14 DAY TRIAL // There is nothing simple or straightforward about solid-state drives anymore, not when companies want to make sure they have drives available for every possible application out there. Crucial's M500 line shows this.
Granted, we may be laying it a bit thick, but today's solid-state drives are much more varied, and sometimes quite specific in their role, than they were a few years ago.
Where there used to be primarily 2.5-inch drives up for sale, now there are a bunch of other form factors.
The NAND Flash-based storage units don't often come in 3.5-inch form factor (HDDs have kept that arena at least), but they do have others now.
In this case, Crucial has prepared the 2.5-inch models (7 mm-thick), as well as the smaller mSATA form factor and the even smaller NGFF.
Short for Next Generation Form Factor, NGFF is somewhere under the Mini Card and Half Mini Card forms. In the enclosed photo, it is the one right at the top, thinner but longer than mSATA.
Crucial's products come in 120 GB, 240 GB and 480 GB capacities, which is really a bit amazing for the smaller models actually.
The 2.5-inch series also comes in a 960 GB capacity option, which is nicknamed “terabyte-class” even though it doesn't quite reach the level.
As for performance, read speeds go up to 500 MB/s (expected at this point), but writing speeds are much more modest: the 120 GB drives are limited to 120 MB/s, the 240 GB drives work at 250 MB/s, and the 480 GB units attain 400 MB/s.
We'd have expected the 960 GB SSD to manage a bit more, but it looks like it, too, has to settle for 400 MB/s.
The performance is enabled by Micron 20 nm MLC NAND flash, a Marvell controller and SATA 6.0 Gbps connectivity.
The prices are of $129.99, $219.99, $399.99, and $599.99 (and just as many Euro in Europe).