Crucial MX200 (250GB, 500GB & 1TB) SSD Review
by Kristian Vättö on May 22, 2015 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
- SSDs
- Crucial
- MX200
- Micron 16nm
Idle Power Consumption
Since we truncate idle times to 25µs in our Storage Bench traces, they don't give a fully accurate picture of real world power consumption as idle power consumption is not taken properly into account. Hence I'm still reporting idle power consumption as a separate benchmark because it's one of the most critical metrics when it comes evaluating an SSD for mobile use.
Unfortunately I still don't have a way to test DevSleep power consumption due to lack of platform support, but my testbed supports HIPM+DIPM power commands (also referred to as Slumber power), so the results give a rather accurate picture of real-world idle power consumption.
The MX200 supports both DevSleep and slumber power states, so power efficiency during idle times is good. It's not Samsung level, but at ~60mW the MX200 enjoys a small benefit over the MX100 and is overall fairly average.
TRIM Validation
The move from Windows 7 to 8.1 introduced some problems with the methodology we have previously used to test TRIM functionality, so I had to come up with a new way to test. I tested a couple of different methods, but ultimately I decided to go with the easiest one that can actually be used by anyone. The software is simply called trimcheck and it was made by a developer that goes by the name CyberShadow in GitHub.
Trimcheck tests TRIM by creating a small, unique file and then deleting it. Next the program will check whether the data is still accessible by reading the raw LBA locations. If the data that is returned by the drive is all zeros, it has received the TRIM command and TRIM is functional.
And TRIM works!
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KAlmquist - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link
I'm hoping that once other companies get 3D NAND into production we will see some interesting competition for Samsung.austinsguitar - Friday, May 22, 2015 - link
I love how they post this but not the mx100 tests.... whats the FKING POINT in testing than?Ryan Smith - Friday, May 22, 2015 - link
I'm not sure I follow. The MX100 is in our graphs.earl colby pottinger - Friday, May 22, 2015 - link
Question about the hardware encryption.Where does the key come from? Can I set my own key?
The reason I ask is, if all the drives have the same key from the manufacturer then it is like there is no key at all. As if you know one key you know them all.
If it is made by a random number generator, how do we not know there is a pattern from the generator so a hacker only needs to do a few thousand (million?) tests to break the encryption?
If on the other-hand we can set the key, is it easy to do? Is the key such that we can write it to the drive but it is hard to read out?
Vinchent - Friday, May 22, 2015 - link
Wow I just purchased the MX200 250GB a couple of days ago.If I had read this article before, I wouldn't have bought it.
btw, thanks for this great article, AT :)
RandUser - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link
Lol, same for me here. Should have gotten a BX100. The MX200 performs without problems though, so no point returning it, just it's not the best value for money.MrSpadge - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link
If you don't fill it in a sudden rush, it's still a fine drive. Not the best choice, but not terrible either.PaulBags - Friday, May 22, 2015 - link
The Samsung 850 pro 1tb is missing from most charts, disappointing.Sejong - Friday, May 22, 2015 - link
No comments on the NAND being 16nm? Is this not an issue? I am reluctant to buy MX100, 200 and BX100 when there is M500 still in stock (the price seems to be rising).Another review request : Intel`s new SSD 535 (this seems to use hynix 16nm NAND memory).
MrSpadge - Saturday, May 23, 2015 - link
No, it's not an issue. Even with "just" the guaranteed endurance it's going to last a long time. And very probably a lot longer, as in any SSD which is not under continous sustained use (which would cause very high write amplification).