Crucial MX300 750GB SSD Review

Product: Crucial MX300 750GB SSD
Provided By: Crucial
Price: ~$179 at time of publication

Introduction:

Today we’ve got the Crucial MX300 750GB SSD on the old BCCHardware test bench. The MX300 series of SSD drives from Crucial are their top-tier drives and offer more performance than the previous MX200 series of drives.

The MX300 750GB drive is a “limited edition” drive thanks to the unusual size. Typically SSD drives coming in the 512GB capacity and then you double up to a 1TB offering without any options in between. The biggest reason you’d probably choose a drive with 750GB of space is most likely based on budget, typically in a build the hard drive is of the last components chosen and the size typically depends on how much money is left in your pocket.  At time of publishing the MX300 series will run you roughly $129 for a 525GB version, $219 for this 750GB version, and $259 for a 1TB version. Based on the day you go to buy this drive the price will of course fluctuate between the models, and most likely that will help you make your decision on which size works best for you.

The rated specifications provided by Crucial show the Read and Write speeds and IOPS for the 525GB, 750GB, and 1TB, drives in the MX300 series are all rated at the same speeds so moving up and down between the drives will really offer no more or less performance, the choice between the drives should be solely based on what your storage capacity needs are. In the testing section we’ll throw these drives up against a couple older Crucial drives as well as a couple drives from other SSD makers and see how the numbers stack up.

The MX300 series of drives all use the Marvell 88SS1074 controller with a few firmware tweaks from Crucial. The Marvell 88SS1074 chipset is a popular choice amongst higher end drives and there are other SSD makers that use this chipset as well, Crucial however uses their own firmware to try to pump a little extra out of this chipset.

Highlights & Specifications:

• Sequential reads/writes up to 530 / 510 MB/s on all file types
• Random reads/writes up to 92k / 83k on all file types
• Over 90x more energy efficient than a typical hard drive
• Accelerated by Micron® 3D NAND technology
• Dynamic Write Acceleration delivers faster saves and file transfers
• More durable than a hard drive – no small moving parts that are prone to failure
• Best-in-class hardware encryption keeps data safe and secure
• Exclusive Data Defense guards against data corruption
• Adaptive Thermal Protection allows for adaptive cooling
• Power Loss Protection completes write commands even if power is lost
• Includes free Acronis® True Image™ HD software for easy data migration
• Compatible with the Crucial Storage Executive tool for easy drive maintenance
• 3 year limited warranty

On the next page, we'll jump right into testing.