The whole nine yards, Crucial MX500 SSD comes with the dynamic Write Acceleration mode which makes use of single-level cell flash memory, high-speed adaptable pool in order to produce elevated speed results. You will be able to begin your system within seconds, swiftly operate the demanding applications, and encounter instant file loading.
Believe it or not, besides using a low power amount, this drive offers an excellent performance ratio. Surprisingly, this will let you come across a quieter, and cooler computer in your offices and homes, as you are going to use next-generation Micron 3D NANAD technology. Furthermore, the built-in quality, security, and speed are greatly backed by helpful support and service.
Inching forward, Crucial MX500 SSD is tested thoroughly and field-proven to swiftly secure your sensitive files on the drive with the help of advanced incorporated features and well-established dependability. Ahead of the curve, this SSD delivers a step-by-step installation guide to let you install and transfer all data easily, otherwise, most people left tired while opening up the computer and making data transfers.
In order to ensure variety, different capacity options of 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB are available, to let you grab exactly what you want. Moreover, the endurance, quality, and engineering mechanism are backed by the world’s level technology which is Micron. Overall, this SSD is designed to keep personal data, family data, gaming files, and office-based files in a faster and affordable package!
Crucial MX500 SSD
Summary
Crucial MX500 SSD lets you start your system within seconds as it comes with up to 2TB of storage capacity. It operates at around 560 MB/s of sequential read and 510 MB/s of sequential write speed in addition to 95, 000 IOPS random read and 90, 000 IOPS random write performance for almost all types of files. Moreover, the incorporated power loss immunity can keep all work saved during unexpected power cuts.
Importantly, 260-bit AES encryption is provided to keep the data secure and safe from hackers. Overall, this SSD is designed to keep music, family videos, travel pictures, and other important documents with the near-instant performance backed by the high-end reliability that is deeply integrated with the case. Above all, the user experience is backed by 5 Years of warranty.
Specifications
| Brand Name | Crucial |
| Series | MX500 |
| Color | Light gray |
| Digital Storage Capacity | 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB |
| Device Type | Internal Solid State Drive |
| Sequential Read Speed | 560 MB/s |
| Sequential Write Speed | 510 MB/s |
| Random Read Speed | 95, 000 IOPS |
| Random Write Speed | 90, 000 IOPS |
| Form Factor | 2.5 inches |
| Hardware Platform | Mac, PC, Linux |
| Hardware Interface | SATA 6.0 Gb/s |
| Power | Up to 6 Watt |
| Endurance | Up to 700 TB |
| Cache | SLC (Dramatically Sized) |
| Controller | Silicon Motion SM2258 |
| NAND Technology | Micron 256Gb 64-layer 3D TLC |
| Encryption | YES (AES 256-bit) |
| Weight | 0.32 ounces |
| Warranty | 5 Years |
| Dimensions | 4.06 x 0.28 x 2.76 inches |
| Optimal for | Upgraders, Professional, College Students |
Design
On the clear ground, Crucial MX500 SSD comes in a square and non-pointed corners design. The theme color of this SSD is chosen gray, with shady blueprinting in the middle. Actually, this central part contains the name of the drive’s series which is MX, to impart a different look to this SSD. Furthermore, the company’s branding is printed near the center along with the incorporated form factor and interface type to give you a quick review of what you grab.
Practically, the size of this drive is small even smaller than your pocket wallet as it comes in 4.06 x 0.28 x 2.76 inches of overall dimensions. Additionally, the weight of this SSD is kept lower around 0.32 Ounces to not burden your motherboard by any means. Overall, the case of this drive is extremely shock-resistant and can sustain performance through thick and thin.
Features
Pull yourself together, the most stunning feature of Crucial MX500 SSD is the exceptional improvement in data endurance rating of up to 700TB provides a high-end user experience. This drive can attain 550 MB/s of sequential read, 510 MB/s of write speed, and 95K IOPS Random read, 90K IOPS random write speed to let you take good mileage out of it. Additionally, it comes with SLC write caching mode which is excellent to bear extensive workloads without any limitations.
The affordable price and the provided 5 Years warranty are a killer combination to take the heart of users. Surprisingly, during the time gap between the write bursts, this drive has the ability to free up additional used capacity to elevate the write performance. Actually, the amount of total recovered capacity during this time depends on segments of logical addresses that hold runtime parameters and other user data. And the application that doesn’t allow sufficient idle time, in this case, the drive will perform SLC to TLC migration of data while hosting activity.
