CONCLUSION

   Capacity has always been the Achilles heel of SSDs but the somewhat recent appearance of 4TB and 8TB models has given consumers and professionals alike more options with which to cover their needs. Yes, 2.5” SATA III drives like the MX500 4TB may seriously fall back in terms of performance compared to M.2 NVMe models but they are more than enough for certain uses such as for backup and even as game drives. Unfortunately, Crucial has yet to release an 8TB SSD drive (in any format) but i imagine this is something they will have to do sooner or later in order to compete with the ones that already have. As for performance well not much to say here since the MX500 4TB performs pretty much on par with other recently reviewed 2.5” SATA III drives. I do however consider a slight drawback the limited amount (512MB) of DRAM Crucial has used with this 4TB variant (1-2GB would further improve drive performance).

   Currently retailing for USD359.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 364.75Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the MX500 4TB 2.5” SATA III SSD by Micron may be priced just a tad higher compared to same capacity solutions by the competition but that’s far from a game breaker. At the end of the day the Crucial MX500 4TB may not impress with its performance (just like any other 2.5” SATA III drive) but thanks to its capacity, features and 5-year limited warranty it does deserve the Golden Award.

PROS

- Very Good Overall Performance
- Features
- Capacity (4TB)
- Endurance Numbers (2 million Hours MTBF / 1000TBW)
- 5 Year Limited Warranty

CONS

- DRAM Amount