As we saw throughout the testing stages the 2050GB MX300 is the pick of the MX300 litter – its performance is simply phenomenal. The reason for this is because the amount of pseudo-SLC cache is downright massive. So much so that even enthusiasts will have a tough, tough time saturating this write ‘buffer’ and it will only be workstation users who ever find it to be a bottleneck. When you then mix in twice the onboard cache with this super-sized SLC-cache the end result is truly outstanding performance in a wide range of scenarios.
Quite honestly if you can afford the asking price this is the MX300 version to get and it really is the true successor to the MX200 series. Yes it is costly… but it does not cost anymore per Gigabyte than its smaller predecessors. In a future review will explore an alternative to this monster drive for those who cannot afford its asking price (which is darn reasonable to be honest), but it really is a great choice for those whose budget’s can stretch far enough to accommodate it.
This was not all that unexpected, but what really did impress us is the fact that this series has an amazing ability to grow and expand. Very few mega-sized models are able to outperform their smaller brethren but this one can, and does. Equally impressive is that we know that if the demand is there Crucial will not be stopping at 2TB. After all there is room for an additional four NAND ICs inside the 2.5″ form-factor… and Micron does offer in denser ICs – that top out at a whopping 16 layers per die! That to us is what makes this MX300 2050GB not only a great drive in its own right but a hint of things to come. Whether or not the demand for even large models is there remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain Crucial really hit it out of the park with their MX300 series. Its flexibility and frugality really cannot be overstated.
