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Crucial 128GB m4 SSD review

by Parm Mann on 7 June 2011, 17:30 4.5

Tags: Crucial Technology (NASDAQ:MU)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qa6a7

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Specification and Test Methodology

Crucial m4 SSD technical specifications

Model CT064M4SSD2 CT128M4SSD2 CT256M4SSD2 CT512M4SSD2
Capacity 64GB
128GB 256GB 512GB
Price £85 £170 £340 £675
Controller Integrated 8-channel single chip Integrated 8-channel single chip Integrated 8-channel single chip Integrated 8-channel single chip
Firmware Field Upgradeable Field Upgradeable Field Upgradeable Field Upgradeable
RAID Support Yes Yes Yes Yes
Interface SATA SATA SATA SATA
Transfer Rate 6Gb/sec (compatible 3Gb/sec) 6Gb/sec (compatible 3Gb/sec) 6Gb/sec (compatible 3Gb/sec) 6Gb/sec (compatible 3Gb/sec)
Average Access Time < .1 ms < .1 ms < .1 ms < .1 ms
Sequential Read (up to) 415 MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s) 415 MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s) 415 MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s) 415 MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s)
Sequential Write (up to) 95 MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s) 175 MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s) 260 MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s) 260 MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s)
Random 4k READ 40,000 IOPS 40,000 IOPS 40,000 IOPS 40,000 IOPS
Random 4k WRITE 20,000 IOPS 35,000 IOPS 50,000 IOPS 50,000 IOPS
SSD dimensions 100.5 x 69.85 x 9.50 mm 100.5 x 69.85 x 9.50 mm 100.5 x 69.85 x 9.50 mm 100.5 x 69.85 x 9.50 mm
SSD weight 75g 75g 75g 75g
Active Average Power 150 mW 150 mW 160 mW 280 mW
Idle Average Power <65 mW <85 mW <85 mW <100 mW
Operating Temperature 0°C to 70°C 0°C to 70°C 0°C to 70°C 0°C to 70°C
Shock Resistance 1500G / 1.0ms 1500G / 1.0ms 1500G / 1.0ms 1500G / 1.0ms
Vibration Resistance 2-500Hz at 3.1G 2-500Hz at 3.1G 2-500Hz at 3.1G 2-500Hz at 3.1G
MTBF 1.2 Million Hours 1.2 Million Hours 1.2 Million Hours 1.2 Million Hours
Data Reliability Built-in EDC/ECC Built-in EDC/ECC Built-in EDC/ECC Built-in EDC/ECC
Drive Endurance 36TB=20GB per day for 5 years 36TB=20GB per day for 5 years 36TB=20GB per day for 5 years 36TB=20GB per day for 5 years
Monitoring SMART command set SMART command set SMART command set SMART command set
Warranty Limited 3 Year Warranty Limited 3 Year Warranty Limited 3 Year Warranty Limited 3 Year Warranty

Test bench

CPU Intel Core i5 2500K (3.3GHz, 6MB L3 cache, quad-core, LGA1155)
Motherboard Intel DP67BG
Memory 8GB Corsair Vengeance (9-9-9-24-2T @ 1,600MHz)
Host hard drive Crucial 256GB RealSSD C300 (SATA 6Gbps)
Storage controllers Intel P67 PCH (SATA 6Gbps, AHCI)
Graphics card AMD Radeon HD 6850 1GB
Power supply Corsair AX750
Operating system Windows 7 Ultimate SP1, 64-bit

Comparison Drives

  Capacity Controller Firmware Interface RAID mode TRIM support Price* Price per GB
G.Skill Phoenix Pro 40GB SandForce SF-1222 2.1 SATA 3Gbps - Yes £80** £2.0
Crucial Real SSD C300 64GB Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 002 SATA 6Gbps - Yes £90 £1.4
Corsair Force Series F80 80GB SandForce SF-1222 1.1 SATA 3Gbps - Yes £145** £1.8
G.Skill Phoenix Pro (x2) 80GB SandForce SF-1222 2.1 SATA 3Gbps RAID 0 No £160** £2.0
Kingston SSDNow V+100 96GB Toshiba T6UG1XBG CJR10202 SATA 3Gbps - Yes £105 £1.1
OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SandForce SF-1222 1.11 SATA 3Gbps - Yes £155 £1.3
Patriot Inferno 120GB SandForce SF-1222 320A13F0 SATA 3Gbps - Yes £160 £1.3
Intel 510 Series 120GB Marvell 88SS9174-BKK2 PPG2 SATA 6Gbps - Yes £220 £1.8
OCZ RevoDrive 120GB SandForce SF-1222 (x2) 1.20 PCIe x4 RAID 0 (internal) No £250 £2.1
Patriot Torqx 2 128GB Phison PS3105-S5 S5FAM005 SATA 3Gbps - Yes £160 £1.3
Crucial m4 128GB Marvell 88SS9174-BKK2 0001 SATA 6Gbps - Yes £170 £1.3
Intel X25-M 160GB Intel PC29AS21BA0 2CV102M3 SATA 3Gbps - Yes £295 £1.8
Corsair Force Series F80 (x2) 160GB SandForce SF-1222 1.1 SATA 3Gbps RAID 0 No £190 £1.8
OCZ Vertex 3 240GB SandForce SF-2281 1.11 SATA 6Gbps - Yes £425 £1.8
OCZ RevoDrive X2 240GB SandForce SF-1222 (x4) 1.20 PCIe x4 RAID 0 (internal) No £480 £2.0
Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB Marvell 88SS9174-BJP2 0006 SATA 3Gbps - Yes £335 £1.3
Crucial m4 (x2) 256GB Marvell 88SS9174-BKK2 0001 SATA 6Gbps RAID 0 No £340 £1.3
Intel 320 Series 300GB Intel PC29AS21BA0 4PC10302 SATA 3Gbps - Yes £415 £1.4
Samsung HD103SJ HDD 1TB N/A, hard-disk 1AJ100E4 SATA 3Gbps - N/A £40 £0.04
Samsung HD103SJ HDD (x2) 2TB N/A, hard-disk 1AJ100E4 SATA 3Gbps RAID 0 N/A £80 £0.04
*Approximate price at time of writing
**Discontinued model, no longer available

Benchmarks

ATTO Disk Benchmark The freeware ATTO benchmark provides basic sequential speed results for both read and write operations. Using the default queue depth of four, we record read and write speeds during 1MB transfers.
CrystalDiskMark CrystalDiskMark provides various storage benchmarks, but we're interested in the returned 32-thread 4K performance numbers to see how well the drives fare when tasked with numerous small transfers.
AS SSD

Another freeware benchmark, AS SSD is designed primarily for testing solid-state storage. We run the benchmark and record the drive's overall read and write scores. The final numbers take into account sequential speeds, input/output performance and access time.

Iometer Iometer is an I/O subsystem measurement tool originally developed by Intel. To measure a drive's I/O performance, we set the benchmark to utilise 4KB transfers in a random spread. Read and write distribution is set to 50 per cent, and queue depth at 32. The test is run for two minutes and we record the total I/Os per second.
PCMark Vantage Emulating real-world use, PCMark Vantage spits out a bunch of data on the relative speed of the drives when undertaking common tasks. We record Windows startup, application load time and gaming performance.