Transcend 128GB M.2 2242 SATA III SSD, MTS430S B+M Key with DRAM Cache, Up to 560MB/s, 3D TLC NAND Internal SSD for Ultrabook/Laptop/PC/Desktop, SLC Cache, LDPC Error Correction

Bought this for my old laptop boot drive. Now running Linux and very fast. Easily reduced boot up by half. Excellent choice for upgrading old machines.

I got this for my Hackintosh (HP Elitebook 840 G2). The Hack already had a Crucial SSD (500GB) that I was using for the boot drive, which is fast and works well, but I was using less than half of the drive's capacity. I added the Transcend and cloned my Mac partition to it using SuperDuper!, and then manually copied the EFI partition over. I pulled the SSD and booted up to see if it would work. Worked on the first try. I reinstalled the SSD, then added 2 more partitions to the SSD, one which will eventually contain a copy of my iTunes library, and the other which will be used for auxiliary storage. I now back up the Transcend to the SSD, which is very convenient, plus I can boot up from the SSD if anything happens to the Transcend. The Transcend boots about as fast as the SSD does. I thought it would have booted a lot faster, but that may be because I need to reconfigure something. It's still WAY faster than even a 7200 RPM traditional hard drive. The most difficult part of the process was getting the computer to recognize the Transcend drive. While I was researching what type of M2 drive to get, I found a very old post on the HP web site that explained how to do it. Can't remember the exact details, but it involved going into the BIOS and enabling RAID (go figure...), rebooting and getting a BSOD, rebooting into the BIOS and putting things back they were before the the RAID thing, and then letting the system come up normally. THEN the computer could see the drive. In my research I saw some posts about people not being able to use an M2 in this computer as a Windows boot drive. I don't use Windows, so I can't speak to that subject. Recommended.

m.2 SATA drives aren't exactly the most common devices on the market, and finding a decently priced one isn't always an easy task. Although they're pricier than a full size 2.5" SATA drive, there really isn't any performance benefit to them. Regardless of the price difference, this drive has performed just as expected. Completely plug and play, and is currently serving as secondary storage for a couple of VM's on my linux box. Drive went in, was detected, and has provided more than enough throughput to serve at least two Windows 10 VMs concurrently. While this is a one-off case for my needs due to the form factor, if I ever DID need another m.2 SATA, I'd definitely come back and look at this drive again.

I installed this in a mini-computer that, admittedly, does not have adequate cooling. After partitioning and formatting, the drive temperature was 67C at idle. Idle meaning it was in the PC and ready for use but not being read from or written to. When in active use, it easily exceeds 70C. The only way I can use this drive and keep the temps below 70C is to leave the cover off the mini-computer. Other than this, the drive works as expected, reads and writes fast, and is a good value for the money. However, be advised that whatever you use it in will need really good cooling and airflow.

A few years ago I bought two Dell Inspiron i3050 Micro computers to set up as streaming devices. Out of the box they were pretty limited with just 2gb of ram and 32gb of storage. With Windows 8.1 installed, you just didn't have a lot of room for anything else, much less updates... so every so often, Windows would try to do some major updates but could not due to the incredibly limited storage capacity of 32gb. So to upgrade these little guys to Win10 and add some functionality, I needed a bigger drive and that's where the Transcend 256GB drive comes in. Very easy to install... a fast little drive and has a lot more storage than I started off with, but in 2019, 256gb seems small. This drive though meets and exceeds the needs of what I am doing with those little Dells. I ordered 2 and the first one worked perfect... the second one how ever never could be recognized in Bios and therefor Windows could not be reinstalled. Sent it back and quickly got a replacement that worked perfectly the first time.

I used this as the 3rd drive in Geekom IT13 miniPC. I clone the system disk to this drive in case of any system disk or OS failure I can just quickly restore the system disk from this one or even boot from this one if needed.

It is getting hard to find SATA SSDs with DRAM cache, Transcend is one of the few remaining. I use these in old laptops along with IDE-SATA adapters where maximum speed is critical for an old machine. DRAM is absolutely needed for an SSD and cheaper options without a DRAM cache will get bogged down and not last as long due to them using the NAND flash as a cache. These drives do have a higher heat output than their cheaper DRAM-less counterparts, so for heat dissipation I recommend removing the label and adding heatsinks/thermal pad if there is room.

