Crucial BX500 2TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD – Up
Crucial BX500 2TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD – Up to 540MB/s – CT2000BX500SSD101 (Acronis Edition)
From the brand
| Weight: | 35 g |
| Dimensions: | 10.03 x 0.7 x 6.99 cm; 35 Grams |
| Brand: | Crucial |
| Model: | CT2000BX500SSD101 |
| Colour: | 480GB |
| Manufacture: | Crucial |
| Dimensions: | 10.03 x 0.7 x 6.99 cm; 35 Grams |
I bought this to replace a Kingston SSD which had failed in my laptop. The Crucial was easy to fit as a drop-in replacement and has proved fast and, so far, reliable.
I upgraded laptop to a new one as my trusty 17 inch HP seemed on steam power taking forever to load up, run properly and shut down / update… to find the way it was ported over was half mine , half new and a % of programs that no longer worked…. so returned it as not for me…
Upgrade from 1TB to 2TB and a faster item, after using Macrium I cloned drive ( but it does come with software, but I’ve used this for years ) 1 partition changed to put extra TB into windows drive. Pulled laptop apart, pulled old 2015 drive out and put this in. Put battery in and it boots. Faster under 30 secs from minutes, downloaded updates. And installs in seconds, power off under 20 secs.
All software works ( apart from Outlook has lost profile but that’s a Microsoft thing… be a YouTube to resolve)
But for the fastest Upgrade for faster loading, programs opening and general made a 2016 laptop that was due to be binned into the better % and more usable again.
Going to buy another for CCTV as far faster access and near instant write makes anything old and obsolete now the opposite….
I couldn’t find this info anywhere online, so it’s probably worth me mentioning it here. All the “Acronis Edition” bit means is that this one comes with a little leaflet that offers access to a cutdown version of their cloning software, and a discount on a subscription to their other software. The actual drive is identical to the “Non Acronis” version. There’s no pre formatting and install files on the drive. No unformattable second partition that holds their software. Nothing. To all intents and purposes it’s exactly the same item, just with an extra leaflet…… and a quite nice discount.
Anyway, the drive isn’t the worlds fastest, and it slows down a little when you chuck a large amount of data at it all at once, but it’s a hell of an upgrade from even a 7200rpm mechanical hard drive, and it’s about the cheapest “Name brand” unit you’ll find. It’s probably not ideal for a modern top of the line gaming computers main drive, but it’s easily up to giving an aging laptop a new burst of speed.
This particular one has gone in my aging Alienware M14x r1 to replace it’s original Seagate “Momentus” 7200rpm drive (A pretty quick unit in it’s day). I’d just put a clean install of windows 10 on that one before deciding it was still WAY too slow and I wanted to upgrade it to this SSD. This upgrade has near as damn it halved the boot up time, and it’s made the whole system feel significantly more responsive. Before, the laptop felt old, clunky, and annoying to use, but this has made it feel a lot less like the relic it is. 🙂
So, If you just want to replace a mechanical HDD and make your old system run noticeably smoother, there’s not a whole lot of point spending any more than this (And as far as I can see, no point paying extra for the non “Acronis Edition” version of this drive), but if you’re after a replacement C: drive for your all singing all dancing monster gaming/video editing PC, you might want to think about spending the little extra to get something that doesn’t slow down when large files are being wrote to it.
So, why the odd title to this review? Well, budget SSD’s like the BX500 cut costs somewhere and that somewhere tends to be with not having a DRAM buffer, or a much reduced capacity one, along with the absence of any mounting accessories. For those not in the know, DRAM buffers permit the SSD to maintain peak transfer rates while the data is organized onto the NAND flash array. This became painfully evident when transferring large files onto the BX500. Transfer began well enough, seeing transfer rates well in excess of that capable of by hard drives. However, as the transfer continued, speeds began to fall. Eventually the sustained transfer rate dropped to below that of my current hard drive.
Now, unless you’re doing lots of large file transfers, you will never likely notice any performance drop off on the BX500. As a daily use SSD, it feels as quick as the MX500. I’ve not tested it scientifically, but I don’t really feel there is any difference. Only sustained writes of large files, or quantities of files, will see performance drop off a cliff after a certain point. The Samsung QVO drives operate in much the same way. Once their buffer is full, transfer rates decline rapidly over large file copy operations. Samsung probably handles this better then Crucial, but you pay for it with a Samsung drive anyway.
