Crucial M550 SSD 512GB Review

Performance Analysis

Sequential performance in AS SSD is improved over the M500 480GB by 29MB/sec and 52MB/sec for reads and writes respectively, while the same metrics are up by 35MB/sec and 59MB/sec in CrystalDiskMark. These gains bring it up to speed with a number of other SSDs, and though the Samsung drives are still faster the differences aren't much to be concerned about.

Single queue-depth random read speeds are also improved, as the M550 512GB manages over 30MB/sec and is around 14 percent quicker than the M500 480GB in both tests. We do still see a number of drives ahead, most notably the Samsung ones which sometimes manage over 40MB/sec. The Marvell controller is significantly better here than the Barefoot 3 one in OCZ's drives, though OCZ reclaims the advantage in single queue-depth random writes. That said, the M550 is close behind – improvements over the M500 are small here, but the M500 was already excellent by this measurement, and Crucial has the likes of Samsung, Intel and SanDisk all beaten.


With multi-threaded random workloads the improvements are more dramatic. In both AS SSD (64QD) and CrystalDiskMark (32QD) read speeds go from one of the worst on test to one of the very best, with the M550 trading blows with the SSD 840 Pro for top spot and improving on the M500 480GB by 15-16 percent. High queue-depth write improvements are less, and though the rankings in the charts don't change the M550 is only a few MB/sec behind the best that Samsung and OCZ have to offer.

PCMark 7's Gaming test shows a rather drastic drop off in performance compared to the M500, with the improved synthetic performance maybe not transferring to every application. It's possible that the result is also anomalous, though PCMark 7 does repeat its tests three times automatically. Thankfully, the Starting Applications workload is 36 percent faster and again only loses to the SSD 840 Pro with a speed of 119.05MB/sec. In our final test, BootRacer, it also impresses, with a boot time of 11.8 seconds that's at least 1 second quicker than both the SSD 840 Evo 500GB and the Crucial M500 480GB.

Conclusion

While the NAND has stayed the same, Crucial's upgraded controller and cache along with its firmware tweaks has resulted in a drive that maintains the numerous neat features of the M500 while attaining more usable capacity, the same level of endurance and performance improvements across the board. In fact, the M550 is now one of the fastest drives, though it's not as fast overall as Samsung's best drives, for example.

The Crucial M550's features such as RAIN, hardware accelerated encryption and power loss protection are fantastic and hard to come by in the market. They're especially valuable to notebook users (who will appreciate the low power consumption too), but many desktop users may also find them appealing. With built in data redundancy and a relatively high endurance rating, we can see the M550 finding a comfortable home in mobile workstations and other professional and semi-professional scenarios. The price and performance of the SSD 840 Evo and its excellent and user-friendly Magician software make it our favourite consumer drive still, but for many the additional features of the M550 will be worth paying for. That said, if you want said features and you're willing to live with a little less speed and capacity, picking up an M500 while they're so cheap would also be a smart move.