Mushkin Announces Immediate Availability of Atlas mSATA 480GB SSD

Mushkin has shot along word that the 480GB Atlas mSATA SSD it first announced last month is now available. In a time when few people go beyond the ~256GB mark for their desktop SSD, to see a mini SSD boasting twice that density is pretty striking. While clearly not for everyone, if you’re going the SFF route or need to upgrade your Ultrabook and demand huge storage, this option has your name written all over it. As long as you’re willing to part with $450, that is.

Mushkin’s Atlas 480GB packs a SandForce SF-2281 under its non-existent hood, supporting SATA 6Gbit/s and things like SATA APM and NCQ. It not surprisingly supports both SMART and TRIM, along with offering error correction of to up 55 bits per 512b sector. Finally, the Atlas carries a 3-year limited warranty. Information on how many writes per day are considered within that three years is not mentioned.

Performance-wise, the drive boasts specs of 540MB/s read and 425MB/s write. Overall, superb performance for such a small drive. It’s not often we get to write about products that are actually available now, but this one is, from multiple e-tailers.