Purchasing the BX version was a bit of a false economy for me as I needed to transfer almost 2Tb of data and seeing the drive crawl along at less than 50 Mb/sec at times (less than half the sustained transfer rate of my hard drive) , just became too much to bear and so I moved the BX into a budget desktop and purchased an MX model to replace it. Doing that saw higher, and more consistent, transfer rates on large copy operations.
The BX range is perfect for home/office PC’s that don’t do anything too I/O intensive and are worth the savings, especially if fitting out a load of PC’s in an office.
The BX500 is a solid budget SSD option that will more than suffice for most users needs, but it has its drawbacks for more intensive I/O operations.
This was for an old laptop with a SATA HDD. The suggested free Acronis software to clone from one drive to another works well and is easy to use, reasonably quick if you can plug both drives into SATA on another machine. Big performance gain over the HDD, and ideal if M.2 is not an option. Good value.
As I cannot afford to upgrade right now or ideally build my own, I decided to make some tweaks to my existing rig as it is still fairly decent for its age. I upgraded ram a couple of years ago (2x16gb sticks) and last week upgraded from the stock cooler to a much beefier Be Quiet cooler as the CPU was really getting hot under heavy load.
While I was at it I thought it was time to finally go over to an SSD seeing as they now have much better capacity for not a lot of money.
I decided to go for Crucial as I have always had good experience with them. My PC ram is Crucial and so is the M.2 SSD in my PS5. I felt this had the specs that suited me and as I say, price wise, it was pretty damn cheap. Sadly due to my board being slightly older and being a micro ATX I don’t have an M.2 slot, so SATA was the only way to go.
I did make one error though as I assumed it would come with a SATA cable, but of course we know what you do if you “assume” anything. It was a simple enough solution, order a cable from Amazon and just fit the drive a day later than planned (I only mention this as I am sure there are others as naive as me who will get caught out too).
It was very simple to fit as well. Plugged the SATA cable into the drive and the motherboard and found a spare power plug coming from the power supply that fitted as well and then it was time to test things out.
Booted the PC up and while it did take a while to boot (remember this is still booting to my old drive) which is quite normal when installing new parts, but booted as normal. I then opened Acronis True Image (go to the website on the SSD instructions and download the file) and followed the onscreen prompts to clone my old HDD to my new SSD. I had deleted all my music from the HDD before starting this as it took up over 400gb and I felt that would just slow the cloning process down. Even with another 400+ storage still on the drive, it only took about 2 hours to do a full copy.
After it was finished I rebooted the PC, went into bios and assigned the SSD as my new boot drive.
The PC then booted to Windows so much faster than it normally does and programs loads almost instantly rather than the delayed response of yore.
Even web browsers and internet tabs load faster.
I also noticed that after the PC logs into Windows I can access programs straight away rather than waiting for Windows to do all its stuff before being allowed to access anything.
Seriously loving this piece of kit. The way it works is perfect for me, and is going to make using my PC so much of a better experience than it has been. Factor in the easy installation and the free no issues cloning software, and I think I got an absolute bargain at less than 40.
Oh, and I kept the old HDD in the rig but formatted it to use just as storage for my music which I have already reinstalled.
Only one program had an issue, with my copy of Photoshop saying the licence was not on it, but that was easily rectifiable, and every other program seems to have carried the licences over.
Pros:
Blazing Speeds: The SSD’s read and write speeds of up to 540MB/s are nothing short of impressive. This ensures near-instantaneous boot times and swift application loading, making multitasking a breeze.
Generous Storage Capacity: With a spacious 2TB capacity, this SSD provides an abundance of room for all my files, documents, media, and software applications. It effectively eliminates the need for external drives or additional storage solutions.
Durable 3D NAND Technology: The use of 3D NAND technology enhances the SSD’s endurance and longevity. It’s built to withstand continuous use, ensuring consistent and reliable performance over time.
Easy Installation: Installing the Crucial BX500 was a straightforward process. The 2.5-inch form factor is compatible with a wide range of systems, and the SSD fits seamlessly into my setup.
Energy Efficient: The SSD is designed to be power-efficient, helping to prolong battery life for laptops and reducing overall energy consumption for desktops.
Cons:
Lack of Additional Accessories: Unlike some other SSD packages, the Crucial BX500 may not include additional accessories such as mounting brackets or data migration software. However, these can be easily acquired separately if needed.
