Review: Crucial M500 SSD (240GB & 960GB)

Conclusion

The M500 is another intriguing development in SSD evolution. With most drives hitting the performance wall in terms of what's possible via a SATA 6Gbps interface, Crucial has stepped back and served up a well-rounded package that delivers more than just pure sequential throughput.

Drive performance remains solid, if not spectacular, but the headlines here are a massive 960GB capacity, attractive pricing and value-adds such as Encrypted Hard Drive support and availability in a wide choice of form factors.

The stumbling block, however, is considerable performance variation, with both the 120GB and 240GB models suffering from limited write performance that pales in comparison to the larger drives. The real star of the show, then, is the 960GB M500: a full-featured SSD that offers enough capacity for all your games and keen per-GB pricing.

The Good

Huge 960GB capacity
Attractive pricing
Capable all-round performance
Encrypted Hard Drive support
Available in mSATA and M.2. form factors

The Bad

120GB and 240GB models inherently hamstrung
Faster drives are readily available

HEXUS Awards

Crucial M500 SSD (960GB)

HEXUS Where2Buy

The Crucial M500 SSD is available to purchase from Scan Computers*.

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