The 256GB Crucial M550 is a welcome improvement over the 240GB M500. The new Marvel 88SS9189 controller has addressed our primary concern with the M500 which was poor sequential write speed. With sequential read/write speeds of 510/478 MB/s the M550 has a healthy core performance profile. Comparing the M550 and M500 shows that the new M550 leads on nearly every single performance metric. Unfortunately the M550 is priced significantly higher than the M500 but prices will likely drop as retailers build up stocks of the new M550. A key comparable for the M550 is the similarly priced market leading Samsung Evo. Comparing the Evo and M550 shows that the Evo is around 11% slower in terms of effective speed. [Mar '14SSDrivePro]
The 240GB OCZ ARC has a solid performance profile with particularly strong 4K speeds. The ARC is positioned below both OCZ's enthusiast Vector 150 and the mainstream Vertex 460 but based on hardware specs there is very little separating the drives (newer NAND on the ARC). Comparing the Vertex 460 and ARC shows that the ARC lags particularly in terms of sequential write speed but the overall difference in effective speed is marginal. The broad performance equivalence coupled with the fact that the Vertex 460 is available at the same price point makes the 240GB ARC somewhat redundant for the time being. Given that the ARC is relatively new, prices are likely to drop significantly over the coming months at which point the ARC may make more sense. [Sep '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.