Crucial MX100 (256GB & 512GB) Review
by Kristian Vättö on June 2, 2014 3:00 PM ESTAnandTech Storage Bench 2011
Back in 2011 (which seems like so long ago now!), we introduced our AnandTech Storage Bench, a suite of benchmarks that took traces of real OS/application usage and played them back in a repeatable manner. The MOASB, officially called AnandTech Storage Bench 2011 - Heavy Workload, mainly focuses on peak IO performance and basic garbage collection routines. There is a lot of downloading and application installing that happens during the course of this test. Our thinking was that it's during application installs, file copies, downloading and multitasking with all of this that you can really notice performance differences between drives. The full description of the Heavy test can be found here, while the Light workload details are here.
In our Heavy workload trace, the story changes. Now the 256GB M550 is faster than the 256GB MX100 but the 512GB MX100 still leads the Crucial pack. I'm thinking that the 256GB M550 is more optimized for non-steady-state operation as that's more common for client workloads, which would explain why it performs poorly in the 2013 bench but is better in the 2011 Heavy test. What's surprising is that the 256GB MX100 is much faster than the 256GB SP920 despite that fact that the only difference between them should be the NAND lithography. Maybe Micron/Crucial didn't give ADATA the highest performing firmware after all.
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juhatus - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
Does the Samsung XP941 use Samsung's 3D NAND? Availability at least would fit as the first drive's where seen last Q3/13 on OEM machines..juhatus - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
To answer for my own question: Yes and that also explains XP941's rarityhttp://english.etnews.com/device/2963105_1304.html
Kristian Vättö - Wednesday, June 4, 2014 - link
So far Samsung has only been sampling 3D NAND SSDs to enterprise OEMs, although they have just started providing some to the PC OEMs with the new 32-layer NAND. The XP941 is still regular MLC but Samsung it's only available for OEMs.Samus - Thursday, June 5, 2014 - link
I've installed over 100 M500's and have personally been using a C300 since 2010 in my daily driver laptop. Rock solid drives. Who cares if they're 10% "slower" than a Sandforce drive.Onyx2291 - Thursday, June 5, 2014 - link
Just ordered a 512GB for $199.99. Such good value.beatsbyden - Thursday, August 21, 2014 - link
Great bargain for the price. I heard the 256GB drive is in fact a 320 GB drive with 20% overprovisioning...that would even be more a bargain. Performance decrades less than with all other brands that only have 7%. I also like the protection and encryption on the mx 100. Still have to chose between the samsung 840 evo 250gb and the mx100. Would chose the mx100 if had better writing performance...but now i have doubts...Gonna use it for audioproduction...so lots of reads and writes that would make the samsung evo 840 a better choice right....i have a Samsung 830 128GB now and i'm satisfied with it, never failed me, but need a bigger one. Should i stick with Samsung or get the MX 100?SpartanTech - Wednesday, September 17, 2014 - link
Get the 512GB MX100, should satisfy your needs and provides even more storage....PS: Don't think you'll notice any difference tbh
Canadaram - Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - link
Because Crucial is a direct seller as well as a wholesaler, they can set the MSRP much closer to wholesale/street pricing levels, so don't expect as large of a discount from MSRP to street as you would on retail brands.akin1231 - Tuesday, December 2, 2014 - link
This drive is not a steal, it's a massive rip off because it doesn't work reliably. There's a massive issue with it falling off intermittently but frequently. There's no fix for it yet. Check the Crucial forum:http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Crucial-SSDs/MX100-wil...
I bought 3 of these... I'm a sucker
fossxplorer - Friday, April 10, 2015 - link
Good and very important info.