Crucial MX300 2TB SSD Review

Benchmark values and test results …

Let us continue with the benchmark results. SATA3 drives are tested with an ASRock 890GX Extreme3 motherboard and test results of mSATA and M.2 modules are performed using an ASRock Z97 Extreme6 motherboard. At present, Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition is used as the operating system.

The SSD drive speed was examined and compared with the following benchmark software:
AS SSD Benchmark 1.4.3704.27281 – Download
ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.46 – Download
CrystalDiskMark 3.00 – Download
HD Tach 3.040 – Download
SiSoftware Sandra 2011 – Download

AS SSD benchmark results

The AS SSD benchmark values offers a very good reference point of the maximal possible reading and writing performance, the speed with smaller files and the respective access time. The Crucial 2050 GB SSD achieved an relatively good sequential read and write speed in AHCI mode.

Although you should operate the SSD in AHCI mode, we have spared no effort to run all benchmarks additionally in SATA IDE mode. The total score in the IDE mode (indicated by pciide below firmware M0CR040) reached 340 points. In AHCI mode, the result is more than twice as high.

In AHCI mode also another result beneath the better read performance is much higher than in IDE mode and that is the important value “4K-64Thrd”. 4K means that small 4K blocks are read and/or written and with the 4K 64Thrd this is distributed on 64 Threads at the same time. Thus the benchmark program simulate for example a typical program start.

Because the weighting of this value in the AS SSD benchmark tool is very high, the overall score in AHCI mode is more than twice as high with 888 points. The Crucial MX300 750GB SSD reached 892 points, Crucial MX200 500 GB SSD reached 882 points, the Crucial BX100 500 GB SSD reached 803 points, the Crucial MX100 512 GB SSD reached 856 points, the Crucial M550 512 GB SSD reached 907 points and the Crucial M500 480 GB SSD reached 685 points – tested in AHCI mode on the same test system.

The usable capacity of the Crucial MX300 is 1909.59. With the Crucial storage Executive tool you can also customize the Over Provisioning area and therefore itself determine how high you would adjust the SSD durability vs performance.

Tip:
Who now think about changing the SATA port in the BIOS from native / legacy IDE to AHCI, should first change for example only one part of the SATA port, where the drive with the operating system is not installed, if this is supported by the motherboard. Because if one like to save the new Windows installation, one must install the hard disk controller driver before changing SATA mode from IDE to AHCI – alternatively there are also Registry entries for it. If you like to upgrade from HDD to SSD, you should not copy the content 1:1 only with a tool like Norton Ghost or Acronis Backup. It is better to install a fresh Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10 or adjust at least the SSD Alignment. We help you with questions to this topic or all other PC related questions at any time 24/7 in our German and English PC Forum.

Here is a screenshot of AS SSD benchmark values (SATA3 AHCI):
crucial_mx300_2050gb_as_sata3_ahci

And here is yet a screenshot of AS SSD iops results (SATA3 AHCI):
crucial_mx300_2050gb_as_iops_sata3_ahci

Here is a screenshot of the AS SSD copy benchmark values (SATA3 AHCI):
crucial_mx300_2050gb_as_copy_sata3_ahci

The AS SSD benchmark comparison results are extended with each new HDD/SSD test. Here you can see some SSDs in comparison to the Crucial MX300 2050GB SSD, and the graphic will be updated periodically with new SSD drives. At the moment the top of total AS SSD scores is lead from the Samsung 960 Pro NMVe SSD, followed by some more SSDs and below the MX200 250 GB SSD joins then the latest MX300 SSD with 2050 GB.

Here is a comparison of the AS SSD benchmark values, which are getting updated with new drives:
ssd_compare_as

And here is an excerpt of the latest AS SSD benchmark results. For a better overview, they will be gradually replaced with latest drives:
ssd_compare_as_last

ATTO disk benchmark results

The ATTO disk benchmark values gives a very good overview about the write and read rate on different file sizes. These values are maximum ratings, which are different to the previously continuous transfer rate benchmarks, since this benchmark may even reach a higher overall performance with slower SSDs.

At the Crucial MX300 2050 GB SSD is the read speed (green) at the transfer size of approx. 32 KB higher than the write speed (red) and reaches the maximum read result of 518448 KB at a transfer size of 128 KB. However, we can also see that the read throughput from 256 KB is again getting lower even after several passes.

Here is a screenshot of the ATTO Disk benchmark values (SATA3 AHCI):
crucial_mx300_2050gb_atto_sata3_ahci

The ATTO disk benchmark values are compared with a small transfer size of 32KB and a large transfer size of 8192KB. The bar chart already includes a comparison to some SSDs and HDDs, where the Crucial MX300 2TB in ATTO can classify only at the bottom.

Here is a comparison of the ATTO disk benchmark values, which are getting updated with soon coming drives:
ssd_compare_atto

And here is an excerpt of the latest ATTO disk benchmark values for a better overview will be gradually replaced with latest drives:
ssd_compare_atto_last

CrystalDiskMark results

With CrystalDiskMark one receives a balanced measurement of the performance with different transfer sizes.

Here especially the 4K-64Threads values like before has relatively good sequential read values of 336.6 MB/s and write values of 481.1 MB/s.

Here is a screenshot of the CrystalDiskMark values (SATA3 AHCI):
crucial_mx300_2050gb_cdm_sata3_ahci

The following diagram shows the CrystalDiskMark results again in comparison to the other SSDs and hard drives, which will be expanded step by step. In the CrystalDiskMark comparison one can see significant differences between the to-date tested of the Solid State Drives and Hard Disk Drives.

