The Thin Line Between Crucial MX200 vs M550

A Quick Insight Through the Disk Drive Market

The disk drive market is strongly dominated by big names like Samsung. Over the past few years, new SSD manufacturers tend to struggle hard for a bigger and better market. Conversely, they have invested plenty of funds and resources to deliver premium products at rock bottom rates. And, they fight hard to survive the tacky industry. In this article, you will read about two interesting SSDs from Crucial. The brand’s MX200 and M550 Series is rising up in the game between SSDs. So, are you prepared to read more about these SSDs? If yes, read on! This review will give you a comprehensive insight through the SSDs.

Since we wrote about Crucial bx100 vs mx100 in our previous article, we received a lot of messages to make a detailed review and compare Crucial MX200 vs M550. 

A Quick Walk Through Crucial M550

1. The Very Many Models

If you are familiar with Crucial’s MX series, the next few lines might seem extremely familiar. The brand is known for its frequent releases and interesting models. Every year you will come across 10+ versions of Crucial Mxxx! This is an enticing facet that distinguishes Crucial MX from the rest. Crucial M550 makes use of a 64 Gbit die for 256 GB models and a 128 Gbit die for 512 GB models. A major reason behind the fame of this 64 Gbit die would be its astounding performance.

2. Introducing a New Concept – Parallelism

If you are ought to exploit through Crucial M550 review, you must be aware of Parallelism. As the amount of parallelism in a SSD die increases, you will witness a massive difference in performance. Data will be transferred quickly and efficiently. This is a statement devoured by many 4 x 64 Gbit die users. Nevertheless, the only setback with M550 is that you should pool 4 NANDs for a better transfer speed. And, this is why SSDs with smaller capacity have better performance scores than the rest. Unfortunately, these dies will be much more expensive.

3. M550’s Powerful Controller

A very important feature that affects the performance of Crucial M550 would be its “Controller”. This is a special unit that optimizes the performance of M550.The up to date Marvell Controller supports better transfer rates, offers low power caches and an exquisite DevSleep option. DevSleep is a feature that reduces the power used by SATA Devices. Crucial has exerted lots of effort and money on performance facets. Additionally, the brand focuses on one-of-a-kind data protection schemes. Hence, data stored in a M550 will not corrupt or vanish during a sudden power shut down. In terms of data security, Crucial M550 is a step ahead many other SSD launches from Crucial.

A Quick Walk Through Crucial MX200

1. Simple yet Productive Changes

Crucial MX200 was released a year after Crucial’s MX100! The long gap between Crucial MX100 and Crucial MX200 had many productive reasons. The new models comprises of few notable upgradations and benefits. Additionally, Crucial MX200 is sold for different types of systems and applications. In simpler terms, Crucial MX200 is made available for unique, customized I/O interfaces. If you are a SATA 2.5 customer, you will definitely find MX200 useful. The product is fine tuned to meet and exceed the needs of mainstream consumers.

2. A Mighty Controller

Officially, MX200 is the very next successor to Crucial’s MX100 Series. However, the brand has not focused on a massive leap in evolution. When we compare Crucial MX200 vs M550 is in its beginning stages. This is because you will find a Marvell 88SS9189 controller in its core. And, do you know that Crucial MX100 uses the same controller? To be more precise, the 128 GB 16 mm MLC NAND in MX100 is reused in Crucial’s MX200! This is a major reason behind Crucial MX200’s power efficient and reliable nature. With this being said, is there something new about Crucial MX200? Read on, to learn more about the brand’s new features.

3. The nCache of Crucial MX200

Crucial MX200 uses a novel technology called nCache. The concept was introduced in Sandisk SSDs. The powerful nCache is well known for its Dynamic Write Acceleration. By definition, Dynamic Write Acceleration was designed and deployed for the Micron SSD Series. This is the parent organization of Crucial. Currently, all MX200 models are designed with Dynamic Write Acceleration. The benefits of Dynamic Write Acceleration in conventional NANDs are truly remarkably. If you are an ardent user of SSDs, you will understand the mild twist in design here!

4. Energy Efficient Crucial MX200

Do you know that MX200 is much cheaper than conventional SSDs? This can be attributed to its 2-bit per cell storage mechanism. The manufacturers stress on this strategy for affordable SSDs. Meanwhile, it is quite interesting to note that MX200 consumes lots of power. When we compare Crucial MX200 vs M550, we find that Crucial MX200 consumes too much power. Nevertheless, it fights back with better longevity and higher performance.

Few other noteworthy features in M550 would be its independent array of NANDs, exquisite power loss protection schemes, encryption methodologies, shut down capability and adaptive thermal protection methods. These features tend to distinguish MX200 from MX100 and M550.

The Tough Battle! Crucial MX200 vs M550

1. Crucial MX200 vs M550 – Parallellism

To solve problems like extensive power consumption, Crucial introduces the SLC mode. This is where a portion of MX200 is adjusted carefully to operate under optimal power modes. A common feature between Crucial MX200 vs M550 would be Parallelism. This is a technology present in the MX200, 500 GB and 1 TB models.

2. Crucial MX200 vs M550 – Read and Write Performance

Read and Write performance tends to distinguish and rank SSDs in this competitive era! Conversle,y Crucial M550 overheads MX200 by 10% in both sequential reads and writes. To be more precise, MX200 has an online rating of 7.6/10, whereas M550 enjoys an online rating of 8.7/10!

3. Crucial MX200 vs M550 – Common Tasks

On the other hand, MX200 performs common tasks at a faster rate than M550. Crucial MX200 has acquired a rating of 9.6/10; whereas, M550 has received only 8.8/10. Even under common benchmarks, MX200 proves to be a better player. For example, MX200 requires a windows 7 boot up time of 5.1s. Moving on, Crucial M550 requires 7.9s to boot up. The average power consumption of MX200 is 2 watts. Nevertheless, powerful M550 requires 2.35 watts of energy.

4. Crucial MX200 vs M550 – Special Scores

Do you know that special scores are used to rank and rate SSDs? A common parameter used to rate SSDs alias Hard Disk Drives would be the “SSDBoss Score”. The score combines benchmarks, real world feedbacks, write performance and read performance. And, there is a very thin line between MX200 & M550. SSDBoss gives M550 a score of 8/10 and Crucial MX200 receives 7.9/10. Though M550 emerges as a winner, the battle between these SSDs is too close.