The Micron 3D NAND up close, along with the Marvell 88SS1074 and cache chip to the right.
Test Setup
All synthetic tests are carried out three times with the best result taken. We used the various softwares own test count settings, so for example CrystalMarkx64 we ran the test count at nine, but repeated this three times.
We are going to pitch it against the outgoing product range, the MX200 series we reviewed in our RAID/non-RAID X99 and Z170 platform comparison. In this case we are going to use the Crucial MX200 500Gb sample with the X99 chipset and our usual test system. We do appreciate there is a nice lift in performance with the Z170 Intel Chipset and storage generally, but we have stuck with our test system for comparison purposes.
- Processor: Intel i7-5820K
- Motherboard: Asus Rampage V Extreme Motherboard
- Memory: 16GB Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 2400Mhz @ 2666Mhz
- Graphics: MSI GTX 970 GAMING Twin Frozr V
- PSU: Corsair HX1000i
- OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit
- Storage: Crucial BX100 500Gb (OS Drive)
- Storage: Crucial MX200 500Gb
- Cooler: Reeven Okeanos RC-1402 CPU Cooler
We use several synthetic benchmarking tools, they cannot always be relied upon, so always cross reference.
- IOMeter
- AIDA64 Engineer
- PCMark08 Professional
- CrystalDiskMarkx64
CrystalDiskMarkx64 Sequential Read results first and we set the bench to run three times with nine passes each, we then took the highest result.
The Read/Write performance for this single disk test is back up to date and expected for 2016 SSD performances. The Crucial MX200 shows the signs of aging, and with the X99 Chipset, wasn’t the best SSD performer. The MX300 with its LPDDR3, new controller and more importantly, 3D NANDS at work, show some very strong SSD performance.
Crucial MX300 Limited Edition 750Gb SSD Storage Review
Package - 8
Performance - 8.5
Price - 8
Consumer Experience - 8
8.1
The MX300 series promises faster speeds, bigger capacities and a long life, the latter point we cannot confirm, but the first two do seem to be right on the money. The Crucial MX300 Limited Edition 750Gb SSD as a release on its own is a good drive and we are happy to see performance and capacity on par with Crucial’s mainstream competitors. If this is a sign of things to come from Micron and Crucial, even if you are not a fan, it’s promising.