Here is a comparison of the CrystalDiskMark values, which are getting updated with soon coming drives:
ssd_compare_cdm

And here is an excerpt of the latest CrystalDiskMark values will be gradually replaced with latest drives for clarity:
ssd_compare_cdm_last

HD Tach results

With HD Tach one can measure the gradient of the performance, but the SSD transfer is not comparable with a conventional HDD. New logical NAND cell access of the SSD controller results like some other equal designed SSDs in varying values with the latest HD Tach Version 3.0.4.0 version, which was written for hard disk drives.

HD Tach shows the Crucial 750 GB MX300 SSD in AHCI mode at a continuous read rate with the lowest displayed access time display of approx. 0.0ms. And even the write operations shows likie the Crucial MX300 750GB SSD continuous transfer rates with low peaks.

For comparison. you can move the mouse pointer over the following drives to see their respective benchmark results:
Crucial MX300 2050GB 2.5″ SSD, Samsung 960 Evo 500GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Gen3 x4 SSD, Samsung 960 Pro 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Gen3 x4 SSD, ADATA S511 120GB SSD, ADATA S511 120GB SSD, Crucial BX200 960GB 2.5″ SSD, Crucial BX200 480GB 2.5″ SSD, Crucial BX100 1TB 2.5″ SSD, Crucial BX100 500GB 2.5″ SSD, Crucial MX100 512GB 2.5″ SSD, Crucial MX200 1TB 2.5″ SSD, Crucial MX200 500GB 2.5″ SSD, Crucial MX200 500GB M.2 SSD, Crucial MX200 500GB mSATA SSD, Crucial MX200 250GB 2.5″ SSD, 2x Crucial MX200 250GB 2.5″ SSDs RAID0, 3x Crucial MX200 250GB 2.5″ SSDs RAID0, 4x Crucial MX200 250GB 2.5″ SSDs RAID0, Crucial MX300 750GB 2.5″ SSD, Crucial M500 480GB 2.5″ SSD, Crucial M550 512GB 2.5″ SSD, Crucial M550 512GB M.2 SSD, Crucial M550 512GB mSATA SSD, 2x Crucial m4 128GB 2.5″ SSD an SATA3 RAID, Crucial m4 128GB 2.5″ SSD, Crucial m4 128GB 2.5″ SSD an SATA3, Crucial m4 256GB 2.5″ SSD FW 000F, Crucial m4 256GB 2.5″ SSD FW 0309, Crucial m4 256GB 2.5″ SSD FW 0002, Crucial m4 256GB SSD FW 0309 an SATA3 IDE, Crucial m4 256GB 2.5″ SSD FW 0002 an SATA3, Crucial C300 64GB 1.8″ SSD an SATA3, Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB 2.5″ SSD an SATA3, Crucial RealSSD C300 256GB 2.5″ SSD an SATA2, Hitachi 7K1000.C 1TB HDD, Intel SSD 750 1200GB PCIe Karte Gen3 x4, MX-DS Fusion 60GB SSD SATA3 IDE, MX-DS Fusion 60GB SSD SATA3 IDE, MX-DS Turbo 120GB SSD, OCZ Agility 128GB SSD, OCZ Vector 180 480GB 2.5″ SSD, Plextor M6e 256GB M.2 SSD PCIe AHCI, 2x Plextor M5 Pro Xtreme 256GB 2.5″ SSD an SATA3 RAID0, Plextor M5 Pro Xtreme 256GB 2.5″ SSD, Plextor M5M 128GB mSATA SSD, Samsung Series470 128GB SSD AHCI, Samsung Series470 128GB SSD Legacy IDE, Samsung 850 Pro 128GB 2.5″ SSD, Seagate Constellation.2 1TB 2.5″ HDD at SATA3, Seagate ST2000DX001 2TB 3.5″ SSHD, Toshiba MK8007GAH 1.8″ HDD.

Here is a screenshot of the HD Tach benchmark values:
crucial_mx300_2050gb_hd_tach_2_sata3_ahci

Here is a comparison of the HD Tach benchmark values, which are getting updated with soon coming drives:
ssd_compare_hdt

And here is an excerpt of the latest HD tach benchmark values that will be gradually replaced with latest drives for clarity:
ssd_compare_hdt_last

SiSoftware Sandra benchmark results

Of course, SiSoftware Sandra benchmark should not be missing in this test series. SiSoftware offers with their SiSoft Sandra program a very comprehensive tool, which contains a lot of tools to get very reliable test results of all hardware components.

The average access time of the Crucial MX300 2050 GB SSD is in SiSoftware Sandra with 22us extremely low and the drive index of 513.2 MB/s is relatively high.

Here is a screenshot of the SiSoftware Sandra benchmark read values (SATA3 AHCI):
crucial_mx300_2050gb_sisoft_sandra_sata3_ahci

In the write performance measurement, the average access time of the Crucial MX300 2050 GB SSD in SiSoftware Sandra is also at extremely low 24us and the drive index reached good 489 MB/s.

Here is a screenshot of the SiSoftware Sandra benchmark write values (SATA3 AHCI):
crucial_mx300_2050gb_sisoft_sandra_sata3_ahci_write

Here is a comparison of the SiSoftware Sandra benchmark values, which are getting updated with soon coming drives:
ssd_compare_san

And here is an excerpt of the latest SiSoftware Sandra benchmark values that will be gradually replaced with latest drives for clarity:
ssd_compare_san_last

Crucial MX300 2050 GB Result and general impression …