UserBenchmark: Crucial M500 vs Plextor M5M mSATA

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PlextorPX-256M5M

BUY • $240

CrucialCT240M500SSD1

BUY • $73

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Real World Speed

Performance profile from 32,195 user samples

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416 User Benchmarks

Best Bench: 96% 474GB free
Worst Bench: 59% 116GB free (System drive)

Poor: 59% Great: 96%

SPEED RANK: 497^th / 1072

31,779 User Benchmarks

Best Bench: 91% 121GB free
Worst Bench: 57% 90GB free (System drive)

Poor: 57% Great: 91%

SPEED RANK: 543^rd / 1072


Effective Speed Effective SSD Speed		79.1 %	+3%		76.6 %


Read Avg. Sequential Read Speed	455 MB/s	Faster read speed. +10%	413 MB/s
Write Avg. Sequential Write Speed	363 MB/s	Much faster write speed. +42%	256 MB/s
4K Read Avg. 4K Random Read Speed	23.8 MB/s	+4%	22.9 MB/s
4K Write Avg. 4K Random Write Speed	48.7 MB/s		81.1 MB/s	Much faster random write. +67%
Mixed Avg. Sequential Mixed IO Speed	336 MB/s	Faster mixed IO speed. +15%	291 MB/s
4K Mixed Avg. 4K Random Mixed IO Speed	25.3 MB/s		31.9 MB/s	Faster random mixed IO. +26%
SusWrite Avg. Sustained Write Speed	338 MB/s	Much faster sustained write speed. +74%	194 MB/s


Read Peak Sequential Read Speed	499 MB/s	Faster peak read speed. +13%	442 MB/s
Write Peak Sequential Write Speed	410 MB/s	Much faster peak write speed. +49%	276 MB/s
4K Read Peak 4K Random Read Speed	31.4 MB/s	Faster peak random read. +18%	26.5 MB/s
4K Write Peak 4K Random Write Speed	74.3 MB/s		116 MB/s	Much faster peak random write. +56%
Mixed Peak Sequential Mixed IO Speed	445 MB/s	Much faster peak mixed IO speed. +44%	310 MB/s
4K Mixed Peak 4K Random Mixed IO Speed	37.7 MB/s		38.4 MB/s	+2%
SusWrite Peak Sequential Sustained Write 60s Average	376 MB/s	Much faster peak sustained write speed. +38%	272 MB/s

Market Share

Based on 75,851,724 SSDs tested

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Market Share Market Share (trailing 30 days)	0 %	0.03 %	Insanely higher market share. +∞%
Value Value For Money	5.4 %	12.2 %	Hugely better value. +125%
User Rating UBM User Rating	52 %	54 %	+4%
Price Price (score)	$240	$73	Much cheaper. +70%


Age Newest	133 Months	+1%	134 Months
DQ Read Peak 4K-64Thread Read Speed	306 MB/s		328 MB/s	Slightly faster peak deep queue read. +7%
DQ Write Peak 4K-64Thread Write Speed	301 MB/s	Faster peak deep queue write. +14%	264 MB/s
AS-SSD Total AS-SSD Total Score	1,008 Pts		1,011 Pts	+0%
DQ Mixed Peak 4K-64Thread Mixed IO Speed	220 MB/s	Faster peak deep queue mixed IO. +17%	188 MB/s
ADQ Read Avg. 4K-64Thread Read Speed	219 MB/s		296 MB/s	Much faster deep queue read. +35%
ADQ Write Avg. 4K-64Thread Write Speed	222 MB/s		238 MB/s	Slightly faster deep queue write. +7%
ADQ Mixed Avg. 4K-64Thread Mixed IO Speed	126 MB/s		166 MB/s	Much faster deep queue mixed IO. +32%


Capacity Capacity			256GB			240GB

The Plextor M5M is the most recent mSATA SSD I have looked at. It has both the same controller and NAND flash (albeit with fewer channels) as its regular SATA sibling, the excellent M5 Pro. The performance figures for the M5M lag the top nine SATA group leaders by around 30% on average. The weakest area of core performance is shallow queue 4K write speed which clocks in at 57 MBps on the M5M vs a group average of 118 MBps. In terms of server orientated performance, the M5M takes 13th place out of 29 with an AS SSD total score of 946. That said it's only fair to look at the M5M within the context of other mSATA SSDs. It's not a clear cut performance win between the M5M and the Intel 525 Series but the M5M is retailing for 23% less. Unless shallow queue random writes are a top priority for your use case the M5M is the clear value winner, and my top mSATA pick for 2013. ^{[Oct '13 SSDrivePro]}

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We had high expectations for the Crucial M500. Crucial have a long history of producing outstanding Solid State drives. Both the RealSSD 300 and the M4, three and two years old, were almost legendary in terms of reliability and performance. The M500 falls far short of our expectations. The drive is relatively cheap and as such we were expecting to compromise on performance but the M500 just falls too far short. With a Real World Performance of 377.5 MBps which is in the bottom 40% and an AS-SSD score of 901 points (50th percentile) the M500 demonstrates relatively weak real world and average server performance. The M500 is competing with the Sandisk Ultra which manages to squeeze out significantly more performance despite sitting in the same price bracket. ^{[Jun '13 SSDrivePro]}

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Solid State Drive Rankings (Price vs Performance) May 2024 SSD Rankings

Welcome to our 2.5" and M.2 SSD comparison. We calculate effective speed for both SATA and NVMe drives based on real world performance then adjust by current prices per GB to yield a value for money rating. Our calculated values are checked against thousands of individual user ratings. The customizable table below combines these factors to bring you the definitive list of top SSDs. ^[SSDrivePro]

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CPU	GPU	SSD
Intel Core i5-13600K $254	Nvidia RTX 4060 $293	Crucial MX500 250GB $39
Intel Core i5-12400F $133	Nvidia RTX 4060-Ti $385	Samsung 850 Evo 120GB $80
Intel Core i5-12600K $175	Nvidia RTX 4070 $550	Samsung 860 Evo 250GB $52

HDD	RAM	USB
Seagate Barracuda 1TB (2016) $39	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB $45	SanDisk Extreme 64GB $72
WD Blue 1TB (2012) $32	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C15 2x8GB $45	SanDisk Extreme 32GB $28
Seagate Barracuda 2TB (2016) $51	G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4 3200 C14 4x16GB $351	SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB $16

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