The Crucial MX500 1TB SSD Review: Breaking The SATA Mold
by Billy Tallis on December 19, 2017 8:00 AM ESTPower Management
Real-world client storage workloads leave SSDs idle most of the time, so the active power measurements presented earlier in this review only account for a small part of what determines a drive's suitability for battery-powered use. Especially under light use, the power efficiency of a SSD is determined mostly be how well it can save power when idle.
SATA SSDs are tested with SATA link power management disabled to measure their active idle power draw, and with it enabled for the deeper idle power consumption score and the idle wake-up latency test. Our testbed, like any ordinary desktop system, cannot trigger the deepest DevSleep idle state.
Idle power management for NVMe SSDs is far more complicated than for SATA SSDs. NVMe SSDs can support several different idle power states, and through the Autonomous Power State Transition (APST) feature the operating system can set a drive's policy for when to drop down to a lower power state. There is typically a tradeoff in that lower-power states take longer to enter and wake up from, so the choice about what power states to use may differ for desktop and notebooks.
We report two idle power measurements. Active idle is representative of a typical desktop, where none of the advanced PCIe link or NVMe power saving features are enabled and the drive is immediately ready to process new commands. The idle power consumption metric is measured with PCIe Active State Power Management L1.2 state enabled and NVMe APST enabled.
Idle power usage seems to have taken a step backward from the Crucial MX300 to the Crucial MX500. Both the active idle and the slumber power state consumption are higher than most mainstream SATA SSDs, but it isn't one of the extreme outliers that has broken power management.
The idle wake-up time for the Crucial MX500 of about 1ms is higher than many mainstream drives, but is a big improvement over the 3.3ms of the Crucial MX300. The Marvell-based drives from Western Digital/SanDisk seem to offer the best combination of low power consumption and quick wake-ups.
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tech6 - Tuesday, December 19, 2017 - link
It's nice to finally see a Samsung alternative that doesn't suck.ddrіver - Tuesday, December 19, 2017 - link
I am thoroughly impressed. And that's not something I take lightly. Samsung will have to get their game on now, with the age old 850 series no longer being king of the hill in SATA drives.mode_13h - Tuesday, December 19, 2017 - link
Not sure if you noticed this, but they recently released a new 850 EVO with 3D NAND.ddrіver - Tuesday, December 19, 2017 - link
Until now the 850 line was unquestionably better than everything else in almost every regard, except price maybe. It's enough if the competition is "close enough", even without actually taking the crown. Right now Samsung isn't the go-to SSD with good alternatives like the MX500. That's enough for me.Alistair - Tuesday, December 19, 2017 - link
Samsung has by far the worst customer service and warranty coverage. Good luck actually getting them to replace a drive in Canada. Glad to see Crucial stepping up their game, buying one immediately.Alistair - Tuesday, December 19, 2017 - link
Just to expand on this. Samsung is forcing customers to contact newegg for warranty coverage. I've already spent weeks just trying to get Samsung to respond to their normal emails. Newegg obviously isn't responsible for a year old drive failing. They have no RMA process, and I've already contacted their chat, voice, and email.Dear Samsung Valued Customer,
We have received your email and would like to thank you for the information that you sent us however, you will need to contact the place of purchase for warranty coverage. We already have notify the dealer and they will be calling you shortly to offer warranty coverage.
We apologize for the inconvenience this issue may have caused you.
Thank you/Merci
Regards,
(name redacted)
Samsung Electronics Canada
Alistair - Tuesday, December 19, 2017 - link
Nobody is getting coverage in Canada:https://forums.redflagdeals.com/has-anyone-dealt-s...
Alistair - Tuesday, December 19, 2017 - link
This was purchased from Newegg.caArnulf - Wednesday, December 20, 2017 - link
Interesting. Over here in EU it is far more common to deal with the seller/store.I buy hardware from a store, not the manufacturer, store gives me warranty on goods purchased and I don't care what hoops they have to jump through (RMA with the manufacturer? Deal with the national distributor? etc.) to get things settled as long as they beat the deadline(s).
Alistair - Wednesday, December 20, 2017 - link
Basically they sell the product in Canada, but have no procedure in place to provide their warranty service. That's not a warranty at all.