Today we are going to look at Crucial’s current latest high performance SSD that is built for speed, capacity and endurance – the Crucial MX200 SSD 500GB capacity. We previously reviewed their budget line SSD, the Crucial BX100 500GB and was very satisfied with the performance. The new MX200 SSD series is the successor of their previously popular MX100, and it offers new features, larger capacity, faster read/write speeds and better endurance. Let’s find out if their latest flagship SSD would also perform as expected.
Crucial MX200 500GB SSD Review
The Crucial MX200 SSD series features Marvell’s 88SS9189 8-channel SATA controller and features eight 64GB NAND flash that make up the 500GB capacity. Note that actual user capacity of the 500GB is only 465GB (as shown in Windows OS) as the rest of the space are reserved for provisioning and system partition. The MX200 is capable of delivering up to 550MB/s of sequential read speeds on both compressible an incompressible data and offers sequential write speeds of up to 500MB/s.
Usually lower SSD capacities like a 128GB (120GB) or 256GB (250GB) don’t perform as fast as the higher capacity counterpart, like 500GB and 1TB. Crucial was able to address this performance difference by implementing a new feature called Dynamic Write Acceleration. This feature is available in all MX200 SSD series, whether it’s a 2.5″ SSD or the mSATA and M.2 versions of MX200. However, DWA is “not required” on the 500GB and 1TB capacities of the 2.5″ SSD variant.
Aside from the increases performance found in the MX200, it also comes with a higher endurance rate compared to its predecessor. The 250GB capacity is guaranteed to have an 80TB of total bytes written or equivalent to 43GB per day for 5 years; the 500GB is 160TB of TBW or 87GB per day for 5 years; and the 1TB capacity is guaranteed with a 320TB of TBW or 175GB per day for 5 years. All MX200 SSD have a life expectancy of 1.5 million hours of mean time to failure. Crucial is also offering a 3-year limited warranty for the said series.
Another important feature of the Crucial MX200 SSD series is hardware encryption in which your data are being protected from unwanted accesses in case the SSD false into the wrong hands. Its features AES 256-bit encryption, TCG Opal 2.0-compliant, IEEE-1667-compliant and is compatible with Microsoft eDrive. Starting from here, these are some of the features that the BX100 SSD series lacks.
The Crucial MX200 SSD series also features Redundant Array of Independent NAND or RAIN, Exclusive Data Defense, Data Path Protection and Power Loss Protection to ensure data integrity. It also features Adaptive Thermal Protection making sure that the SSD is running at its optimal temperature to avoid unwanted performance issues. It has Active Garbage Collection, TRIM support, Self-Monitoring and Reporting Technology (SMART) and Error Correction Code (ECC), features that you commonly see on a storage drive.
As I mentioned earlier, the Crucial MX200 SSD series is available on 2.5″ (7mm), mSATA SSD, and M.2 Type 2260 and Type 2280 SSD form factors. However only the 2.5″ variant offers a 1TB capacity, the rest of the form factors are available in 250GB and 500GB capacities.
Below is the specifications table of the MX200 SSD series. If you are done checking the table below, let’s proceed on the next page and take a closer look on the MX200 500GB SSD.
Crucial MX200 SSD Specifications
