Conclusion
The Crucial MX300 series has impressed us since we reviewed the now-discontinued 750GB version. The MX300 2TB is no different with this particular capacity bringing tangible benefits to the table in the form of better performance, increased longevity and higher capacity. While its $500 price may cause some folks to shy away, the combination of more onboard RAM cache with a massive SLC cache buffer is a winning one, even when compared to other SSDs in this series.
The secret to this drive’s success is Crucial’s decision to essentially double everything. Everything from the NAND interleaving to RAM size to the SLC buffer has been enhanced over the 1TB version. This combination really allows the Marvell 1074 controller to shine in nearly every instance.
One of the key factors here is of course consistency. By addressing certain controller algorithms and backing up that software efficiency with plenty of hardware, the MX300 is able to remain fast even while chewing its way through massive data sets. By comparison, when addressing larger-sized transfers or reads many competing drives in this price bracket will start out fast but then see their performance plunge as they simply run out of caching space. Crucial’s flagship on the other hand features a very linear throughput curve.
The very fact that Crucial was able to do this <i>and</i> not even come close to maxing out the potential capacity they can fit inside a 7mm 2.5-inch form-factor just underscores the awesome power that their new TLC 3D NAND has to offer. We can only hope this lineup will continue to evolve.
Until such a time that the MX300 2TB is dethroned as the largest, 'flagship' capacity version this is the MX300 everyone has been waiting for. Its performance, its capacity and it ease of use are simply unmatched in the SATA end of the marketplace. How Crucial was able to do all this <i>and</i> keep the price per Gigabyte the same as the smaller models really does underscore their commitment to consumers. This is simply a great SSD.
<div align="center"><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/akg/Storage/MX300_2tb/di.png" border="0" alt="" /> <img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/akg/Storage/MX300_2tb/DGV.gif" border="0" alt="" /> <img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/akg/Storage/MX300_2tb/dam_good.jpg" border="0" alt="" />
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Conclusion
The Crucial MX300 series has impressed us since we reviewed the now-discontinued 750GB version. The MX300 2TB is no different with this particular capacity bringing tangible benefits to the table in the form of better performance, increased longevity and higher capacity. While its $500 price may cause some folks to shy away, the combination of more onboard RAM cache with a massive SLC cache buffer is a winning one, even when compared to other SSDs in this series.
The secret to this drive’s success is Crucial’s decision to essentially double everything. Everything from the NAND interleaving to RAM size to the SLC buffer has been enhanced over the 1TB version. This combination really allows the Marvell 1074 controller to shine in nearly every instance.
One of the key factors here is of course consistency. By addressing certain controller algorithms and backing up that software efficiency with plenty of hardware, the MX300 is able to remain fast even while chewing its way through massive data sets. By comparison, when addressing larger-sized transfers or reads many competing drives in this price bracket will start out fast but then see their performance plunge as they simply run out of caching space. Crucial’s flagship on the other hand features a very linear throughput curve.
The very fact that Crucial was able to do this <i>and</i> not even come close to maxing out the potential capacity they can fit inside a 7mm 2.5-inch form-factor just underscores the awesome power that their new TLC 3D NAND has to offer. We can only hope this lineup will continue to evolve.
Until such a time that the MX300 2TB is dethroned as the largest, 'flagship' capacity version this is the MX300 everyone has been waiting for. Its performance, its capacity and it ease of use are simply unmatched in the SATA end of the marketplace. How Crucial was able to do all this <i>and</i> keep the price per Gigabyte the same as the smaller models really does underscore their commitment to consumers. This is simply a great SSD.
<div align="center"><img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/akg/Storage/MX300_2tb/di.png" border="0" alt="" /> <img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/akg/Storage/MX300_2tb/DGV.gif" border="0" alt="" /> <img src="http://images.hardwarecanucks.com/image/akg/Storage/MX300_2tb/dam_good.jpg" border="0" alt="" />
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