By: Jonathan Kwan
August 17, 2018
Although I am all for seizing the moment as mentioned in my Kingston UV500 240GB (M.2) review recently, my friend Zach is a whole different level. The sheer brilliance of him seizing the moment is that half of the time you cannot tell if he is trolling you or being genuinely sincere; the other half, he is being genuinely sincere while completely unaware he is trolling you. A few weeks ago, we were walking in downtown Calgary when a homeless man approached us. "Can you spare some change?" he asked. Zach took out his wallet and looked inside. "Would you like ten cents in Canadian Tire money? Sorry, this is all I got." I think people on the streets have probably seen almost everything under the sun, but even this guy did not know how to react to Zach's innocent face and his offer of Canadian Tire money. After the man walked off, Zach looked at me puzzled. "What? That is literally all I have." Recently, I got my hands on Toshiba's latest solid state drive, the RC100. Marketed as an affordable NVMe drive that is reasonably fast but sized in the ultra-compact M.2 2242 form factor, it is certainly does not look like it is something made to shatter any performance barriers. The RC100 may be small, but is it fast? Is Toshiba trolling us, or are they being serious? Or could they be doing both at the same time, like my friend Zach? Read on to find out!
Our review unit of the Toshiba RC100 240GB arrived in a compact brown corrugated cardboard box from the company's American headquarters in San Jose, California, USA. Using FedEx International Priority, our package traveled the usual route, and everything arrived safely and quickly to us here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for our review today.
If you try to go to OCZ.com, you will be redirected to Toshiba's SSD website. This is reflected in their latest packaging for the Toshiba RC100 240GB; while the website literally makes no mention of the OCZ brand, you will still see a hint of it at the bottom right corner of the retail packaging of this drive. Toshiba's branding is explicitly printed in a prominent location, with the red and black color scheme extended to the rest of the box. Everything is quintessentially Toshiba and all business now. A photo of the SSD itself occupies most of the room on the box. At the bottom, the "OCZ RC100" text in silver tells you this is a RC100 solid state drive, just in case you did not see it in the photo above. Meanwhile, a label at the top right corner indicates this is the 240GB model. Brief product specifications, description, and feature highlights can be found at the back of the box.
Before we move on, let us take a look at the specifications of the Toshiba RC100 240GB, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
Performance
Sequential Read/Write: Up to 1600/1050 MB/s
Random Read/Write (4KiB, QD32): Up to 130,000/110,000 IOPS
Endurance
TBW (Total Bytes Written): 120 TB
Daily Usage Guideline: 110 GB/day
Physical
NAND Flash Memory Type: 64-layer 3D BiCS TLC
Interface: PCI Express Base Specification Revision 3.1a (PCIe)
Maximum Speed: 16 GT/s (PCIe Gen3x2L)
Command: NVM Express Revision 1.2.1 command set
Form Factor: M.2 Type 2242-S3-B-M
Dimension (L x W x H): 42.00 ± 0.15 mm x 22.00 ± 0.15 mm x 2.38 mm
Drive Weight: 3.1g (typ.)
Power Requirements
Supply Voltage: 3.3 V ±5%
Power Consumption:
- Active: Up to 3.20 W (typ.)
- L1.2 Power: 5 mW (typ.)
Environmental
Operating Temperature (Tc): 0°C to 70°C
Storage Temperature: -40°C to 85°C
Shock Resistance 14.709 km/s2 {1500 G} 0.5 ms half sine wave
Vibration: 196 m/s2 {20 G} Peak, 10~2000 Hz, (20 min / Axis) x 3 Axis
Certifications: TÜV-Bauart, BSMI, RCM, CE, UL & cUL (CSA), China RoHS, KC, FCC, ISED, VCCI, WEEE, PCI Express
Reliability / Security
MTTF: 1 Mhours
Product Health Monitoring: SSD Utility version 3.1 and above
Compatibility
PCI Express: Compatible with PCI Express® Base Specification Revision 3.1a and NVM Express™ Revision 1.2.1 command set
Operating System: Windows 10, Linux Fedora 26, Fedora 27; Mint 18.1, 18.3; Ubuntu 17.10
Connector Type: M.2 B-M key Socket
Targeted Applications: Client desktops and laptops
Additional Features
Performance Optimization: TRIM, Idle Time Garbage Collection
Services and Support: 3-Year Standard Warranty Program, Online Tech Support
Software: SSD Utility v3.1 and above.
Upon opening the box, you will find almost nothing included from the factory. It is a no-frills budget NVMe drive, and it is bundled as such; no complaints here. Clipped between two clear plastic tray pieces is the Toshiba RC100 240GB. Other than that, unless you count a quick start guide as accessories, there is quite literally nothing else from the manufacturer.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark
4. Benchmark: ATTO Disk Benchmark
5. Benchmark: Crystal Disk Mark 3.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tach 3.0.1.0
7. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 4.60
8. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 9.0
9. Benchmark: PCMark Vantage
10. Benchmark: PCMark 8
11. Conclusion
