Micron M600 (128GB, 256GB & 1TB) SSD Review
by Kristian Vättö on September 29, 2014 8:00 AM ESTFinal Words
My thoughts about the M600 are mixed. On the one hand I am happy to see that Micron is showing its commitment to the client market by investing on features like Dynamic Write Acceleration because to be honest, Micron has not really introduced anything new to its client SSDs since the M500. Innovation in the client segment is difficult because the market is so cost driven and even though a pseudo-SLC cache is nothing new, Micron's way of implementing it is.
On the other hand, I am a bit disappointed by the performance of the M600 and especially Dynamic Write Acceleration. In theory Dynamic Write Acceleration sounds great because it should provide the maximum acceleration capacity under every circumstance and thus maximize performance, but the truth is that the speed improvements over the MX100 are minimal. Add to that the fact that the M600 is actually outperformed by the 840 EVO, which utilizes TLC NAND with smaller SLC caches. It is not like the M600 is a slow or bad drive, not at all; it is just that I expected a bit more given the combination of MLC NAND and dynamic SLC cache.
The positive side of Dynamic Write Acceleration is the increased endurance. While 72TB was without a doubt enough for average client workloads, it is never a bad thing to have more. Especially OEMs tend to appreciate higher endurance because it is associated with higher reliability, and it also opens a wider market for the M600 as it can be used in workstation setups without having to worry about drives wearing out. Of course, I would pick a faster drive like 850 Pro for workstation use, but for OEMs the cost tends to be more important.
| NewEgg Price Comparison (9/28/2014) | ||||
| 120/128GB | 240/256GB | 480/512GB | 960GB/1TB | |
| Micron M600 | $80 | $140 | $260 | $450 |
| Crucial MX100 | $75 | $112 | $213 | - |
| Crucial M550 | $90 | $150 | $272 | $480 |
| SanDisk Ultra II | $80 | $110 | $200 | $433 |
| SanDisk Extreme Pro | - | $190 | $370 | $590 |
| Samsung SSD 850 Pro | $120 | $200 | $380 | $700 |
| Samsung SSD 840 EVO | $82 | $140 | $236 | $500 |
| OCZ ARC 100 | $75 | $120 | $240 | - |
| Plextor M6S | $75 | $135 | $280 | - |
| Intel SSD 530 | $84 | $140 | $250 | - |
Since the M600 is an OEM-only product, it will not be available through the usual retail channels. Thus the pricing will depend highly on the quantity ordered, so the prices in the above table are just approximate prices for orders of one that Micron provided us. The M600 enjoys a price premium over the MX100, but I suspect that in high volumes the M600 pricing should drop close to the MX100 levels, perhaps even lower.
All in all, I would have liked to see Micron going after Samsung's 850 Pro and SanDisk's Extreme Pro with the M600, but I do see the logic behind sticking to the high volume mainstream market. In terms of performance, features, and price, the M600 is a solid product and I am certain that PC OEMs will see the appeal in MLC NAND and high endurance over competitors' TLC offerings, especially in the more professional-oriented PC segments.
It will nevertheless be interesting to see how the separation of retail and OEM product teams plays out for Micron. I am eager to see whether Micron can optimize Dynamic Write Acceleration for heavier workloads and finally provide competition in the high-end SSD market as well. For now, this is a good first step, but it might take a revision or two before Dynamic Write Acceleration can reach its full potential.
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makerofthegames - Monday, September 29, 2014 - link
If the cost is low enough, they might be able to compete with hard drives. A two-disk RAID0 of these 1TB drives could replace my 2TB WD Black, which I store my game library on. And even a slow drive like this is a million times faster than any hard drive.That said, it's still a $900 set of SSDs fighting with a $200 hard drive. What we really need is a $200 1TB SSD, even a horribly slow one (is it possible to pack four bits into one cell? Like a QLC or something? That might be the way to do it). That would be able to compete not just in the performance sector, but in the bulk storage arena.
For people like me, capacity also affects performance, because it means I can install more apps/games to that drive instead of the slow spinning rust. I actually bought a very low-performing Mushkin 180GB SSD for my desktop, because it was the same price as the 120GB drives everyone else was slinging. That meant I could fit more games onto it, even the big ones like Skyrim.
sirius3100 - Monday, September 29, 2014 - link
Afaik QLC has been used in some USB-sticks in the past. But for SSDs the amount of write cycles QLC-NAND would be able to endure might be too low.bernstein - Monday, September 29, 2014 - link
you are just wrong, it's an order of magnitude BETTER than a M500 & still 5x better than MX100 : http://techreport.com/r.x/micron-m600/db2-100-writ...milli - Monday, September 29, 2014 - link
That review wasn't up yet when I posted my comment.But you can add to that, that it's still 340x worse than the ARC 100 in that same test (which is also a budget drive). It's worse in the read test than the MX100 and 5x worse than the ARC.
So yeah, service times are just terrible on Crucial's 256GB drives (all models).
nirwander - Monday, September 29, 2014 - link
Obviously, Dynamic Write Acceleration is not meant to be benchmarked. And "client workload" is not about constant high pressure on the SSD, so the drive is basically ok.kmmatney - Monday, September 29, 2014 - link
Agreed. It seems like the whole premise of the Dynamic Write Acceleration requires idle time to move data off the SLC NAND, but benchamarking doesn't allow that to happen (and isn't like real-life client usage). Also, if you just compare the MX100 256GB vs the M600 256GB, the newer SSD does have better write speeds, and does better at everything except the destroyer test.hojnikb - Monday, September 29, 2014 - link
I wonder if Crucial is gonna bring DWA to their consumer line aswell..Samus - Monday, September 29, 2014 - link
The M500 sure could have used it back in the day. The 120GB model had appalling write performance.PrivacyIsNotCriminal - Monday, September 29, 2014 - link
Appreciate the brief write up on encryption and that this may be a technically challenging area to detail. But in a post-Snowden world with increasing complex malware and emphasis on data mining, we should all be pressing for strengthening of protective technologies.Additional article depth on encryption technologies, certification authorities and related technical metrics would be appreciated by many of us who are not IT professionals, but are concerned about protecting our personal LANs and links to our wireless/cellular devices.
Contrary to the government's and RIAA most recent assertions, a desire for privacy and freedom from warrantless searches should be a fundamental American value.
Thanks for the in depth technical reviews and hope Anand is doing well.
kaelynthedove78 - Monday, September 29, 2014 - link
This explains the data loss issues we've had with the MX100 series, both under Windows 7 and FreeNAS.With all C-states enabled (the default and recommended configuration, which Anandtech doesn't use since some highly advertized drives are badly designed and suffer up to 40% IOPS drop), the drives don't properly handle suspending and resuming the system.
Under FreeNAS, the zpool would slowly accumulate corruption and during the next scrubbing the whole zpool would get trashed and the only option was to restore all data from backup.
Under windows strange errors, like being unable to properly recognise USB devices or install Windows updates, would appear little by little after every suspend/resume cycle until the machine would refuse to boot up at all.
A workaround is to either disable all power-saving C-states or to disable HIPM and DIPM on *all* disk controller, even those which don't have Micron drives connected. Or to never suspend/resume.
We decided to return all our Micron drivers, about 350 total, and get Intel SSDs instead. They're not cheap and not the fastest but at least I don't have to keep re-imaging systems every week..
For information on how to enable/disable HIPM and DIPM under Windows 7 please see:
www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/177819-ahci-link-power-management-enable-hipm-dipm.html