INTRODUCTION

   Even though it's clear by today's standards that M.2 NVMe SSD drives are ideal for OS installation (primary) and 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD drives are meant more as backup (secondary) size is a very significant factor for both which sometimes people tend to overlook. For example, even an 500GB primary drive should be more than sufficient to store your OS (with any programs you might want to have) but for a secondary drive (whether that's for backup purposes or game installation) even 1TB is not nearly enough for most people. This is also what some of you said for both my last 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD reviews and so since i always want to cover all segments of the market today i decided to take a look at an old "friend" which has made it all the way to 4TB in capacity, the MX500 by Crucial.

   Crucial is a global brand of Micron Technology, Inc. Crucial solid-state drives (SSDs) and memory (DRAM) upgrades are compatible with over 100,000 new and old desktops, laptops, workstations and servers. Crucial Ballistix memory delivers a performance edge to gamers, enthusiasts and power users. Available worldwide at leading retail and e-tail stores, commercial resellers and system integrators, Crucial products enhance system performance and user productivity. Learn more at crucial.com.

   I actually reviewed the 500GB variant from the MX500 line back in early 2018 (thus the old friend remark - review here) so seeing that Crucial has made it available in 4TB (aside the 250GB/500GB/1TB/2TB capacities available even back then) was a nice surprise. Unlike its predecessors however the MX500 4TB is not only based on Micron's 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash (instead of 64-layer) it's also paired with the newer SM2259 quad-channel (8 CE) NAND controller by Silicon Motion (instead of the SM2258) and a 512MB DDR3L DRAM module (1866MHz) again by Micron. The SM2259 quad-channel NAND flash controller supports numerous technologies including NANDXtend (error-correcting with data protection), Static Data Refresh (ensures data integrity), Direct-to-TLC and SLC Caching (algorithms for optimal sustained performance), global wear leveling (algorithm which evens program/erase count and extends SSD lifespan), DevSleep (device sleep - power save), S.M.A.R.T, TRIM, NCQ, partial power loss protection, TCG Opal and hardware AES 256bit encryption. Finally, just like all the other members in the MX500 family the 4TB variant is covered with a 5 year limited warranty and features an MTBF (MTTF) of up to 1.8 million hours and a TBW of 1000TB.