Final thoughts and rating
Consumers looking to purchase a high-end SSD upgrade are likely to make their choice based on three criteria; performance, capacity and price.
Based on those key factors, we've seen few SATA 6Gbps drives as compelling as Crucial's 128GB m4 SSD.
Priced at a hugely competitive £170, the 128GB m4 SSD is over 15 per cent cheaper than the equivalent 120GB Vertex 3, while offering an additional 8GB of storage capacity.
The SandForce 2281-powered Vertex 3 remains the benchmark setter for raw sequential throughput, but the majority of users will find the performance gap imperceptible during everyday use.
Crucial hasn't reinvented the wheel, but by tweaking a tried-and-trusted controller it has produced an excellent SSD that's both faster and cheaper than last year's model. At this price, the m4 SSD is well worthy of consideration for any SATA 6Gbps system.
The Good
Offers new levels of performance from a tried-and-trusted Marvell controller
Makes good use of the high-speed SATA 6Gbps interface
Competitive pricing; cheaper than last year's C300
Outstanding performance in RAID 0
The Bad
Can't match SandForce 2281 in raw sequential throughput
HEXUS Rating
Crucial m4 SSD (128GB)
HEXUS Awards
Crucial m4 SSD (128GB)
HEXUS Where2Buy
The 128GB Crucial m4 SSD is available to purchase from SCAN.co.uk*.
HEXUS Right2Reply
At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.
*As always, UK-based HEXUS.community forum members will benefit from the SCAN2HEXUS Free Shipping initiative, which will save you a further few pounds plus also top-notch, priority customer service and technical support backed up by the SCANcare@HEXUSforum.