Roll back the "Intel SATA Controller AHCI Driver" on Device Manager if you installed ALL updates through Lenovo Vantage. 1) Press "Windows" + "X" 2) Select "Device Manager" 3) Expand "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" 4) Click on probably some "Intel SATA Controller AHCI Driver". You want this to read "Standard SATA AHCI Controller" 5) Right click on driver and click on Preferences 6) Go to "Driver" tab 7) Click on "Roll Back Driver" 8) Restart machine 9) Check that Device Manager now reads "Standard SATA AHCI Controller" on "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers" Done! Now restarting should stop forgetting the M.2 SATA SSD on restart! Lenovo Vantage suggested to update to "Intel SATA Controller AHCI Driver". Ignore it or roll back driver since installing it makes the M.2 SATA SSD disappear on restart unless shutting down the machine and powering it on again. The default Windows SATA AHCI controller driver works with no update required! You WANT this to read "Standard SATA AHCI Controller". I own a Thinkpad S3 Yoga 14 (20DM) and wanted this SSD as my boot drive. I spent a whole week wrestling with this issue and almost gave up but taking a longer route and restarting after installing one update at a time worked for me. Using a Windows 10 Installation Media USB to do a clean install, this is what I did (for good measure): 01) Shut down and open back plate 02) Unplug main battery from motherboard 03) Unplug any other hard drive/SSD. You only want the M.2 SATA SSD installed if this will be your boot drive. 04) Unplug CMOS battery from motherboard 05) Press and hold power button for 10 seconds 06) Plug in CMOS battery and main battery to motherboard 07) Closed back plate 08) Plug in Windows 10 Installation Media USB (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10) 09) Boot to BIOS (check method for your specific model. For Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga 14 press ENTER then F12 to boot to temporary media USB) 10) Click on "Install Now" 11) Click on "Custom: Intall Windows only (advanced)" 12) On "Where do you want to install Windows?", select and delete all partitions on M.2 SATA SSD 13) Finish installing Windows 10 on M.2 SATA SSD. 14) Restart twice for good measure. M.2 SATA SSD should not be disappearing now. 15) On Windows 10, search for "Check for Updates" and install all updates. 16) Go to Microsoft Store and download "Lenovo Vantage" 17) Check for updates 18) IGNORE "Intel SATA Controller AHCI Driver" update. 19) Install all other updates. If you accidentally installed "Intel SATA Controller AHCI Driver" again, use my first list to roll back to "Standard SATA AHCI Controller". Now you may turn off your machine, unplug USB, and reinstall HDDs/SSDs.

I've been using this in an Asus CN62 Chromebox running Windows 10. This is one of the few M.2 2242 SATA SSDs available (most are the superior NVMe type) and none of the big brands (Samsung, Crucial, etc) make them. So far (3 months in) it's been working very well, with typical fast SSD performance, although the machine isn't doing anything too taxing. If you need a SATA M.2 42mm drive, this is a great choice, from a reputable brand. Update: This has been running for over a year and a half now. It is in a low usage machine but is on 24/7. The drive was running very hot (60-70 C), but this is within the manufacturers limits (75 C) and it has had no ill effects yet. I purchased a small metal heatsink on ebay a few months ago, and with this fitted it's running at 50-58 C. Update (2023): This has just been semi-retired as I've replaced the system it was in with a newer one. The drive has been running at 50-70C for 4 years and has 37,615 hours of uptime. Crystal disk info reports health at 98% due to 5.3 TB reads and 7.6 TB writes (3.8 TB NAND writes) with all erase/error counts at 100% health. Would definitely buy Transcend again, this has outlasted some Crucials and Samsungs for me!

Great SSD. Fast and reliable. I bought this to upgrade my existing SSD. And so far, it works fine. My only gripe with Amazon is while my SSD is in transit, the price dropped from around $90 to around $82! Surely Amazon should automatically refund me the price difference! Especially given that my item is still on the way.

Lo instale en un Barebone HP Thin Client t520 Flexible y funciono perfecto, la instalación fue en un Linux LOC-OS y se reconoció el M.2 instantáneamente; velocidad de inicio de sistema en menos de 10 segundos; sistema potenciado por la velocidad de escritura. Pros: - Se reconoce instantáneamente en equipos compatibles ya sea en Windows como en Linux, buena velocidad de lectura y escritura. - Perfecto para revivir equipos viejos o con limitaciones de hardware. - Marca con prestigio con precio asequible Contras: - De momento no me e encontrado con alguno.

Dobry dysk, działa prawidłowo w porcie WWAN w Dell Latitude 5480 jako drugi SSD obok SSD M.2 PCIe NVMe. Działa z procesorem 7300U, więc nie powinno być problemów z pracą i z takimi oszczędnościowymi procesorami, wbrew temu, co można przeczytać czasem w Internecie. Zainstalowałem Batocerę na nim i bez problemu odpala (ale w trybie zgodności, nie z UEFI).

Finding a high-quality 512GB drive in the smaller M.2 2242 size can be tricky, but this Transcend model is a winner. It runs cool, was very easy to install, and provides a huge amount of storage for its physical size. It’s been running stable for a while now with zero issues. Definitely worth the investment if you have a limited slot size. Overall, I'm thrilled with the Transcend drive. Shoutout to Amazon for the lightning-fast shipping and for getting it to me safely—top-tier service as always!