Crucial MX500 1TB, 2.5" / SATA 6Gb/s

Was beim unscheinbaren Update der P5 Plus noch glückte, ist Crucial bei der MX500 offenbar weniger gelungen: eine gute SSD noch besser zu machen. Mit dem neuen Modell von 4 TB spricht der Hersteller zwar sicherlich viele speicherhungrige User an, doch der eigentlich beliebte Name der MX500 möchte nicht so recht passen. Zwar sind aktualisierter Controller und moderner NAND stets willkommene Eigenschaften, doch der Beschnitt des DRAM-Caches, noch dazu von einem Produzenten wie Micron selbst, schmerzt sehr. In den Benchmarks wird dieser Missstand zwar nur teilweise ersichtlich und die MX500 kann die guten sequenziellen Werte der Vorgänger bestätigen, doch der Nachteil im Alltag ist dennoch vorhanden und wird auch im Belastungstest deutlich. Böse ausgedrückt, setzt Crucial bei seiner neuesten MX500 also eher auf Masse, denn auf Klasse.

In a true enterprise application, it’s a bit silly to even consider SATA SSDs. Even though the very first enterprise all-flash arrays used client SATA SSDs, the market has moved quickly. Gen4 NVMe SSDs provide an order of magnitude more performance and PCIe Gen5 SSDs will blow away today’s standard as early as next year. That said, there are many use cases when the cost is critical, along with the inherent benefits SSDs provide over HDD-based systems. Any small office that needs a quick file server that also needs to be quiet because it sits in an open space can benefit from flash.

Crucial has knocked another one out of the park with its new MX500 SSD. This next generation drive combines Silicon Motion's SM2258 with Micron's new 64-layer 3D TLC NAND to deliver good performance, enhanced features and a high level of endurance at a competitive price. In our sequential read and write tests, the 1TB version of the MX500 was able to read at speeds as high as 560 MB/s and write at speeds in excess of 503 MB/s. It also did very well in our random write tests, producing more than 76,000 IOPS at low queue depths. Fast read and write speeds aren't the only things the MX500 has to offer. Along with thermal and power loss protection, TRIM support and active garbage collection, the drive features AES 256-bit full disk encryption and is compatible with both the TCG Opal and IEEE 1667 specifications. The MX500 also uses Dynamic Write Acceleration to enable faster saves and file transfers, and technologies like Data Defense and Redundant Array of Independent NAND (RAIN) to protect data at the component level and prevent it from becoming corrupted. Last, but not least, the MX500 supports the SATA Device Sleep (DEVSLP) standard which extends the battery life of a device by reducing the drive's power consumption when it's not in use.