Benchmarks: CrystalDiskMark 3.0
The Crucial m4 has always performed well in CrystalDiskMark's sequential read rest and the m4 mSATA 256GB is no different, delivering virtually the same performance as the full size m4 with a throughput of 528.6MB/s.
The m4 mSATA's sequential write performance is less impressive, but with a throughput of 278.2MB/s, it was still faster than the original m4. Both drives fell behind SandForce units such as the Intel SSD 520 Series as well as the OCZ Octane, Samsung 830 Series and the OCZ Vertex 4.
The m4 mSATA was slightly slower than the m4 2.5" when measuring random 512K read performance, but it still fared decently enough with a throughput of 412.7MB/s.
The m4 mSATA's random 512K write performance was slightly higher than the regular m4 at 281.3MB/s, which is similar to what we've seen from most SandForce SF-2281 drives, though it is considerably slower than the new Vertex 4.
With a throughput of 191.8MB/s, Crucial's new mSATA offering was slightly slower than its 512GB 2.5" drive when measuring random 4K-QD32 performance.
Random 4K-QD32 write performance was similar to the read results with the smaller m4 slipping slightly behind the larger model, though its performance was basically on par with the OCZ Vertex 4.