What is the difference between mSATA M3 and Q3 versions? In fact, the SSD controller is the same (SM2258XT), but the flash memory chips appear to be Intel in the Zheino Q3 and Sandisk in the Zheino M3. Of the two, the M3 reads slightly faster, but the Q3 writes slightly faster. However, both the M3 and Q3 use a DRAM-free design, which means that under constant write loads (e.g. restoring this SSD from a backup) the write speeds are initially high, but then eventually drop to around 28 MB/s a while for the M3 model and around 38MB/s for the Q3 model - see attached images. Another reviewer said it's a thermal throttling effect, but it's probably just the point where the SLC cache fills up and writes should go directly (and more slowly) to TLC. As a result, sustained writes on the M3 and Q3 are slower than any MLC mSATA SSD that supports end-to-end write speeds of 110MB/s. However, such long entries are rare in normal use, so it shouldn't matter much. This write speed slowdown should also be less pronounced when there are pauses between writes and when there is unallocated space for redundant provisioning. For comparison, here are the tests of the M3, Q3 and LiteON L9M models, all 128 GB in AHCI mode. So in summary, the Q3 is a decent performer with slightly better sustained recording than the M3, but it's still a bit disappointing in terms of sustained write speeds. Overall good value for money and definitely fast enough for any laptop.
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