Crucial M500 480GB Solid-State Drive Review
Test System & Comparison Drives
Legit Reviews Storage Benchmark Test System
All tests were performed on a fresh and up-to-date install of Windows 8 Pro x64 with no other applications running while using AHCI mode set through the BIOS. Synthetic Benchmarks were run with the OS loaded on a 120GB Corsair Force SSD. In between every test, the test drive was secure erased using an instance of Parted Magic. As such, all results should be indicative of optimal performance. All components were set to their default speeds and are listed below.
Z77 Test Bench
| Intel LGA 1155 Test Platform | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Component | Brand/Model | Live Pricing | |||
|
Processor |
Core i5 2500k | ||||
|
Motherboard |
ASUS Maximus V Gene Z77 | ||||
|
Memory |
Kingston HyperX KHX16C9B1RK28 8GB | ||||
|
OS Drive |
Corsair Force 120GB (FW 2.4) | ||||
|
Power Supply |
Antec Basiq BP550W Plus-EC | ||||
|
Operating System |
Windows 8 Pro 64-Bit | ||||
Comparison Drives And Other Models We Have Tested
Since there are so many SSDs out there now with different controllers, we started a reference table of which controllers are used by each drive to help you compare results. Different controllers definitely perform differently and each has various strengths and weaknesses. Like CPU’s, even identical drives will have variations in performance and part of that variance may be attributable to the NAND flash used. Since the tests of the drives listed have spanned different test benches and represent different interfaces, we have listed the most recent ones for easy reference.
| SSD MODEL | CONTROLLER(S) | Interface |
| OCZ Vertex 3.20 240GB | SandForce SF-2200 (SF-2281) | SATA III |
| Samsung 840 Pro 240GB | Samsung MDX | SATA III |
| Sandisk Ultra Plus 256GB | Marvell 88SS9175 | SATA III |
| Corsair Neutron GTX 240GB | LAMD LM87800 | SATA III |
| Intel 520 Series 240GB | SandForce SF-2200 (SF-2281) | SATA III |
| OCZ Vector 256GB | Indilinx Barefoot 3 | SATA III |
| Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB | SandForce SF-2200 (SF-2281) | SATA III |
| Samsung 830 Series 256GB | Samsung S4LJ204X01-Y040 | SATA III |
CrystalDiskMark 5.2.0 Readout:
For the Crucial M500 480GB drive, the readout on CrystalDiskInfo 5.2.0 shows that both NCQ and S.M.A.R.T. are enabled, as well as TRIM and the interface is confirmed at SATA III (6Gbps). This is a great free tool to see lots of detailed information about the drive such as the firmware version for which we are running the latest available at the time of testing – MU02.
Let’s look at some benchmarks…
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