To dig deep, Crucial MX500 SSD has integrated Full Disk Encryption (FDE) and Self Encryption Drive (SED) to provide military-level encryption. Actually, the encryption continues to run all the time in the background, but you need to enable ATA Security or TCG Opal command through the provided system BIOS to get complete advantage of an efficient AES 256-bit encryption engine. Furthermore, this drive is excellent in protecting the data during any power failure to keep your activity safe for future use, which also eliminates the need for surface-mounted capacitors above the PCB.
To maintain the signal integrity, Micron has tuned the settings that how it will deal with the lower and upper NAND pages to lower the amount of power for proper maintenance. Furthermore, the integrated Data Write Acceleration (DWA) of this Crucial drive comes with the SLC buffer to boost the built-in performance. Ahead of the curve, this drive has dynamic buffers which grow or shrink according to the drive’s condition and the amount of stored data on the flash.
In order to provide variety, Crucial MX500 SSD comes in four capacity options of 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB for the 2.5 inches form factor to provide you with the best of both worlds. Additionally, this SATA-based drive has PCIe NVMe to maintain excellent performance. Furthermore, this drive is also delivered with the plastic spacer to make it compatible with older laptops and the instruction book which guides you about the downloading mechanism of the free version of Acronis True Image HD software to let you easily migrate your data to the existing drive.
Performance
Wrap your head around, Crucial MX500 SSD perform excellently during everyday use, this is because we need opening and closing of apps, switching between them, and booting up the PC to access files randomly or non-sequentially. While judging performance, during the Disk Mark 4K file type tests, this SSD can reach up to 277 MB/s of read speeds and 280 MB/s of write speed to offer you the best results. This is far better than the Samsung 860 EVO which offers 48MB/s read and 125 MB/s of write speed in 4K files. However, the speed is at par with its rival Samsung 970 EVO and a bit less than WD Black SN750. While in the PC-Mark storage suite, which directly influences the wide range of requests handling including photo editing, video gameplay, web browsing, and can attain 5000 points which is considerably good.
Moreover, this SSD shows excellent performance upon larger file transfer between distinct locations on the drive. Plus, in the AS-SSD Copy Benchmark, the drive can transfer an ISO file at the 950 MB/s, heavy game at 894 MB/s, and a destined program at 465 MB/s to provide you with the best of both worlds. Overall, it performs sufficiently, and the provided varied capacities, form factors, and long warranty make it the best SSD for the budget.
Inching forward, the firmware of Crucial MX500 SSD is upgradable by simply downloading the latest version from the Crucial website. Additionally, to ensure swift use, this drive is paired with an application from Acronis which permits you to clone the data on the existing drive, which lets you safely upgrade the boot drive whilst maintaining your OS installations.
If you are going to build a moderate gaming rig or considerable media editing workstation in a reasonable price range, then this drive might suit you best to fulfill your basic needs. Following the trend, as Crucial MX500 SSD comes with the SATA interface and delivers 600 MB/s throughout the limit which might restrict you if you hold a newer motherboard with the PCI Express M.2 slot, the advanced M.2 NVMe SSD will be a better choice for you.
Digging deep, to maintain excellent performance Crucial MX500 SSD comes with exceptionally high TBW in the SATA series, as it’s better than similarly priced models. Regardless of the limitations imposed by the SATA interface, this SSD generally shows good performance. With the exception of design strength, the Crucial would revamp the BX series drives in the near times.
Overall, the sufficient read and write speed of this drive, along with the less cost per gigabyte makes it an excellent choice for everyday users, gamers, video editors, upgraders, other professionals, and other college students.
Testing Results
Grounded in fact, Crucial MX500 SSD is designed for the people who hold traditional spinning hard drives or some older models of SSDs, to let them add something fancy, better, and bigger capacity internal drive to their systems. It can reach 560 MB/s and 510 MB/s of sequential read and write speed to offer the best performance.
Additionally, its excellent file and folder transfer rate allow you to grab it with no exception. Moreover, the added endurance rating and high-end encryption make it an ideal choice for many. In this review, we have explained almost all the features, performance levels, and drawbacks entail by this drive to let you confidently make a purchase.
