Crucial MX100 2.5" 256GB SATA Solid State Drive

BUY SOON...SUPPLIES ARE LIMITED!!! As you likely know, the MX100 is being discontinued. The MX200 is replacing it and the design of the MX200 is substantially different. However, I recommend purchasing this MX100. Why? Check out the customer Reviews here...real-world usage and testing has shown the MX100 to sport excellent performance, outstanding quality NAND, and industry-leading reliability. The MX100 has withstood the test of time, and you can now rest assured that if you buy a MX100 that you will get many years (decades, in fact) of reliable & trouble-free performance. Additionally, the firmware for the MX100 has been revised over time to a point in which the firmware is now optimal for both performance and reliability. (It is also worth noting that the MX200 does NOT outperform the MX100 in many instances and in some cases the MX100 gives faster real-world performance...this is likely in part due to the MX100's maturation time for the firmware and in a few years the MX200 will see increasingly better performance & reliability.) -------------------------------- WHY CRUCIAL? The MX100, like previous Crucial SSDs, is reliable, affordable, and fast. Not many SSDs meet ALL of those three criteria. Virtually any modern SSD will give ridiculously fast performance compared to the older HDDs, but few makers have the reliability of Crucial. The Marvel controller used in the MX100 I consider to be among the best when it comes to removing garbage and leveling disk wear. Crucial's usage of the higher-endurance Multi-Level Cell NAND, the quality of this NAND, and the affordability for a high-quality MLC SSD all weighed in. Previous experiences also played a role. I own various C300, C400, and M4 SSDs. These drives have given flawless performance and many have written over 100-150+ TB on them (far exceeding their advertised rating.) I also like how Crucial SSDs play nice with all the major OS'...I have used them with Win 7, Win 8.1, and the past 5 revisions of OS X. These drives work wonderfully with all of these operating systems. -------------------------------- DESCRIPTION & SPECS I do not want to go too in-detail here as many others have done a great job covering it already. More or less, the Crucial MX100 is one of Crucial's mainstream-performance SSDs. It uses MLC flash memory (which has better duration than the cheaper TLC), uses a Marvell controller, and comes in 128, 256, 512 GB sizes. It is one tier below the M550, but it uses the same Marvel controller of the M550. It has been shrunken to the 16nm process. (Side Note: With the next generation of Crucial SSDs, it is very likely we are going to see 2TB SSDs in the 2.5 inch form factor...if you need more than 512 GB - 1 TB, keep your eye out for the 1-2 TB size increase!) Like most SSDs, the smaller-sized drives have considerably lower write speeds than the larger ones (go for at least the 256 GB size if you want to maximize your write speeds.) All three sizes have a read speed of 550MB/s. The 128GB size has a write speed of 150MB/s, the 256GB writes at 330MB/s, and the 512GB writes at 500MB/s. (My usage of the 256GB size has write speeds right around 300 MB/s and read speeds right around 500MB/s, so speeds are very close to as-advertised.) Random read and random write speeds also increase with larger sizes. The lifespan of the drive is advertised at 72 TB...this estimate is likely EXTREMELY conservative. The disk supports various encryption capabilities, including the venerable AES-256. The drive comes with a 3-year warranty from Crucial. Firmware updates are available from Crucial, which allows one to update their firmware using various methods. Over the past few years, their options have become much more flexible (during the M4 era, FW updates on OS X was a difficult process.) Crucial firmware updates generally have direct support for Max OS X, Win 7, and Win 8/8.1. -------------------------------- BENCHMARK TESTING AND SSDs Benchmark testing, which is measuring the disk speed in a closed environment, can provide valuable information on hard drive performance. However, there are limitations. One issue is that benchmark performance may or may not translate to similar real-world performance. Another issue is that virtually all modern SSDs are so fast that discussion about what SSD is the fastest is kind of splitting hairs for most users. Finally, benchmark testing on performance tells us very little about the drive's durability, longevity, and wear patterns...and for most users, reliability is probably more desirable than the fastest possible performance. Companies have released some SSDs with the intention of them being 'the fastest', these SSDs received substantial tech media attention, many people bought these products, and eventually it came to light that the reliability was inferior to other products on the market. Crucial SSDs generally do NOT rank among the top of SSDs in benchmark tests. In fact, many benchmark tests make Crucial SSDs appear "slow". This can be misleading. For actual usage, Crucial SSDs usually give real-world performance that is equal (and sometimes even superior) to many drives that give substantially higher benchmark scores. For example, I have numerous Crucial M4's and an OCZ Vertex 3 from around the same area. The read speeds are pretty similar, but the OCZ benchmarks write speeds about twice that of the M4. In real-world usage, the Crucial M4 works better. It's transfer speeds are more consistent with the Crucial M4, the time it takes to perform most real-world tests favor the M4, and the reliability of the M4 is superior (having had issues with OCZ's SSD reliability, this was the last OCZ SSD I purchased.) The bottom line here is that Crucial drives provide better real-world performance than they do benchmark scores. If real-world performance is more important to you than a numerical benchmark score (like it is for me), don't disqualify Crucial from consideration due to these numerical figures. They do not accurately speak to the quality of the User experience. -------------------------------- DURABILITY & RELIABILITY Crucial SSDs are class-leading when it comes to durability and reliability. Like many Samsung & Intel SSDs, Crucial has developed a reputation for reliable flash memory products. You are trusting a company to produce a product that protects your valuable data, and Crucial is a great company to put this trust in. The advertised life of this drive is 72 TB of endurance. In reality, that is probably a very conservative estimate given some Reviewers have tested SSDs beyond the 2 PETABYTE marker (that is, 2,000 TB or 20,000 GB.) If you use this drive to write/read 6.5 GBs of data every day, it would take around 30 years just to reach the 72 TB mark, and this 72 TB mark is likely a small fraction of how long this drive can operate for. In other words, the usable life of the MX100 is going to far exceed the time period it will be technically useful. With a good SSD like this, we are talking some serious durability. -------------------------------- CONCLUSION The MX100 is not the fastest SSD on the market, but it's still quite fast and capable of tackling many data-heavy tasks. Along with these speeds comes reliability from a company known for reliable and durable flash memory products, and a company that frequently (and promptly) will update their firmware to give you optimal performance, reliability, and security. To make things even better, the MX100 is priced competitively. This MLC drive is less expensive than many TLC drives, and the quality of the MLC flash used in this Crucial is of outstanding quality (as is the controller that manages it.) Since this product provides performance, durability, and value into a single package, it gives the MX100 the versatility to meet a wide range of user needs. Therefore, I highly recommend the Crucial MX100.