UserBenchmark: Crucial M4 vs M500

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CrucialCT120M500SSD1

BUY • $75

CrucialCT256M4SSD2

$218

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Real World Speed

Performance profile from 33,368 user samples

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15,430 User Benchmarks

Best Bench: 77% 45GB free
Worst Bench: 47% 13GB free

Poor: 47% Great: 77%

SPEED RANK: 730^th / 1072

17,938 User Benchmarks

Best Bench: 74% 168GB free
Worst Bench: 43% 72GB free (System drive)

Poor: 43% Great: 74%

SPEED RANK: 796^th / 1072


Effective Speed Effective SSD Speed		66 %	Slightly faster effective speed. +9%		60.8 %


Read Avg. Sequential Read Speed	397 MB/s		432 MB/s	Slightly faster read speed. +9%
Write Avg. Sequential Write Speed	131 MB/s		240 MB/s	Hugely faster write speed. +83%
4K Read Avg. 4K Random Read Speed	22.7 MB/s	Faster random read. +14%	19.9 MB/s
4K Write Avg. 4K Random Write Speed	80.5 MB/s	Slightly faster random write. +9%	74.1 MB/s
Mixed Avg. Sequential Mixed IO Speed	196 MB/s		250 MB/s	Faster mixed IO speed. +28%
4K Mixed Avg. 4K Random Mixed IO Speed	30.5 MB/s	Hugely faster random mixed IO. +109%	14.6 MB/s
SusWrite Avg. Sustained Write Speed	103 MB/s		195 MB/s	Hugely faster sustained write speed. +89%


Read Peak Sequential Read Speed	432 MB/s		494 MB/s	Faster peak read speed. +14%
Write Peak Sequential Write Speed	140 MB/s		268 MB/s	Hugely faster peak write speed. +91%
4K Read Peak 4K Random Read Speed	26.6 MB/s	Faster peak random read. +14%	23.4 MB/s
4K Write Peak 4K Random Write Speed	111 MB/s	+5%	106 MB/s
Mixed Peak Sequential Mixed IO Speed	207 MB/s		273 MB/s	Much faster peak mixed IO speed. +32%
4K Mixed Peak 4K Random Mixed IO Speed	36.8 MB/s	Hugely faster peak random mixed IO. +95%	18.9 MB/s
SusWrite Peak Sequential Sustained Write 60s Average	138 MB/s		265 MB/s	Hugely faster peak sustained write speed. +92%

Market Share

Based on 75,792,611 SSDs tested

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Market Share Market Share (trailing 30 days)	0.01 %		0.01 %
Value Value For Money	6.11 %	Much better value. +37%	4.46 %
User Rating UBM User Rating	53 %	+2%	52 %
Price Price (score)	$75	Much cheaper. +66%	$218


Age Newest	134 Months	More recent. +15%	157 Months
DQ Read Peak 4K-64Thread Read Speed	259 MB/s	Much faster peak deep queue read. +41%	184 MB/s
DQ Write Peak 4K-64Thread Write Speed	140 MB/s		234 MB/s	Much faster peak deep queue write. +67%
AS-SSD Total AS-SSD Total Score	757 Pts	+1%	752 Pts
DQ Mixed Peak 4K-64Thread Mixed IO Speed	159 MB/s	Hugely faster peak deep queue mixed IO. +380%	33.1 MB/s
ADQ Read Avg. 4K-64Thread Read Speed	247 MB/s	Hugely faster deep queue read. +86%	133 MB/s
ADQ Write Avg. 4K-64Thread Write Speed	126 MB/s		136 MB/s	Slightly faster deep queue write. +8%
ADQ Mixed Avg. 4K-64Thread Mixed IO Speed	135 MB/s	Hugely faster deep queue mixed IO. +470%	23.7 MB/s


Capacity Capacity			120GB			256GB

The 120GB M500 is successor to the phenomenally successful Crucial M4. The M500 was poised to win loyal M4 customers but as it turns out the new M500 is worse for typical consumer use than the now nearly three years old M4. There are some cosmetic performance improvements over the M4 but they are purely synthetic. For example, deep queue speeds are significantly improved and the newer M500 handles mixed IO far better. Consumers require decent sequential read/write speeds which average 435/185 MB/s on the M4 vs 395/134 MB/s on the M500! Other manufacturers have come leaps and bounds over the last three years which has raised the performance bar is several notches. In today's market the new M500 simply cannot compete on performance, it doesn't even come close to the likes of the Samsung Evo or OCZ Vector 150. The M500, however, is one of the cheapest mainstream SSDs available at this time but it's easy to justify spending just a little more for a lot more performance. ^{[Feb '14 SSDrivePro]}

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The Crucial M4 is one of the oldest SSD's to have made it into the group test. When it was released its primary competitors were Sandforce based drives which suffered from two major problems: reliability and weak incompressible data performance. As a result this drive was one of the top drives of its time. That was back in Apr '11. Today the M4 is no longer able to compete and scores below average (377.9 MB/s) on the Real World Speed Index benchmark and way below average (676) on the deep queue depth orientated AS-SSD Total score benchmark. Of course these figures are still far faster than any mechanical hard drive and owners of this drive should feel in no hurry to upgrade. People looking to make a new purchase will find much better value elsewhere. ^{[Apr '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 $300	Crucial MX500 250GB $39
Intel Core i5-12400F $133	Nvidia RTX 4060-Ti $385	Samsung 850 Evo 120GB $80
Intel Core i5-12600K $163	Nvidia RTX 4070 $539	Samsung 860 Evo 250GB $52

HDD	RAM	USB
Seagate Barracuda 1TB (2016) $39	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3200 C16 2x8GB $40	SanDisk Extreme 64GB $72
WD Blue 1TB (2012) $31	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 3000 C15 2x8GB $37	SanDisk Extreme 32GB $28
Seagate Barracuda 2TB (2016) $64	G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4 3200 C14 4x16GB $351	SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB $16

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