Crucial MX100 512GB SSD Review
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Introduction
Despite what many people will try to tell you, size matters. This is especially true when talking about the storage in your computer. SSDs are becoming the standard for any new build but the cost has always been an issue, especially once you get in to the larger sized drives. However, SSD prices have been falling very quickly and those big drives that used to cost more than the rest of your system combined are now becoming much more reasonable.
Today we are looking at Crucial’s newest budget drive, the MX100. This drive uses the same controller as Crucial’s high-end drives but a new, smaller NAND that helps to reduce the price per gigabyte significantly. With a low price and the promise of high performance this new drive could prove to be a big winner. Read on to see how it stacks up against the competition.
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Features
- Run your system longer than ever before using less power – With Extreme Energy Efficiency technology, the Crucial MX100 is up to 89% more energy efficient than a typical hard drive.
- Keep your memories, photos, and files safe – When a photo or file gets corrupted, it often becomes unusable. Prevent this from happening in the first place with the Crucial MX100 SSD, which arms every storage component with four layers of Exclusive Data Defense to guard against corrupt files.
- Do more, faster – Get true 550 MB/s sequential reads on both compressible and incompressible data – and leave your old 177 MB/s hard drive in the dust.
- Get best-in-class hardware encryption – Keep personal files and sensitive information secure from hackers and thieves with AES 256-bit encryption – the same grade used by banks and hospitals. The Crucial MX100 is one of the only drives available that meets Microsoft®eDrive®, IEEE-1667, and TCG Opal 2.0 standards of encryption.
Specifications
| Capacity | 128GB /256GB /512GB |
| NAND Flash | Micron 16nm 128GBit MLC |
| Controller | Marvell 88SS9189 |
| Interface | SATA 6Gb/s |
| Seq. Read/Write Performance (MBps) | 128GB: 550/150 256GB: 550/330 512GB: 550/500 |
| 4KB Random Read/Write (IOPS) | 128GB: 80k/40k 256GB: 85k/70k 512GB: 90k/85k |
| Endurance | 72TB |
| MTFF | 1.5M hrs |
| Accessories | 7mm to 9.5mm holder Acronis ATI HD 2013 |
| Warranty | 3 years |
Packaging
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The MX100 comes in a small, simple box that gives a few pictures and a short list of what’s included. For specs, features, user guide, etc they direct you to their website.
Closer Look
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The drive itself is also pretty plain. It’s just an aluminum case with a sticker on the front and back. Along with the drive itself all you get is a 7mm to 9.5mm adapter and a small slip of paper that has a code for the Acronis True Image backup software.
Internals
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As far as internals go, the MX100 has the same PCB and Marvell 88SS9189 controller as the high-end M550 from Crucial. The only difference between the high-end M series and budget MX series is the new cheaper NAND flash in the MX100. The new Micron 16nm 128GBit MLC NAND found in the MX100 is the smallest process node found in any mainstream SSD on the market right now.
However, because of the large 128 GBit NAND, fewer dies are needed for the same amount of capacity. What this means is that in the smaller drive sizes write performance takes a hit due to less parallelism since there are physically fewer chips to distribute the load. This is very evident by looking at the spec sheet above.
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Test System
- Intel Core i7-4960X
- MSI R9 280 and Sapphire 7950 Crossfire
- Asus P9 X79-E WS Motherboard
- ADATA XPG V2 DDR3 2600 MHz 16 GB RAM kit
- NZXT Phantom 410 Case
- Corsair H100 CPU Cooler
- Thermaltake Toughpower 1350W Power Supply
Benchmarks
Anvil Storage Utilities
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| MX100 | SX900 | M4 |
Anvil is a good overall benchmark using incompressible data that gives results in MB/s and IOPS for both read and write.
The MX100 greatly surprised me with its performance, pulling 485/439 MBps read/write and putting itself well ahead of the ADATA SX900’s 422/172 read/write and the Crucial M4’s 499/154 read/write.
While still much better than the competition, the IOPS results for the MX100 were much lower than the claimed 90k/85k, instead pulling just 48k/67k.
AS SSD
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| MX100 | SX900 | M4 |
AS SSD is another good benchmark which really stresses incompressible data, giving us a “worst-case” scenario.
Here the results were about the same as the Anvil benchmark. Reads were just just a little ahead of the competition but writes were miles better, putting up a read/write of 482/458.
ATTO
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| MX100 | SX900 | M4 |
If AS SSD provides us with a “worst case”, then ATTO would be our “best case” because it uses fully compressible data. This is the benchmarks that gives out the huge numbers that manufactures love to throw around.
Our MX100 was just a tad short of the claimed 550 read 500 write, instead pulling 526 read 498 write. This is actually slightly lower than the SX900, showing that the ADATA drive excels more in compressible data while the Crucial is all about incompressible.
CrystalDiskMark
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| MX100 | SX900 | M4 |
CrystalDiskMark is another good benchmark for getting an overall idea of a drives real-world potential.
The results here confirm what we gathered from the other tests. Reads are all pretty close, writes are much better on the big MX100.
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Final Thoughts
Pros:
- Awesome incompressible data performance
- Great compressible performance
- Incredible write speed
- Very competitive price
Cons:
- None
There’s nothing really bad to say about the Crucial MX100. It has incredible incompressible data performance and very good compressible performance as well. It was able to match or beat the competition in reads in almost every benchmark and blew them away in write speed. Combine this with the fact that it’s one of the cheapest 512GB drives you can buy right now and it’s easy to see that the MX100 is a winner.
If you’re in the market for a big SSD, I’d definitely recommend the Crucial MX100.
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