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Crucial N125 64GB SSD

Expand your netbook's storage capacity

For these four speeds, the N125 rated 39.6, 4.6, 41.7 and 15.7MB/s. The Asus drive did considerably better on sequential writes, less well on sequential and random reads. When it came to random write speeds, there wasn't much in it.

The upshot, then, is that Crucial's upgrade is all about capacity not performance: you won't get to your data more quickly with the N125 but you will be able to store more of it.

Crucial N125 SSD

Also available in half-length size

That's for the Eee PC 900. What about the Dell Mini 9? Dell declined our request for a review unit to try the upgrade out on, so we can only assume the PC giant isn't interested in helping its customers get more out of their machines.

But the Mini 9 we reviewed in November 2008 - courtesy of Vodafone - scored 1136 in PCMark05's HDD test, so again, don't expect a performance gain if you replace it with Crucial's SSD. The Mini 9 comes with up to 16GB of solid-state storage, so there is a big capacity gain to be made by upgrading, especially if you opted for the cheapest, 4GB model.

The original Mini 9's SSD did score more highly than the Crucial, but in practice, we'd say, you won't notice any reduction in speed.

Verdict

If your netbook's running short on storage space and it has a Mini PCIe drive, Crucial's N125 and N100 are worth considering as an alternative to buying a new, HDD-equipped machine. The 32GB versions are cheaper than 32GB SDHC cards, and 64GB SDHCs a very thin on the ground. Then again, might a cheap 16GB SDHC meet your extra-storage needs?

The downside is the upgrade's speed, which isn't impressive, but at least not really any slower than factory installed SSDs. ®

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Crucial N125 SSD

Crucial N125 64GB SSD

Crucial's upgrade here delivers no big speed improvement, but the capacity boost is not to be sniffed at.
Price: £123 (64GB) £66 (32GB) RRP

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