Performance: 33 out of 40.
When it comes to mega, and some would say ‘over’, capacity SATA Solid State Drives a certain amount of lowered expectations is required. No, the 4000GB variant of the venerable MX500 line is not going to be the fastest… even if every internal component has been upgraded from the 2018 blueprint. Yes, however, it is ‘good enough’… as these days even the ‘fastest’ SATA is by very definition slow. The MX500 4000GB is basically SATA slow and the differences between it and the so called fastest SATA drives is a rounding error in the greater scheme of things. Put another way you buy a big un like this drive for the capacity not shear speed, so it is good enough for its intended role. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Technological Innovation:18 out of 20
Once again Crucial is pushing boundaries with the MX500 series. This is a good and bad thing. On the one hand you have cutting edge Micron RG TLC NAND and 4TB in a single drive. On the other you also have a different controller, less RAM and basically a boundary pushing drive that defies all claims of it being an actual MX500. So yes. We like it and the innovation it offers is impressive… but not all boundaries should be pushed.
Build Quality & Warranty: 18 out of 20
While some will be less than enthused with the necessary interleaving, the fact remains that this is a rather well built SATA SSD. In fact, compared to a lot of the competition it is overbuilt. Mix in a five-year warranty with generous Total Bytes Written specification and few will find it wanting in either area.
Value: 19 out of 20
The Crucial always has been known for the excellent value and the new addition to the MX500 is no exception. Yes, it is not perfect. Yes, Crucial should have renamed. Yes… all of that really does not matter all that much. What matters is you can buy a 9 cents per GB Solid State Drive that offers ‘good enough’ performance, excellent capacity, and peace of mind that a five year warranty brings to the table.
Final Score: 88 out of 100
As long as you can get past the absolutely poor decisions made by Crucial, the 4000GB capacity variant of the venerable MX500 series is indeed a good choice. Poor name, poor RAM capacity, poor controller or not. The end results do speak for themselves. So while it is more controversial than we like, we doubt many can argue with the overall value this drive brings to the table.
