INTRODUCTION

   Despite what many people seem to believe according to several reliable sources in the industry solid state drive prices (mostly client models) may actually increase in 2017 (due to higher NAND flash prices) but even if that happens SSDs still represent the best investment for people who want something faster than a regular mechanical drive so i really doubt sales will drop (besides most sources claim we’ll see a 10% price increase max). With that out of the way Crucial recently expanded their latest MX300 line to include more capacities and not just the 750GB limited edition one so today we decided to put the 525GB model through our rather extensive benchmark suite and see just what kind of performance you can expect from it.

   Crucial.com is a leading online retailer specializing in computer memory (RAM) and solid state drives (SSD), and is operated by a subsidiary of Micron Technology, Inc., one of the world's leading manufacturers of computer memory products. Crucial.com offers more than 250,000 compatible products for nearly every computer system: home and business, old and new, PC and Mac® computers. Utilizing a suite of easy-to-use, free online tools, including the Crucial® System Scanner and the Crucial Memory Advisor™ tool, crucial.com makes it easy to find a compatible upgrade to improve computer performance and restore system reliability.

   Only a few months have passed since Crucial released the 750GB Limited Edition variant of the MX300 line (review here) and today it’s also available in 275GB/525GB/1TB/2TB capacities. Now what makes the MX300 line of SSDs special is that it makes use of 32-layer 3D TLC NAND flash that utilizes four planes (quad plane) to communicate with the NAND flash processor and features FortisFlash technology for Dynamic Write Acceleration (through an emulated SLC layer). The NAND flash controller Crucial used with the MX300 line (and the 525GB variant which we have with us today) is the 4-channel Marvell 88SS1074 which features partial power loss protection, active garbage collection, redundant array of independent NAND (RAIN), LDPC error correction code (ECC), adaptive thermal protection, data-path protection, multistep data integrity algorithm and fully supports DevSleep (power save), TRIM, SMART, AES 256-bit hardware encryption, TCG Opal 2.0 and IEEE-1667 (fully compatible with Microsoft's eDrive). In terms of endurance Crucial rates the MX300 525GB for up to 160TB TBW (roughly 88GB of writes per day for 5 years), gives it an MTTF of 1.5 million hours and just like with the rest of the line it’s covered by a 3 year limited warranty.