• expired

Crucial SSD 960GB $333.49 US Delivered 480GB $184, 240GB $93, 120GB $58 @ Other World Computing

1320

Cheaper than on amazon by $80 so I thought it was a good deal.
Not to sure about the company but has been around since 1988
$2.99 international shipping really makes the deal.
I have used Crucial drives for years now and have found them most reliable.
Not the fastest around but for this price not too bad.
120GB here
240GB here
480GB here
960GB Crucial M500 Specifications:

Specifications
Form Factor2.5″
SSDInterfaceSATA 6Gb/s (SATA 3GB/s compatible)
Capacity1 960GBFormatted
NAND20nm Micron MLC
NNDSMART AttributesSelf-monitoring, analysis, and reporting technology (SMART) command set
Manufacturer Model NumberCT960M500SSD1RoHS
CompliantYes
FormatUnformatted
Physical
Height (max)7.0mm (0.275″)
Width (max)69.85mm (2.750″)
Length (max)100.50mm (3.957″)
Weight (typical)75g (0.165 lbs.)
Reliability
MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)1,200,000 hours
Endurance 72TB total bytes written (TBW), equal to 40GB per day for 5 years
Warranty2 Year OWC Fulfilled Limited Warranty
Performance
Sequential Read (up to)500 MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s)
Sequential Write (up to)400 MB/sec (SATA 6Gb/s)
Random 4K Read80,000 IOPS
Random 4K Write80,000 IOPS
Environmental (Operating)
Shock1500G / 1.0msTemperature (°F)32°F to 158°FTemperature (°C)0°C to 70°CVibration2-500Hz at 3.1G
Environmental (Non-Operating)
Shock1500G / 1.0msTemperature (°F)-40°F to 185°FTemperature (°C)-40°C to 85°CVibration2-500Hz at 3.1G
Acoustics
Idle (Typical)0.0 belsSeek (Typical)0.0 bels

Related Stores

Other World Computing
Other World Computing

closed Comments

  • +1

    Note the warranty is "2 Year OWC Fulfilled Limited Warranty". Price is good ! AUD $408~

  • +1
    • +1

      Yeah I guess that ones also good. I needed bigger ones so didn't look at the little ones. Will updated that to include.

    • How do you get that price? I'm following your link and it's USD $199 + delivery. Maybe they upped the price?

      • Yeah, prices have gone up. The deal is a month old though.

  • +2

    OWC are a very reputable company. I have used them many times.

    • +1

      Only problem is that they want you to foot the bill for the shipping back to them if something goes wrong. With Amazon, you can get them to recredit you.

      • amazon do not recredit anywhere near the amount of postage required to send moderate-heavy stuff back to the usa.

        • In my experience, they do. What they've done is refund part of an order - happened more than once. Just make sure to work out the amount of postage (using Aus Post website) before letting them know.

      • This isn't unusual though right? I think a lot of retailers have a policy like this although I agree they should foot the bill for that.

        • Yes, but a good retailer would look after their customers. Only providing service if customers pay to ship something back isn't looking after their customers - especially if the fault is in no way the customer's fault.

          Amazon have been pretty good in this respect, while OWC is not.

  • +16

    Shame about the exchange rate at the moment

    • +12

      Still better than Russia

  • +7

    The M500 series is still a fantastic buy, despite being about 2 generations behind current SSD lithography.

    Do note though, there is a significant performance difference in write speeds between the 120/240GB models and the 480/960GB models, with the smaller versions being half as fast in sequential writes.

    I've had a M500 480GB for more than a year (posted some benchmarks here) and it's been flawless; performance consistency has been very impressive even at 60% or 70% used capacity and there haven't been any known firmware issues.

    Enterprise-level characteristics set the M500s apart from their contemporary rivals like the Samsung Evo 840 or the SanDisk Ultra IIs, as they have supercapicators and more reserve NAND (quite possibly the most reserve NAND I have ever seen in an SSD, something like ~8,000 reserve blocks; even the successor M550s have less).

    • +3

      The Intel 730 series SSDs have more reserve NAND.

      The M500 had more reserve NAND due to the new smaller 20nm process used to manufacture the MLC, which meant there was a higher chance of failure - to offset this, they increased the reserve NAND ("RAIN" - redundant array of inexpensive NAND).

      Since the process has become more mature, they've made the user-accessible space bigger in the newer models (M550, MX100).

      Note that the M500 is basically a discontinued model.

    • how does it compare to a crucial m4 and mx100?

      i just bought 2x240gb models of the m500 to raid 0

      if its better or comparible to those other two then i wont lose sleep over not getting the 480gb

      • They are pretty much very similar in day to day use, much better than a HDD, although there may be differences if you benchmark them.

