Mushkin 2.5 inch Source Series SATA600

Overview

TechSpot Metascore

Based on 4 expert reviews

Excellent:

2
Good:

0
Average:

2
Bad:

0

Pros:

Very aggressive cost per gigabyte, Competitive speeds for a SATA SSD in various Crystal DiskMark and AS-SSD trials
Overall Performance, Features (MEDs / SLC Write Caching / DevSleep), Available In Both 2.5” And M.2 2280 Form Factors, 120/250/500/1000GB Capacities, Endurance Numbers (100TBW For The 250GB Capacity), 3 Year Warranty, Price
Extremely affordable, just 16 cents per GB, Excellent sequential read and write performance, Solid real-life application performance, DRAM-less design reduces cost

Cons:

Terabytes-written endurance rating a smidge lower than average, Warranty only three years, No native software
Value Model (DRAMLess Design), No Cloning Software In The Bundle

TechSpot is supported by its audience. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more.

Last revision on June 8, 2020

Reviewers Liked

Very aggressive cost per gigabyte, Competitive speeds for a SATA SSD in various Crystal DiskMark and AS-SSD trials
Overall Performance, Features (MEDs / SLC Write Caching / DevSleep), Available In Both 2.5” And M.2 2280 Form Factors, 120/250/500/1000GB Capacities, Endurance Numbers (100TBW For The 250GB Capacity), 3 Year Warranty, Price
Extremely affordable, just 16 cents per GB, Excellent sequential read and write performance, Solid real-life application performance, DRAM-less design reduces cost
Price, Great overall performance, Metal chassis (many entry-level drives are plastic)

Reviewers Didn't Like

Terabytes-written endurance rating a smidge lower than average, Warranty only three years, No native software
Value Model (DRAMLess Design), No Cloning Software In The Bundle
Weak random writes, High read latency
DRAM cache

Expert reviews and ratings

Mushkin's Source provides on-the-button SATA speeds at an attractive budget price, minus frills and software utilities. It's a strong value-SSD pick for users who don't intend to write heavily, or as a first upgrade from a hard...

By PC Mag on April 05, 2019

Strapped for cash and want to make every penny count? Then the Mushkin Source SSD is the perfect choice for you. You'll get decent performance out of it without blowing too much cash, and if you're intending on using it as a scratch drive for certain...

By TechRadar on November 22, 2018

The Mushkin Source 500 GB SSD is currently available online for $81. Extremely affordable, just 16 cents per GB Excellent sequential read and write performance Solid real-life application performance DRAM-less design reduces cost Weak random writes High...

By techPowerUp! on August 28, 2018

When we talk about entry-level solid state drives we typically expect really bad performance, but that was not the case with the Mushkin Source. Even with its DRAM-less design it performed good enough for us to not really consider it entry-level, or at...

By ThinkComputers on August 27, 2018

Mushkin has been basing its SSDs off Silicon Motion controllers for years, and they have produced a few hits when they have managed to deliver a good-performing SMI platform at great prices. That was clearly the case with the last Mushkin drive we...

By AnandTech on November 27, 2018

As expected since the SOURCE 250GB SSD uses the same NAND flash controller and modules as the BX500 240GB SSD by Crucial it's no surprise that these two models are trading blows in our charts. The SOURCE drive is slightly leading in the more...

By NikkTech on November 20, 2018

We can't really get too surprised by any SATA-based SSD these days, they are what they are and we've seen a lot of them before. That said, they're far from bad and a great step up from mechanical hard disk drives. Especially for the operating system....

By eTeknix on November 14, 2018

The Mushkin Source is an entry-level SSD, so we weren't expecting a whole lot performance out of it, especially since it utilizes a DRAMless controller. However, during our benchmarking session, it still did fairly well in spite of that. In sequential...

By thessdreview.com on August 16, 2018