Crucial is a respected name in the memory business, but they've been a bit slow out of the blocks in the SSD race. We've seen this before, but we know that it's usually paid off with some excellent product lineups as a result. However, the SSD market is extremely competitive and bruising, not for the feint of heart. So the question here is: Can Crucial make up for lost time and offer an SSD that will put them right in the thick of things?

We know that the Crucial M225 SSD looks gorgeous, and more importantly, it is one of the least expensive Indilinx-based drives on the market. That's all fine and dandy, but what about performance? Has Crucial used their time wisely and harnessed the power the technology has to offer? Let's put the M225 against several of the top SSDs on the market and find out.

Thanks go to our friends at Crucial for supplying the review sample.

A wholly owned subsidiary of Micron Technology, Inc., Lexar Media, Inc. boasts one of the most comprehensive offerings of memory product lines in the industry. We deliver high-quality, award-winning products in every memory category: USB flash drives, all popular form factors of memory cards and card readers, DRAM computer memory for PCs and Mac systems, and solid state drives (SSD). We back our products with outstanding customer support and industry-leading warranties, and we strive to expand our offerings to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers — customers just like you. Our Crucial brand reflects our status as the only consumer memory upgrade supplier that's part of a major DRAM manufacturer. We sell high-quality memory that has been qualified and approved by most major OEMs. The Crucial website features innovative online tools to find compatible memory and recommended upgrades.