Crucial has developed the new M550 SSD, which not only has a significantly better performance, but also provides more usable capacity. Fortunately, we tested all Crucial SSD generations since the first Crucial RealSSD C300 on OCinside.de and see again significant improvements at the current Crucial M550 compared to its predecessors. The Crucial M550 is available as 2.5-inch SATA, mSATA and M.2 SSD with a capacity range between 64 GB and 1 TB. The detailed review will show how fast the energy saving Crucial M550 512 GB CT512M550SSD1 SSD is in comparison to the previously tested Solid State Drives and if it provides good values even in older PCs without AHCI.
Thanks for the support …
Many thanks for the support with the Crucial M550 512GB 2.5″ SSD by the manufacturer Crucial.
The Crucial M550 512GB SATA3 2.5″ SSD CT512M550SSD1 has at present a price of approx. 290 Euro (05/2014).
The Crucial M550 SSD series contains at present the following types:SATA SSD: Crucial M550 128GB CT128M550SSD1, 256GB CT256M550SSD1, 512GB CT512M550SSD1, 1TB CT1024M550SSD1mSATA SSD: Crucial M550 128GB CT128M550SSD3, 256GB CT256M550SSD3, 512GB CT512M550SSD3M.2 SSD: Crucial M550 128GB CT128M550SSD4, 256GB CT256M550SSD4 und 512GB CT512M550SSD4 According to Micron there the M550 SSDs with 64 GB capacity (MTFDDAK064MAY, MTFDDAT064MAY und MTFDDAV064MAY). Whereby the performance of most SSDs alters depending on the capacity. A higher capacity of this Crucial M550 SSD has a higher write performance, whereby already the 256 GB M550 has the high 550 MB/s read performance and the 500 MB/s write performance.
Here you can buy the Crucial M550 SSD. *Ad
The supply of the Crucial M550 512GB SATA3 SSD …
In this cardboard box comes the current Crucial M550 SSD:
That is contained in the delivery …
Crucial delivers the M550 2.5″ SSD CT512M550SSD1 well packed with a 9.5 mm adapter. Here is a first look inside of the SSD cardboard box:
The following picture shows the front of the 2.5″ Crucial M550 512GB SSD, where one can see the SATA3 connections for data and power on the right side. The SSD connector is identical to conventional SATA3 hard disks and SATA3 SSDs can also operate with a slower speed at an SATA2 interface:
On the flipside you can see the label of the Crucial M550 SSD with some technical data and the firmware version:
Here you can see eight out of a total of sixteen 20nm Micron NAND modules of the SATA3 SSD with a total of 512 GB capacity. Additionally you can see the 512MB SSD cache module and the new Marwell 88SS9189 controller IC, which has replaced the previous Marwell 88SS9187-BLD2 controller of the Crucial M500 SSD. The SSD also offers a Microsoft eDrive compatible, built-in 256-bit AES encryption (TCG Opal 2.0 and IEEE 1667), which allows a hardware encryption with an appropriate UEFI hardware equipment and Microsoft Windows 8 or Microsoft Windows Server 2012 with BitLocker enabled:
On the back of the circuit board, you can see the remaining eight 20nm Micron NAND modules:
Another special feature is the low height of the Crucial M550 512GB SSD or the Micron M550 512GB MTFDDAK512MAY SSD, which is only 7 mm and no more 9.5 mm (you see a Crucial m4 SSD with 9.5mm on the right):
Crucial includes a small 7 mm to 9.5 mm adapter which can be layed on the SSD, if necessary to stay compatible with the very popular height of 9.5 mm:
