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 '14SSDrivePro]
The Evo is remarkable in that, like the Sandisk Extreme II, it features a second level cache. For the 250 GB Evo this consists of a 3 GB Turbowrite cache (TWC) which is a block of high speed Flash Memory. When the TWC is exhausted write speeds drop by approximately 50% but that won't often happen under typical consumer workloads. In terms of raw performance, even with its cache, the Evo still isn't the fastest drive. With a real world speed index reading of 439 MB/s the EVO is however, within reach of the two speed leaders (Vector and 850 Pro). At a price point of $130 the Evo is around 30% cheaper making it the best value for money SSDs I have seen in 2014. Comparing the Evo and the Sandisk Ultra Plus shows that the Evo is the winner but the Sandisk may be a viable alternative thanks to its cache-free, and therefore more consistent performance during extended writes. [Aug '14SSDrivePro]
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]
Welcome to our PC speed test tool. UserBenchmark will test your PC and compare the results to other users with the same components. You can quickly size up your PC, identify hardware problems and explore the best value for money upgrades.