How reliable is the Crucial M500 SSD

[Simmytu]

Hello ,

 

I'm going to order the components for my upcoming build over about 1,5 weeks and lately I've been looking for some decent SSD since I've already got spare HDD's, I've decided to invest a bit more money and get the Crucial M500 120Gb SSD.

 

It will be my first SSD to purchase and I'm quite curious to know if it's worth the extra price tag and is it reliable in a sense that it will last me for at least 5 years on medium to low usage?

How much can I trust reviews and reports claiming 1.2 million hours mean time between failures or MTBF for short?

 

I know that this is much asked question on this subforum but I want to be 100% confident about my purchases and at least trying not make mis purchases that will have negative consequences.

 

I'm open to suggestions.

My budget is €60 or ~$80 (try keeping it under $100) and I prefer no Samsung SSD's.

[ZetZet]

It's reliable enough for any kind of home use even if it were your only drive. Look into MX100 series they are the new budget ones. You can almost fit in 256gb ssd into your budget http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148820&cm_re=mx100-_-20-148-820-_-Product

[Sonefiler]

it's one of the best

[H4X3R]

I have 1 (in my bros build but i built it) (the 480GB version). It is performing well and drive health is at 100%

[ZetZet]

I have 1 (in my bros build but i built it) (the 480GB version). It is performing well and drive health is at 100%

Mine is at 99% I am so fucked. :mellow:

[madknight3]

I'm getting an mSATA one for my laptop so I hope it's good!

[H4X3R]

Mine is at 99% I am so fucked. :mellow:

Wait...why?? Even my HDD is @ 100%. (PS i use HDD Sentinel Pro 4.4)

[ZetZet]

Wait...why?? Even my HDD is @ 100%. (PS i use HDD Sentinel Pro 4.4)

I use crystaldiskinfo  :lol:

[Simmytu]

It's reliable enough for any kind of home use even if it were your only drive. Look into MX100 series they are the new budget ones. You can almost fit in 256gb ssd into your budget http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148820&cm_re=mx100-_-20-148-820-_-Product

 

Alright, thanks for the suggestion. I will look for reviews about this particular drive.

 

it's one of the best

That's good to hear.

 

I have 1 (in my bros build but i built it) (the 480GB version). It is performing well and drive health is at 100%

When did he get the SSD? (Just being curious).

 

Mine is at 99% I am so fucked. :mellow:

Yeah, living on the edge you know

[H4X3R]

Alright, thanks for the suggestion. I will look for reviews about this particular drive.

 

That's good to hear.

 

When did he get the SSD? (Just being curious).

 

Yeah, living on the edge you know

He got it last year in september (basically as soon as it was released)

[hojnikb]

Yeah, crucial drives are great and pretty much the best bang for the buck. YOu can't go wrong with them

One thing though... Try to get 256GB, because its not that more expensive.

[lxMaDnEsSxl]

I don't know about Netherlands, but in North America the MX100 which has the speeds of the M550 is $110 MSRP for 256GB.

[Ranguard]

Take care with the lower capacity crucial drives, they are a lot slower than the equivalent larger drives. E.g the 120GB M500 is only around half as fast at writing as the larger 240GB version. The 240 GB version is also considerably slower than the 480GB version etc. Most reviews focus on the larger 240/480GB versions ...

 

Some drives like the Samsung Evo, or OCZ vertex don't have that problem, all capacities perform almost equally well.

[hojnikb]

Take care with the lower capacity crucial drives, they are a lot slower than the equivalent larger drives. E.g the 120GB M500 is only around half as fast at writing as the larger 240GB version. The 240 GB version is also considerably slower than the 480GB version etc. Most reviews focus on the larger 240/480GB versions ...

 

This is the case with every drive out there, they just use tricks to mask it. And lower write speed doesnt make the drive slow, since bulk of workload is usually reads and not writes.

 

 

Some drives like the Samsung Evo, or OCZ vertex don't have that problem, all capacities perform almost equally well.

 

Of course they have. Write speeds drop just aswell with lower capactities, samsung just uses tricks to mask that (by using a small slc cache to buffer some writes -- otherwise its even slower than mx100) while ocz either uses compression (sandforce vertex) or special performance mode (vertex 4 and onwards).

 

I'm yet to see a 128GB drive, that can do 500MB/s without any nasty tricks :P

[Simmytu]

Yeah, crucial drives are great and pretty much the best bang for the buck. YOu can't go wrong with them

One thing though... Try to get 256GB, because its not that more expensive.

I looked at the pricing and it felt around the €100 mark which is of course too much to ask since all of the other components vary with their pricing. 3 weeks ago it was around the €930 and then €950 when I replaced the HDD with the SSD and now it's around the €970 mark. Oh well... :mellow:

http://azerty.nl/winkelmandje/winkelmandje/?legen=1&product%5B316444%5D=1&product%5B536991%5D=1&product%5B568285%5D=1&product%5B604016%5D=1&product%5B613824%5D=1&product%5B620113%5D=1&product%5B636727%5D=1&product%5B642828%5D=1&product%5B688073%5D=1&product%5B690501%5D=3

 

I think that I should stick with the 120Gb M500. I don't mind it getting slower over time. I want to be sure it doesn't fail within a year time. 

[hojnikb]

You could easily fit 256GB ssd, if you went with cheaper board, no USB3.0 card (why would you need that anyway)...

 

Actually, if this build is meant for gaming, its pretty weak. One can get xeon 1230V3 and r9 290 for around 1k€ these days. No amount of overclocking of current components, that you selected will yield the same performance as 1230V3 and r9 290 at stock speeds

[Simmytu]

You could easily fit 256GB ssd, if you went with cheaper board, no USB3.0 card (why would you need that anyway)...

 

Actually, if this build is meant for gaming, its pretty weak. One can get xeon 1230V3 and r9 290 for around 1k€ these days. No amount of overclocking of current components, that you selected will yield the same performance as 1230V3 and r9 290 at stock speeds

Here's some explanation why I went with this "overpriced" build when I can get a lot more for the money,

 

It's meant for everything really besides gaming,

I don't play games like Crysis 3 so a higher end GPU, like the 770 or the 290, will be a waste of money to be honest. The games I play are BF3, GTA 4 (GTA5 when it comes out) and World in Conflict, my favorite RTS game, but I also play old fashion RTS and simulation games like Red Alert 2, Generals, SimCity 4 and Flight Simulator X.

 

I did like the features that the Asus Z97 Pro have especially with the Wifi Go module and wifi will come in handy, because I don't want to run an ethernet cable across the house.

 

Also why the Corsair RM650 PSU? Well I made the calculation and by my daily usage across the entire year I will be saving atleast €20 when it comes to the power bill . Green electricity cost a lot here unfortunately.

 

And that USB 3.0 card? Well I needed couple more USB ports but there aren't any cheaper USB 2.0 PCI-e based solutions, so I'm kinda stuck with that more expensive one :mellow:. 

 

Hopefully that did explain some of the decisions I made.

[hojnikb]

There are better and proven power supplies with gold certificate (for example this one http://azerty.nl/0-1073-650661/seasonic-s12g-650-voeding.html)

With corsair, you just paying brand tax.