photos and still had 5gb left. so it works. not perfect, but it works.

 

It's worth noting a few things:

1. The Mtron SSD is comprised of SLC NAND flash, rather than MLC. There are a lot of articles & forums online that talk about MLC and the problems associated with it. Of course, it is totally true that MLC is cheaper than SLC. This is a good article that it worth a read - http://www.storagesearch.com/ssd-slc-mlc-notes.html

2. The Mtron 1.8" SSD is available right now in 16GB and 32GB ( http://rocketdisk.com/index.php?cPath=15). The 64GB version is planned for Q3 2009 and we will keep you all posted as we hear any further details on pricing or exact schedule.

3. Regarding the above questions, the Mtron SSD is 100% compatible with the HP Mini & the Dell Mini 12.

Thanks!!

 

for anyone interested in a cheaper solution, i just got a 64gb Kingspec shipped from China for $269 (+ 8% CB). Just installed it today on my Lenovo U110 and it runs like a champ, It gave me an extra 30-45 min of battery life and everything loads instantly. Definitely worth the purchase.

 

Despite relatively high power consumption, how is battery life affected? I thought power consumption for SSDs and traditional HDDs weren't that comparable. In the end it's the battery life that is important, so I hope Kevin can add that in.

 

hm.. that photofast v3 sounds nice.. any info about the pricing? a friend of mine could use that for his notebook (and i can not stand not getting another ssd, you know ).

btw, no updates on my side.. since over a month when i moved into my appartment, i haven't really got anything new, not even internet yet => nothing to sell from my place yet

 

Here is the price information I grabbed off a Japanese website a month ago:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=5033229&postcount=116

The V3 looks to be a Mtron competitor vs. following the pricing of a Kingspec or 2.5" Indilinx drives. E.g. You get 32GB for ~$250 vs 64GB if you bought a SATA 2.5" drive. On the bright side you don't have much selection and this drive looks like it will saturate the PATA interface while using fairly low power.

 

WOW! Thats so expensive for such low GB. Then again it is in a smaller then normal form factor.

 

I asked Rocketdisk about availability of the 64GB Mobi Mtron and it's price, which they replied:

So if you're holding off purchase, yes, the mtron has the faster 4KB read speeds, but could get double the capacity in the US$420 1.8" ZIF Runcore ProIV 128GB SSD for the same money, or pay just over half as much for the same capacity US$230 1.8" ZIF Runcore ProIV 64GB SSD. That's an Indilinx-based SSD like the OCZ Vertex but using the PATA interface.

 

The problem what most "cheap" SSD's have is that they are slow with random IOPS especially at writing. Some SSD's have an internal cache to kind of cheat the results, you see the IOPS and MB/s go down when you run the test on a large portion of the drive and over a longer time.

The only really good and affordable solution is the Intel X25-M or X18-M.
But they come unfortunately not as ZIF

Samsung is close but still not that close. I'm still waiting for SanDisk and their new SSD's.

Photofast is not very good here but they maybe had an older version/firmware for testing:
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-flash-ssd-charts/Write-Access-Time-h2benchw-3.12,904.html

 

Can you advise me? I have a HP 2510p with Hard Drive: 1.8-in PATA 100GB 4200RPM. Can I put the Mtron SSD to replace the existing drive? If I cannot put a this SSD with a ZIF connection into the existing slot, is there a SSD with a PATA interface that would do the job?
I am new to the thought of upgrading the HDD, so please be gentle and explain this as much as possible!
Thanks

Tudorlaptop

 

Wait, isnt 300 dollars quite expensive for 32GB of space?

 

It's a professional SLC SSD, so ~$10/GB is normal pricing.

 

Are there any news regarding availability of the new Mtron 64GB 1,8" PATA ZIF?

 

I received an update from RocketDisk 3 months ago here. Summarized as: We'll keep you updated on it's release, expect to pay US$420-$450.

 

I asked some European distributors. The same answer. Nothing so far.

 

Hi Nando & others,

Nando emailed me to ask for an update on the Mtron 1.8" 64GB SSD.

The latest update is actually from Toshiba, who supplies Mtron with their NAND flash. It's a special type of SLC NAND that would be needed in mass quantities for this form factor & this capacity, and this is not high on Toshiba's priority list. Mtron of course, would love to manufacture this SSD, because of the success of the 32GB version & the long long list of inquiries for the 64GB. However, it does not look like it is going to happen anytime soon unfortunately.

Here at RocketDisk, we do have 2 pcs of the Mtron 1.8" 64GB SSD for sale. These are the ONLY 2 pcs of this SSD that exist. If anybody would like to purchase 1 or both of these, please call us in our office at 310-882-5493 or email us at [email protected]

Thanks!!

 

I just purchased a Mtron SSD MOBI MSD-PATA3018 Solid state drive - 32GB for $150.
Will post a few benchmarks when I have it installed in my D430.

 

Here are the Crystal Disk Benchmarks for the new Mtron SSD MOBI MSD-PATA3018 Solid state drive that I installed in my Dell Latitude D430:




The installation was easy as the access to the original HDD was just underneath the removable battery.
I used Acronis to clone the old drive and was up and running in 15 minutes.

• Can anyone suggest why the Write scores are lower than expected?
• Any ideas on how to improve the overall SSD performance?
• I would like to match the benchmarks posted by Nando4 below on line 2?