AS SSD BENCHMARK VER 1.7
The toughest benchmark available for solid state drives is AS SSD as it relies solely on incompressible data samples when testing performance. For the most part, AS SSD tests can be considered the ‘worst case scenario’ in obtaining data transfer speeds and many enthusiasts like AS SSD for their needs. Transfer speeds are displayed on the left with IOPS results on the right.
First up we have the MX100 256GB results.
Reaching an overall score of 1060 and sequential speeds hitting 520MB/s reads and 330MB/s write is pretty decent for this drive. Furthermore, it was able to achieve the rated IOPS for its capacity no issue coming in at 85,773 read IOPS and 70,931 write IOPS at queue depth 64. While such high IOPS are nice to see, most consumers should be looking at the 4K performance of the drive. High queue depth speed results over queue depths 3-5 usually don’t matter much for typical consumer desktop usage. Reaching 31MB/s 4k read and an impressive 116MB/s 4k write is decent performance out of a budget oriented drive.
Now the copy Benchmark results.
This test basically gives us an idea on how the drive will deliver performance with a certain type of file. Comparing to our 1TB M550 results, Crucial seems to have improved the performance a bit with this drive.
Now we have the 512GB results.
The 512GB drive delivered decent performance in this test as well reaching a max of 518MB/s read and 479MB/s write. However, it wasn’t able to reach the rated IOPS of 90k read and 85k write in this test. 4k results are the same as the 256GB variant coming in at 31MB/s read and 116MB/s write.
Copy Benchmark results.
Here we see slightly better results than the MX100 256GB for ISO and Game rows, but slower speeds on the Program row. The difference is so minute that it is really a tossup between margin of error and actual performance differences.
ANVIL STORAGE UTILITIES PROFESSIONAL
Anvil Storage Utilities (ASU) are the most complete test bed available for the solid state drive today. The benchmark displays test results for, not only throughput but also, IOPS and Disk Access Times. Not only does it have a preset SSD benchmark, but also, it has included such things as endurance testing and threaded I/O read, write and mixed tests, all of which are very simple to understand and use in our benchmark testing.
And above are Anvil’s results, with a result of 5,210 points the 512GB beats out the 256GB overall which achieved 4,889 in this test. Furthermore, both drives had an issue reaching their rated IOPS. To see if I could get anything more out of them I tried the dedicated IOPS testing meters for read and write.
Here we go, now we are seeing some results. Testing at a queue depth of 32 the 256GB MX100 is able to reach 97,930 4k read IOPS and the 512GB is able to even break the 100k IOPS barrier at 100,086 4k read IOPS! For being rated at 85k/90k IOPS this is quite impressive!
And for our write tests, again both drives exceed their rated IOPS. The 256GB MX100 reaches 78,685 4k write IOPS and the 512GB reaches 87,047 4k write IOPS.
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This drive is an insane value, especially given performance. It’ just too bad, that they won’t offer 1TB version.
Samsung should really update it’s aging 840EVO, because crucial is destroying them 🙂
Performance wise, the 840 EVO actually is competitive compared to this. The drawback is that it is a TLC drive. Even at 16nm, the MLC MX100 will be a better choice (that and it has power loss protection). Judging by the performance, only the 512 GB version seems to fully saturate the controller. Heck, the 512 GB version is about as fast as the M550, which is supposed to be the “performance” version of Crucial’s SSD line. The 256 GB version is slower. I would imagine that the 128 GB version is even slower.
The only thing I wish was a better controller. Marvell 88SS9189 powers this chip. On one hand, it’s a reliable, proven beast. We should not have any hitches on this drive. Usually for those who want reliable, it’s become standard advice on the computer enthusiast forums to wait a few months when a new controller hits the market to make sure that there are no issues. On the other, it’s not the fastest chip around. Write performance isn’t top notch it looks like. I guess at this price point, it’s not possible to get a top of the line chip.
We seem to be seeing the proliferation of enterprise-like features onto consumer SSDs.
This drive offers:
– Power loss protection
– Encryption support
– Some pretty solid data protection features
There have been other “enterprise-like features” on consumer drives.
– The Corsair Neutron GTX’s LAMD controller offered really good sustained write performance – especially in sequential benchmarks
– OCZ’s Vector 150 too seemed to have good performance consistency and judging by the PR around the Vector 180, it seems to be following in delivering enterprise features to enthusiasts
I think that looking forward, the lines between consumer SSD and entry level enterprise SSD are beginning to blur.
I’d love to see a LAMD-like controller with power loss protection, data protection, and offered with premium quality MLC NAND – at consumer prices like this. Judging by how ferocious competition is getting, that may not be far.
> The only thing I wish was a better controller. Marvell 88SS9189 powers
this chip. On one hand, it’s a reliable, proven beast. We should not
have any hitches on this drive. Usually for those who want reliable,
it’s become standard advice on the computer enthusiast forums to wait a
few months when a new controller hits the market to make sure that there
are no issues. On the other, it’s not the fastest chip around. Write
performance isn’t top notch it looks like. I guess at this price point,
it’s not possible to get a top of the line chip.
