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The Crucial MX500 has been one of the best SATA SSDs since its inception a few years back, thanks to its blend of excellent performance and an aggressively low price point. Today it’s even cheaper than normal, as Newegg are discounting the drive by $15 when you use the code 93XRQ46, dropping it to an all-time low price of $85.
The Crucial MX500 just barely misses out on being one of our top gaming SSDs, thanks to the also-strong Samsung 860 Evo which is marginally faster and was previously around the same price. Recently though, the Samsung drive has been costing significantly more – around $140 – making the MX500 by far the better value for money option. (There’s also the 870 Evo, but that’s even more expensive – around £170.) The MX500 has been around $100 for months on retailers like Amazon, so getting it for $15 less is a pretty nice coup.
In terms of performance, the MX500 is in the upper range of SATA SSDs. It maxes out at a read speed of around 560MB/s, with write speeds closer to 510MB/s on this 1TB size. That makes it significantly slower than NVMe SSDs, even budget models which typically reach 2500MB/s at their peak, but the difference in random read and write speeds is actually quite minimal – and that’s reflected in very similar game load times between SATA and NVMe SSDs.
That could change in the future, as Microsoft’s DirectStorage API makes its way from the Xbox to the PC in Windows 11, but for now the MX500 and its like are a perfectly reasonable choice for gaming – especially when even the cheapest NVMe drives, like the WD Blue SN550, are around $110 on Amazon for a 1TB model. For most people, the higher asking price isn’t likely to be worth it. The exception to this advice is if you’re frequently moving around large files, e.g. you’re a video producer working with 4K video. In that case, an NVMe drive makes more sense.
In any case, let’s wrap up – a good solid SATA SSD, available for a historically low price, cheaper than an NVMe alternative while offering nearly the same performance in terms of game load times. Not bad!
This sale price runs for today only, so do pick up the SSD if you’re in the market for extra game or media storage! You’re not likely to find a better price any time soon.
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