By: Jonathan Kwan
September 7, 2018
"Where are my shoes?" I asked my friends. Looking around our Airbnb rental apartment in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada, reality was about to set in. For some reason, despite getting the check on my list of things to pack, my shoes are still almost 2,000 kilometers away in the foyer of my house in Calgary. Since I am not about to spend money buying shoes anywhere in this city of 20,000 people here in the Canadian North, I decided to embark on our week-long adventure with the only footwear I left my house with: A pair of worn out flip flops I paid $1.00 for at Old Navy last year. Now that I am back here in Calgary, I have to admit while it was not too bad getting around town, embarking on a hike to Cameron Falls and making a loop on the trail around Frame Lake was certainly not a good idea. In all cases, appropriate footwear is recommended for different activities, even though you can go outside with either flip flops or running shoes. Earlier this year, we reviewed the Crucial MX500 500GB in the 2.5" SATA form factor. Understanding that the 2.5" SATA form factor may not be appropriate in all situations just like my flip flops, today, we decided to take a look at the Crucial MX500 500GB in another form factor: M.2 2280. Featuring the same Silicon Motion SM2258 controller and Micron's 64-layer 3D TLC NAND ICs, will the M.2 version of the MX500 deliver the same level of balance in performance, features, and price as its 2.5" SATA variant? Read on to find out!
Our review unit of the Crucial MX500 500GB (M.2) solid state drive arrived in a FedEx branded bubble envelope from the company's American headquarters in Meridian, Idaho, USA. Crucial remains the only company to send us products from that part of our southern neighbors. Using the speedy International Priority service, it only took a day to get to us here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. As always, everything arrived in excellent condition for our review today.
Like some of Crucial's memory kits, the company used OEM packaging for their MX500 SSD in M.2 form. I am quite a fan of it, because it cuts down on waste. As per what we have seen in the past, unlike standard clamshell or blister packaging with inserts implemented by many other memory manufacturers, Crucial resorted to using the tried-and-true method of having a PET shell and clear plastic cover. You will not find any fancy window inserts either; everything you need to know about this product is printed on a sticker in front. As you can see in our photo above, the MX500 itself is behind the clear plastic cover, so we can get a glimpse of what is inside without opening the package. Also inside the bubble envelope is a Crucial Ballistix Tactical Tracer RGB PC4-24000 4x8GB DDR4 memory kit, which I will take a look at in the coming weeks.
Before we move on, let us take a look at the features and specifications of the Crucial MX500 500GB, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
Form Factor: M.2 Type 2280
Total Capacity: 500GB
Warranty: Limited 5-year
Specs: M.2/NGFF (2280) Single Sided • 560MB/s Read, 510MB/s Write
Series: MX500
Product Line: Client SSD
Interface: SATA 6.0Gb/s
Device Type: Internal Solid State Drive
Unit Height: 2.25mm
Form Factor: M.2
Package Content: M.2 Type 2280 SSD, mounting screws, Acronis True Image for Crucial cloning software
Other than the SSD itself and some screws, you will find nothing else included from the factory. This is expected, considering this is a budget drive in OEM packaging. Clipped on the clear plastic tray is the Crucial MX500 with a guide containing an Acronis True Image key underneath it. This is it -- there is quite literally nothing else from the manufacturer. SSDs are a mainstream commodity in 2018, and this is evidence to the state of things.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark
4. Benchmark: ATTO Disk Benchmark
5. Benchmark: Crystal Disk Mark 3.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tach 3.0.1.0
7. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 4.60
8. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 9.0
9. Benchmark: PCMark Vantage
10. Benchmark: PCMark 8
11. Conclusion