Actually, Marvell *89 (and 87*) is a wicked fast silicon; so fast in fact, that the fastest drive on sata6gbit is acutally based on the very same controller (or a older revision of that) — Sandisk Extreme PRO.
Its not the controller, that makes the MX100 a lesser performing drive. Its the use of “subpar” NAND and firmware that makes mx100 (and other crucial drives) middlerange at best. But to be honest, its not like someone buying such a drive is gonna notice the difference anyway. Especially writes speeds (which are often criticized). Bulk of workload is reads anyway. There is little use for very fast sequential writes on consumer drives anyway.
Re-reading the Sandisk reviews, you may be right. They do use the same family of controller. Hmm interesting, so it is the NAND that is holding the chip back.
Hmm, this drive might get somewhat faster with newer firmware. But yeah you are right that the 16nm NAND is not that good.
” But to be honest, its not like someone buying such a drive is gonna
notice the difference anyway. Especially writes speeds (which are often
criticized). Bulk of workload is reads anyway. There is little use for
very fast sequential writes on consumer drives anyway.”
It will depend on how the end user uses their SSD.
But I agree that for most consumers, they are mostly doing reads, so read speed will dictate real speed most often. Then again, it’s probably not worth for most consumers paying the premium for something like the Extreme Pro either. For real world stuff, it’s probably not noticeable for most consumers.
I think we are seeing some sort of segmentation like we did for hard drives. Western Digital for example has a “Black” series of drives that are faster, at the expense of cost:capacity, noise, and power consumption.
Higher end SSDs seem to cost about 50-60% more per unit of storage, but offer higher quality NAND.
looks like someone turned off their cstates for once
Yes… we are running a bit of a balancing act on this one, leverage coming from the fact that all new motherboards are optimized with C States off. It is still very funny how little education there really is on the benefits vs vulnerability with C States on or off.
Can the Guide get an update about “C States” ?
It looks like one was planned but I do not see it in the Guide:
https://www.thessdreview.com/Forums/ssd-optimization-guide/2763-altering-c1e-c3-c6-ssd-performance-enhancement-pros-cons-3.html
This HP Guide claims “C States” affect latency due to turboing: https://www.fusionio.com/load/-media-/2ojjak/docsLibrary/Configuring_and_Tuning_HP_Servers_for_Low-Latency_Applications-c01804533.pdf
Thanks.
It’s worth noting that the 256 is actually a 320 drive. With 20% overprovisioning the MX100 performance won’t degrade like a bargain drive with 7%
Ralph-
What do you mean by, “…the 256 is actually a 320 drive…”? When you pop it in, how many GB are available? Could somebody clone a nearly full 320GB HDD (Hard Disc Drive) onto this?
Jim
He meant it’s not 256, you get 220 GB (not 320 wtf) 🙂
Actually, you get 238GiB of useable space 🙂
“Although the total RAW capacity of these SSDs are 256GB and 512GB, usable storage space is only 238GB and 476GB respectively.”
This is incorrect. Usable storage space is still 256GB and 512GB. The 238GB and 476GB is just Windows reporting the available space with the wrong suffix. It should be 476GiB, which is equal to 512GB. You can see it is in fact 512GB, by going into the properties window for the drive and you will see the capacity listed as over 512,000,000,000 bytes.
it’s hard to chose between the samsung evo 250 gb and mx 100. read different reviews on the mx100 that contradict one another. Guess some of these review sites get payed to say something positive or negative insteead of being objective. I have a samsung 830 now and i’m satisfied with it, never failed me. But i need a bigger one now. I like the protection and encryption on mx100. Samsung 840 evo doesn’t have that right? The price of the mx 100 is a bargain, but the writing performance is not great. Yeah single mode is ok, but not mixed workloads. Some give me some advice. Gonna use it for audioproduction
Just go with MX100.
While on paper write performance isn’t all that great, its actually better than EVOs (330 vs 250MB/s) once evo runs out of fake SLC cache.
Powerloss protection, MLC flash and lower price makes it a nobrainer against EVO.
You either get price/GB king or something a lot better (like 850pro or pci-e based solutions). Everything thats inbetween makes little sense, given how much more it costs.
I bought the drive, but Crucial failed to deliver. Got it on sale and even got an order confirmation from Crucial. Didn’t mean anything though, the next day they cancelled my order, telling me if I wanted to buy that drive I still could, but at a much higher price. I might be able to understand that if they hadn’t confirmed my order at the original price, but they did. For unethical companies that’s a bait-and-switch technique (and illegal) not what you’d expect from a company that wants you to think they’re reputable. No way I’d ever buy a product from a company with that much contempt for customers and customer service. If you can get a similar price for a similar product from any other company you’ll be better off. That or hope you never have problems with the product and need customer service. Ever.