Point is, the combination of chipset and newer Nand removes the need for specific capacitors and, if you go by what Crucial tells us, the MX500 also improves upon endurance and energy efficiency as a direct result of these improvements, too. From what we can gather, this sequencing enables the MX500 to have enough time to put the data into a lower-page program. Rather than rely on capacitors with a minimal hold-up time, usually 1ms, Crucial says its engineers have been able to tweak the firmware and controller and integrate data-at-rest protection into the second-generation Nand itself, made possible by the way it sequences writing to these pages. Standard presentation on this model 7mm-high aluminium casing These pages can be either lower (easier to program) or upper pages, and an unexpected power loss means that either sets of pages haven't been completed before the proverbial lights went out. Without getting too technical, an SSD's cells are arranged in pages, constituting the smallest amount of information that can be written in one go (4KB to 16KB, usually). Instead of relying upon them, Crucial has looked at how to deal with the problem from a Nand and firmware point of view. Other MX drives have used a series of ceramic PCB-mounted capacitors to hold recent, pertinent pages but as you will see lower down, they're conspicuous by their absence on MX500. Like previous MX-series drives, Crucial offers power-loss protection for data already present on the drive, though the mechanism for protecting it is different. The difference here is that MX500 is home to second-generation 3D Nand from Micron, now composed of 64 layers, instead of 32, paving the way for larger capacities. There's nothing new in that, as Intel and Samsung have gone down the same 3D Nand route. You may recall that the company has adopted 3D Nand across its range, where the presence of multiple layers enables SSDs to spread out their cells and mitigate electromigration problems associated with cramming more capacity into ever-smaller geometries. Though MX500 uses the same controller as the entry-level BX300, which tops out at 480GB in capacity, Crucial updates the firmware and Nand chips this time around. Does this mean that the MX500 is largely a rebadged BX300 presented in much larger capacities? The answer is, for the most part, no, and we will explain why. Achieving this results in a move away from the Marvell controller and use of Silicon Motion's 2258 four-channel chip. It doesn’t quite match up to the Samsung’s 850 Evo’s performance ( effective speed 8% slower), however at current prices it is about 20% cheaper, and on balance offers better value for money.Removing capacitors, keeping data integrity ![]() The MX500’s five year warranty is in line with Samsung’s 850 Evo and exceeds it in terms of endurance (just 75 TBW for the 250 GB 850 Evo versus 100 TBW for the 250 GB MX500). Extended sustained write performance tests show that even though speed does drop off after the cache has been exhausted, it is still maintained at very respectable levels. ![]() The 250 GB version has 250MB of SLC cache, the 500 GB has 512 MB, the 1 TB has 1 GB and the 2 TB has 2 GB. Consequently, the larger capacities are better able to sustain high sequential write speeds. The MX500 has an SLC cache which increases with drive capacity. Performance is around 30% better than on the MX300 which currently retails at the same price. The MX500 features a Silicon Motion SM2258 controller which is a change from the Marvell 88SS1074 controller featured in the MX300 (it’s nearly two year old predecessor). All but the 2 TB version will also be available in M.2 (2280) form in the future. It’s available in 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB and 2 TB capacities in a 2.5-inch form factor. The MX500 is Crucial’s current flagship consumer SATA SSD featuring their latest second generation 64-layer 3D TLC NAND.
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