Hasta La Gadget!

Crucial‘s budget-friendly yet high-capacity 2.5-inch M500 SSD has finally cropped up for sale today, as have the reviews of it from the usual enthusiast sites. While it’s still not exactly low-cost, many applaud the fact that the company’s $600 960GB drive is the cheapest near-1TB model you can get on the market. It uses Micron’s 20nm MLC NAND flash, a SATA 6 Gb/s controller and is the first to implement the new 128Gb MLC NAND die. According to Benchmark Reviews, it certainly bests its m4 predecessor with peak speeds that reach 500 MB/s read and 400 MB/s write, with 80,000 IOPS in operational performance.

Both TweakTown and Anandtech concur that it’s not quite as fast as its closest competitor, the Samsung 840 Pro, but as Anand Lai Shimpi said in his review: “If you need the capacity and plan on using all of it [960GB], the M500 is really the only game in town.” TechnologyX, however, gives the nod to the 480GB model, if only because it’s about $200 cheaper if you’re willing to compromise on space. Crucial also offers the M500 in 120GB and 240GB for $130 and $220 for those with smaller wallets. If you’re keen to see the full breakdown on this tiny wonder, head on over to the sources to judge for yourself, or just click on the Crucial link below to get your own.

Filed under: Storage

Comments

Source: Benchmark Reviews, Tweaktown, Anandtech, TechnologyX, Crucial

ASK Inc. Japan has just added a new line of SSDs from Crucial to its product page, the M500. Coming in 120GB, 240GB, 480GB and 960GB sizes, these slim 2.5-inch SSDs (7mm thick) are equipped with 20nm MLC NAND Flash memory chips, a SATA 6.0 Gbps interface, a Marvell 88SS9187 controller, a MTBF of 1.2 million hours and can deliver read/write speeds of up to 500/130 MB/s (120GB Model), 500/250 MB/s (240GB Model) and 500/400 MB/s (480GB & 960GB Models), respectively. Prices unannounced yet. [Product Page]

Traditionally, the SSD is much more expensive than a comparably sized hard drive. The benefits of an SSD are clear with faster booting and quicker application loading among other things with the big downside being that the SSD typically costs much more per gigabyte than other storage options. Crucial has unveiled a new line of SSDs called the Crucial v4 SSD that is available in multiple storage capacities at surprisingly affordable prices.

The Crucial SSDs are available in 32 GB, 64 GB, 128 GB, and 256 GB capacities. Pricing on the new line of SSDs is $49.99, $69.99, $99.99, and $189.99 respectively. Under $190 is a nice price for a 256 GB SSD and will certainly lure gamers and computer enthusiasts on a budget away from hard drives. It’s interesting that the flooding that affected so many hard drive manufacturers has driven the price of your typical HDD up while the price of SSDs continues to fall bringing the SSD and HDD much closer in price.

The Crucial v4 SSD promises write speeds of up to 190 MB/s read speeds of up to 230 MB/s. The speeds are the fastest you’ll find SSD industry, but should offer significantly more performance of the typical hard drive. The new SSD line is designed to work with SATA 2 3Gb/s equipped computers representing most mainstream devices.

“The Crucial v4 SSD boils down to two things: performance and value,” said Robert Wheadon, senior worldwide product manager, Crucial. “Most consumers realize that SSDs help their computers start quicker and run faster, and are a more durable alternative to hard drives, but many don’t realize that most SSDs outperform the data transfer capabilities of their SATA 2 machines. With the Crucial v4 SSD, we’ve come up with a product that’s designed to bring the most value out of a SATA 2 system without paying for extra performance that can’t be used.”

These SSDs will work with Mac and PC computers and are perfect for machines that lack speedier 6Gb/s SATA ports. The SSDs have a three-year limited warranty. This is the perfect storage option for computers built before 2011 when the faster SATA port became common.

Crucial unveils cheap v4 SSDs for mainstream computing is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Micron Japan will release a new line of mSATA SSDs, the Crucial m4. Coming in four different capacities: 32GB, 64GB, 128GB and 256GB, these SSDs are equipped with a SATA 6.0 Gbps interface and promise to deliver read/write speeds of up to 440/50 MB/s (32GB Model), 500/95 MB/s (64GB Model), 500/260 MB/s (128GB & 256GB Models), respectively. The Crucial m4 mSATA SSDs will start shipping from late July for 5,100 Yen (about $65), 7,200 Yen (about $92), 11,800 Yen (about $151) and 23,800 Yen (about $305), respectively. [Micron Japan]