Crucial MX300 M.2 525 GB

[W1zzard]

With just $140 for the 525 GB version, the Crucial MX300 is one of the most affordable M.2 drives out there. Instead of NVMe, it uses the slower SATA interface, though. Our review will take a closer look at how much of a difference that really makes and whether the MX300 M.2 is a good alternative to 2.5" SATA drives.

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[nickbaldwin86]

Can get a Intel 760p 512GB now for $220. it is only a mere $80 more for roughly 6x that is SIX TIMES the performance.

I know they aren't in the same comparable product line up but just saying I strongly agree with your CON comment of "it runs on the slow SATA bus"

Good review!

 

[jabbadap]

And yet another rather ancient ssd drive for review. Not that I'm complaining the review itself, but they really should sent you newer products.

Couple of m.2 to pcie riser cards and bunch of these drives would make a sense if one would need a lot of space for relative cheap.

 

[CheapMeat]

Most are probably thinking in terms of just one or two drives for their rig, so I can understand the "why bother, get NVMe" kind of view. But I'm personally done with HDDs for bulk storage. I'm getting SATA M.2s with various adapters, for my bulk storage needs. I'm just waiting on QLC NAND to really spend big on. I want multiple drives, not just one or two, and treat them like any other HDD.

 

[WithoutWeakness]

Most are probably thinking in terms of just one or two drives for their rig, so I can understand the "why bother, get NVMe" kind of view. But I'm personally done with HDDs for bulk storage. I'm getting SATA M.2s with various adapters, for my bulk storage needs. I'm just waiting on QLC NAND to really spend big on. I want multiple drives, not just one or two, and treat them like any other HDD.

Good point. NVMe is great if you have hardware that can take advantage of it but SATA SSDs still have a space in the market. Not everyone has a brand new machine that supports the latest stuff. There are plenty of people with 2-4 year old computers (especially laptops) that are great everyday machines and likely have M.2 SATA ports that could take advantage of a drive like this.

 

[newtekie1]

Can get a Intel 760p 512GB now for $220. it is only a mere $80 more for roughly 6x that is SIX TIMES the performance.

$80 extra for for a performance increase that you're never really going to notice. Seems worth it...

 

[bug]

Three things I'd like to add:
- this ties the 850 EVO that's always been a best seller; I own both the EVO and a SATA MX300 and I can confirm you can't tell the difference between then under normal usage
- this is M.2 which may seem more future-proof; but when you install a M.2 drive, you give two SATA ports, so keep that in mind if you have several drives in your system
- the weakness of these is their performance drops when they get full; this isn't covered in TPU's tests and I haven't filled my MX300 either so I can't tell you what that means irl

My advice: at the price/GB these offer, go straight for the 1TB if you can afford it. Get the MX500 if it isn't much expensive, that's supposedly taken care of the performance drops with the drive full.
And once again, the price/GB these offer is hard to beat

 

[Chaitanya]

Didnt you get Mx500(M.2) for review? Also for some reason Crucial is still keeping away from PCI-E SSDs.

 

[bug]

Didnt you get Mx500(M.2) for review? Also for some reason Crucial is still keeping away from PCI-E SSDs.

I think we've went over this before. While there's a market for cheap SATA drives, there isn't one for cheap NVMe drives. Fast SATA drives are better buys than cheap NVMe.
Plus, sticking to only one protocol means one less controller to worry about and less QA cost.

 

[W1zzard]

Didnt you get Mx500(M.2) for review? Also for some reason Crucial is still keeping away from PCI-E SSDs.

These drives have been announced, but are not available yet. Not for review either (yet), they'll keep me updated.

 

[Chaitanya]

I think we've went over this before. While there's a market for cheap SATA drives, there isn't one for cheap NVMe drives. Fast SATA drives are better buys than cheap NVMe.
Plus, sticking to only one protocol means one less controller to worry about and less QA cost.

We did, after Intel released their entry level m.2 760p it really was surprising that now Crucial is the only Nand manufacturer who doesnt offer a consumer nvme ssd. Currently Micron seems to offer pci-e enterprise grade ssds but no consumer offerings. 760p from intel seems to fill the niche of higher performance that nvme offer without extra cost and heat associated with these SFF drives.

 

[jabbadap]

I think we've went over this before. While there's a market for cheap SATA drives, there isn't one for cheap NVMe drives. Fast SATA drives are better buys than cheap NVMe.
Plus, sticking to only one protocol means one less controller to worry about and less QA cost.

I'm kind of confident that Crucial has all the expertise needed to make all kind of nvme drives, not just cheap ones. But the thing is they aren't making any kind of pcie drives, which is very odd.

 

[bug]

I'm kind of confident that Crucial has all the expertise needed to make all kind of nvme drives, not just cheap ones. But the thing is they aren't making any kind of pcie drives, which is very odd.

Probably they don't want to step on the toes of those that buy their chips.

 

[W1zzard]

Probably they don't want to step on the toes of those that buy their chips.

From several meetings with them over years it's my impression that a lot of their focus is on people upgrading existing systems/laptops, where nvme might not play such a role yet. Ofc I could be totally wrong

 

[bug]

From several meetings with them over years it's my impression that a lot of their focus is on people upgrading existing systems/laptops, where nvme might not play such a role yet. Ofc I could be totally wrong

That doesn't contradict my feeling: selling SSDs (and Crucial, in general) is of secondary importance. The brand is there, the know-how is there, but their main thing in making and selling chips.

 

[Baum]

IF the MX500 M.2 Sata is on the market, is it possible to get a head2head review? Media says the improved overall performance and hit the sata maximum, but i am still not convinced...

I need a new M.2 "Sata only" for my notebook, which means small file transfer performance (office insane excel) workload is inportant

 

[W1zzard]

MX500 M.2 is not available yet, Crucial will send one as soon as possible, already talked to them

 

[bug]

IF the MX500 M.2 Sata is on the market, is it possible to get a head2head review? Media says the improved overall performance and hit the sata maximum, but i am still not convinced...

I need a new M.2 "Sata only" for my notebook, which means small file transfer performance (office insane excel) workload is inportant

What SATA maximum? Drives have been hitting that for years, that's not what limits the performance of a SSD these days.