The Intel 520 Series was Intel's first SSD to feature a Sandforce 2281 controller. This controller has powered countless SSDs over the last three years but is now dated and is known to be limited in the area of incompressible write speed. The 120GB Intel 520 scored peak and average sequential read/write speeds of 514/157 and 421/133. These read speeds are good but the peak write of 157 MB/s lags the group leaders average of 313 MB/s by nearly 100%. This relative inability to write lowers the 520's overall effective speed to 403 MB/s or 15% lower than the 459 MB/s achieved by the group leaders. At two years of age the Intel 520 can no longer compete with newer drives, there is far better value available amongst the group leaders. [Feb '14SSDrivePro]
Crucial’s BX300 SSD is a 3D MLC entry level SSD, with debut pricing in line with the Samsung's 850 Evo, the current market leader. The BX300 is one of the faster consumer SSDs available, with a 2% performance improvement over Crucial’s older MLC based MX200 and a 25% performance improvement over the TLC based MX300 which are both from Crucial’s more expensive MX product line. MLC NAND offers more consistent performance and has higher endurance than TLC NAND. Although Samsung’s 850 Evo (which is based on proprietary TLC V-NAND) has a 10% effective speed advantage over the BX300 the BX300 wins on write consistency. The 240GB BX300 has a three year warranty or 80 Terabytes Written (TBW) compared to five years or 75 (TBW) for the 250 GB 850 Evo. This makes for an interesting choice between the BX300 and the 850 Evo. Each model has an SLC cache which is proportional to its capacity, as a result the larger capacities offer better performance. The 120 GB BX300 has a 4 GB SLC cache, the 240 GB has 8 GB and the 480 GB has 16 GB. SLC caches improve burst write performance beyond the already respectable MLC write performance. Unfortunately, at least for now, the BX300 only comes in modest capacities, with the largest being 480 GB. For write consistency, thanks to its MLC NAND, the BX300 punches well above its price point. [Nov '17SSDrivePro]
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.