      • +3

        The M4 series (or the Micron C400) released in 2011 and employs older/slower 25nm NAND.
        The M500 series released in 2013 and uses 20nm NAND.
        The M550 series released in 2014 and also uses 20nm NAND.
        The MX100 series released in 2014 uses the newer 16nm MLC NAND.

        The M500 is now Crucial's budget range of SSDs, the M550 is the premium performance range, and the MX100 is the destined replacement for the M500 (though a lot of M500 stock is still floating around so I'd hardly call it discontinued).

        The reason for the price discrepancy between the more expensive M550 and the cheaper MX100, despite the fact they perform nearly identical, is because the MX100 is a brand new drive and is built with newer, cheaper to manufacture NAND than the M5xx series.

        The performance difference between the M500, MX100 and M550 is negligible; I have used dozens of M550s at work now and I can report benchmarks-wise and in real-world usage, there is no massive difference.

        The price difference between the M550 and the MX100 is going to see the MX100 series be the drive of choice for the vast majority of buyers; with the M550 reserved for those looking for those enterprise-level bells & whistles like encryption, better wear-leveling and better performance with all file types.

        • Thanks - that was a very good write up

        • There is in fact one significant difference benchmark-wise - the MX550 and MX100 have much improved service times over the M500, as shown in TR's reviews. AnandTech's Storage Bench has teased out the same weakness in the M500.

          I've nevertheless bought three M500s over time including one just a few weeks ago because they've been significantly cheaper, and the difference will hardly stick out like a sore thumb in day to day usage (to the extent it could be noticed, it'd probably be subtle and tough to pin down). But if I had the choice of an MX550/MX100 for the same price as an M500 or maybe a few bucks more, I'd take the former.

  • This is a good deal for a good product, though I'm still wondering when the M550 1TB will go back down to $us389 at Amazon.

  • Ask Amazon for price match?

    • They don't price match.

      • That's a shame, they seem to do everything else like refunding price differences, crediting for return shipping etc.

        • +1

          They won't always price match but scroll down to Product Details on Amazon and click "tell us about a lower price"

  • +3

    Now all I need is a bargain thunderbolt enclosure that doesn't have the thunderbolt premium tax!

  • Is 128GB enough for just OS and few games. Rest would reside on other usual drive.

    • -1

      Yes

    • +6

      no. highly recommend around 240-250GB. SSD requires around 30% free disk space otherwise loose performance. so OS and a few 10GB games and a 120GB would fill up. Also, and more importantly, the 250GB SSD's are faster than the 120's

      • Thanks!
        Most prob would be building my rig soon.. planning on configuration and budget :)

      • Thanks I never knew that SSDs require more free space in comparison to hard disks to perform well. Will have to do some googling to find out more. Thanks for the info :-)

  • +1

    Awesome!!
    Finally going to put an SSD in my early 2011 mbp. Thanks for posting.

  • +1

    sadly, the current Xchange rate isnt going to make this deal for 4XX-500 under size attractive enough against those specials run by MSY and shoppingexpress alike

  • still little bit higher than Amazon's deal, i got my one for 72 usd with free shipping

    • Probably that deal is expired now !

  • +1

    here is the test result on my M500 i got it from the amazon bargain

    M500 http://i.imgur.com/VLieHHH.jpg (purchase recepit http://i.imgur.com/TzKUpFV.jpg)

    intel 520: http://i.imgur.com/udo59Hw.jpg

    WD red(HHD): http://i.imgur.com/sNp7OCJ.jpg (raped)

    M500 and intel 520 are pretty much came out at same time, you get idea of how much value you got from this deal if you happen to own a 520. (my 520 is 120GB and cost over 140$ at the time it came out, no i almost get a doubled size ssd with half price and even better performance, lol )

  • Anyone know if I can throw this in my gigabyte q2556n laptop?

    The laptop has space for an msata drive, a normal hdd and the ability to replace the dvd drive with an hdd as well.

    I'm thinking replacing the normal hdd may be the easiest/cheapest per gb option providing this fits?

    • +1

      Yes, it will fit in a regular 2.5" HDD bay. It's about the easiest and cheapest per-GB-of-SSD.

      Keep in mind, though, that you lose the ability to have a much higher capacity spinning drive in that slot.

  • Anyone received their SSD's yet?

  • Just put one of these in checkout to check price
    240GB Crucial / Micron M500 2.5-inch SATA 6Gb/s 7mm SSD (MLC)

    Even cheaper now US$91.99 Posted

    But the 480Gb is dearer

    • As soon as deliveries start rolling in I'll place my order :)

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