SATA Interface Limitation: While the SATA interface provides excellent performance, it may not match the speeds offered by newer NVMe SSDs. However, for most users, the difference in real-world applications may not be significant.
In summary, the Crucial BX500 2TB Internal SSD has surpassed my expectations in terms of performance, capacity, and reliability. Its high-speed capabilities and substantial storage space have significantly improved my computing experience. While some additional accessories may need to be purchased separately, the overall value provided by this SSD is exceptional
* They don’t have a RAM cache (which would be lost on power off) but a very large fast cache that survives power off. This is actually very useful if you are on a PC that’s likely to have power outages since you will lose nothing or next to nothing.
* When you save, it fills up this cache, so saving is very fast. That is then written at leisure behind the scenes from that cache to the slower bulk of the storage (20-40 MB/s). One of the consequences is that when you first populate the SSD e.g. as a backup, after about 50 GB (using the fast cache) it will then become very slow (20-40 MB/s), and cycle between fast and slow as the populating proceeds according to how the cache is committing what it holds to the slower bulk storage. This only affects the initial population, once filled and you are on with using it, saving is fairly instant as long as you aren’t saving huge amounts in one go (e.g. 50GB) as it will then slow until that is suitably committed in the background.
* Reading is fast as expected.
* 2TB x 2 in my view is better than 4TB, things do fail eventually and it’s best not to have all your eggs in one basket. Keep a mirror backup of everything (FreeFileSync is a decent program to do so).
—Pros—
+ Easy installation: The Crucial BX500 SSD comes with a 2.5-inch form factor that fits most laptops and desktops. It also includes a spacer for 9.5mm applications and Acronis True Image HD software for cloning your existing drive. You can follow the step-by-step instructions on Crucial’s website to install the SSD yourself or use their online support if you need any help.
+ High capacity: It offers 1TB of storage space, which is enough for most users to store their operating system, applications, games, photos, videos and other files. You can also choose from other capacities ranging from 240GB to 2TB, depending on your needs and budget.
+ Fast performance: It delivers up to 540MB/s of sequential read speed and up to 500MB/s of sequential write speed, which is much faster than a typical HDD. It also supports the SATA 6Gb/s interface, which is compatible with most systems. The SSD improves the overall performance of your system by reducing boot times, loading times and lagging issues.
+ Low power consumption: It uses 3D NAND flash technology, which stacks layers of memory cells vertically to increase density and efficiency. This reduces the power consumption of the SSD by up to 45x compared to a typical HDD, which extends the battery life of your laptop and lowers the heat generation of your system.
+ Affordable price: It is one of the most affordable SSDs on the market, offering great value for money. You can get the 1TB model for around 47 on Amazon UK, which is much cheaper than some of its competitors. You also get a 3-year limited warranty from Crucial, which covers any defects or malfunctions of the SSD.
—Cons—
– No DRAM cache: It does not have a DRAM cache, which is a small amount of memory that acts as a buffer between the SSD and the system. A DRAM cache can improve the performance and endurance of the SSD by reducing the number of write operations to the flash memory. However, it also adds to the cost and complexity of the SSD. The lack of a DRAM cache may affect the performance of the Crucial BX500 SSD in some scenarios, such as heavy multitasking or sustained workloads.
– Low endurance rating: it has an endurance rating of 360TBW (terabytes written), which means it can write up to 360TB of data before its performance degrades or fails. This is lower than some other SSDs in its class, such as the Samsung 860 EVO (600TBW) or the WD Blue 3D NAND (600TBW). However, this rating is still sufficient for most users who do not write large amounts of data frequently. According to Crucial’s calculations, you can write about 197GB per day for five years before reaching the limit.
—Reasons to Buy—
* You want to upgrade your system with a fast, reliable and affordable SSD
* You need a high-capacity SSD that can store all your files
* You care about the battery life and heat generation of your system
* You are comfortable with installing the SSD yourself or using online support
—Reasons to Avoid—
*You need a high-performance SSD that can handle heavy multitasking or sustained workloads
*You prefer an SSD with a higher endurance rating that can last longer
*You are not confident with installing the SSD yourself or using online support
Conclusion
The Crucial BX500 1TB 3D NAND SATA 2.5 Inch Internal SSD is an excellent choice for anyone looking to upgrade their system with a fast, dependable, and reasonably priced SSD. It provides high capacity, low power consumption, and simple installation at an affordable price. However, it may not be appropriate for users who require high performance or endurance from their SSDs.