Toshiba Q300 480GB SATA SSD [Review]

If you are still running your operating system from a traditional hard drive, I want you to slap yourself in the face. Why? You are doing your computing wrong. Sure, a mechanical hard drive is great for storage, but your OS will absolutely fly with a solid state drive. While they used to be expensive, the prices have dropped so dramatically in recent years, there is no excuse not to upgrade. It has become a cliché, but an SSD is the best upgrade you can make.

Recently, I have been testing the Toshiba Q300 SSD. The particular model I have been using is 480GB. Keep in mind, capacity can impact performance, so your mileage may vary based on the size you pick. This is a SATA variant, so performance won't be mind-blowing, but with that said, SATA will remain the most-used connection type for the near future, and for folks upgrading older machines. Is the Q300 a smart choice?

Specs

Storage memory	3-bit-per-cell A19nm NAND Flash
Capacity	480GB
Controller	Toshiba TC58NC1000
Interface	SATA III (6.0 Gbit/s, backwards compatible with 3.0 Gbit/s and 1.5 Gbit/s)
Max. transfer rate	6.0 Gbit/s
Advance Speed Techonolgy	Adaptive Size SLC Write Cache Technology
Zeroing TRIM Support	yes and requires OS support
Native Command Queuing (NCQ)	yes
S.M.A.R.T Support	yes
Garbage collection	yes
Read only mode	yes
MTTF	1.500.000 hours
TBW (Client endurance workload specified by JESD219A Solid-State Drive (SSD) Endurance Workloads)	120TB
Operating temperature	0° C - 65° C
Non-Operating temparature	-40° C - 85° C
Power consumption	Active: 5.1 W typ. Idle: 1.1 W typ.
Dimension	100 x 69.85 x 7 (mm)
Weight	46 - 48 g typ.
Warranty	3 years
Migration software	NTI Echo 3 (migration software) by download from http://ift.tt/1lCwxeJ
Ultility tool software	Toshiba Storage Utilities Tool by download from http://ift.tt/1lCwxeJ
Box content	Solid State Drive - Q300 Spacer for 9.5mm applications Quick Start Guide Warranty Leaflet
Performance - Sequential Read Speed (measured with Iometer)	Up to 550 MB/s
Performance - Sequential Write Speed (measured with Iometer)	Up to 520 MB/s
Performance - Random Read Speed(mesured with CrystalDiskMark 4.1.0, 4kiB, QD32)	Up to 86,000 IOPS
Performance - Random Write Speed(mesured with CrystalDiskMark 4.1.0, 4kiB, QD32)	Up to 83,000 IOPS

Unboxing

Impressions

Opening the box, the drive is actually quite boring, and I like that. While I do like color and fun in most designs, I prefer my solid state drives to be much more conservative. Data storage is not a joke, nor is it a game -- it is serious business. The plain silver body makes it feel professional, which is good.

Connecting it to my desktop was quite easy; a two-cable affair -- power and data. If you are installing it into a laptop, you may just have to slide it into a holder and snap it in. If needed, Toshiba includes a spacer in case it is too thin for its new home. This would keep the drive from moving around. Me? I just let it hang out of my case as seen above -- I am constantly messing around with my test system.

To test it, I used the wonderful CrystalDiskMark. My test system is running Windows 10, powered by the brilliant AMD A10-7870K. As you can see from the results above, performance is what you would expect from a SATA-based SSD. Maybe you can score a few more MB/sec with other drives, but in real-world usage, this will be fine for most. If you truly want more speed, you will want to opt for a PCIe-based drive without the SATA limitation.

The Toshiba Q300 is not the fastest, nor is the least expensive. Its three year warranty is not class-leading, either. At $189.99, I cannot recommend it above the less-expensive 500GB Samsung 850 EVO, for example. With that said, the Toshiba name does carry value, so if you trust that particular brand, it is a smart choice.

Do I recommend the Toshiba Q300 480GB SSD? Yes, but there are better options out there for the money. If you can get it with a discount or mail-in-rebate that brings it below the cost of the 500GB Samsung 850 EVO, it is definitely worth considering.