Setup and test results …
Let us now turn to the benchmark results. The test results for SATA3 drives are compared with an ASRock 890GX Extreme3 motherboard and the test results for mSATA and M.2 modules are performed with an ASRock Z270 Taichi motherboard. Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition and Windows 10 Enterprise Edition 64-bit are currently used as operating system.
The SSD drive speed was examined and compared with the following benchmark software:
AS SSD Benchmark – Download
ATTO Disk Benchmark – Download
CrystalDiskMark – Download
HD Tach – Download
SiSoftware Sandra – Download
The AS SSD benchmark offers a very good indication of the maximum possible read and write speed, the performance with smaller files and their respective access time. By the way, 4K means that small 4K blocks are read or written and with the 4K 64Thrd this is distributed to 64 threads simultaneously. With this the benchmark program simulates for example a typical program start.
With the Crucial BX500 drives a high sequential read and write speed could be achieved in AHCI mode.
The usable capacity of the Crucial BX500 SSDs is by the way 223.57GB (240GB), 447.13GB (480GB) and 931.51GB (1TB). With the Crucial Storage Executive Tool you can adjust the over provisioning range as mentioned before and thus determine yourself how high you want to set the SSD durability vs. performance.
The overall score is reasonably good with 789/793/744 points, at least for the somewhat older AMD test system, which we have been using since the beginning of our SATA SSD tests to provide a 100% comparison of SSDs. The Crucial BX200 480GB SSD was just 731 points on the same test system, but the Crucial MX500 1TB SSD was slightly higher at 888 points.
For a better comparison with the Samsung SSD 860 Pro and Samsung SSD 860 Evo SSDs, which didn’t run perfectly with the AMD test system at that time, we also tested the Crucial BX500 240GB, 480GB and 1TB again with the Intel test system.
Here is a screenshot of the AS SSD benchmark values (Crucial BX500 240GB, 480GB, 1TB AHCI Intel test system):
Here is a screenshot of the AS SSD benchmark values (Crucial BX500 240GB, 480GB, 1TB AHCI AMD test system)
And here is another screenshot of the AS SSD iops results (Crucial BX500 240GB, 480GB, 1TB AHCI AMD test system)
Here is a screenshot of the AS SSD copy benchmark values (Crucial BX500 240GB, 480GB, 1TB AHCI AMD test system)
The comparison of the AS SSD benchmark results is extended with every new HDD/SSD test. You can see here some SSDs compared to the Crucial BX500 240GB, 480GB and 1TB SSD, whereby the graphics is regularly updated with new SSD drives. At the time of testing, the top of the AS SSD total score is led by the Samsung 960 Pro 1TB M.2 NMVe SSD, followed by a few more SSDs and in the middle of the field is the BX500 SSD series.
Here is a comparison of the AS SSD benchmark values, which are gradually being expanded with new drives:
And here is an extract of the latest AS SSD benchmark results for a better overview, which will gradually be replaced with the latest drives:
The ATTO disk benchmark values give a very good overview of how the read and write speeds behave at different file sizes. However, the measured values are maximum values and should not be confused with the continuous transfer rates, as this benchmark can be higher even for SSDs with a slower overall performance.
With the Crucial BX500 240GB, 480GB, 1TB SSD the read speed (green) is already above the write speed (red) from a transfer size of about 0.5KB and reaches the maximum read values of 571139KB with a transfer size of 1024KB.
Here is a screenshot of the ATTO disk benchmark values (SATA3 AHCI)
These ATTO disk benchmark values are now compared for a small transfer of 32KB and a large transfer of 8192KB. The bar chart includes a comparison to some SSDs and hard drives.
Here is a comparison of the ATTO disk benchmark values, which will be gradually expanded with more new drives:
And here is an extract of the latest ATTO disk benchmark values for a better overview, which will gradually be replaced with the latest drives:
With CrystalDiskMark you also get a balanced measurement of performance with different transfer sizes.
Here the BX500 240GB, 480GB and 1000GB achieve, as before, in addition to the 4K-64Threads values, very good sequential read values of approx. 535 MB/s and write values of approx. 474 MB/s.
Here is a screenshot of the CrystalDiskMark values (SATA3 AHCI)
The following diagram shows the CrystalDiskMark results in comparison to the other SSDs and hard drives, which are being expanded step by step. The CrystalDiskMark comparison clearly shows the differences between the solid state drives and hard drives tested so far.
Here is a comparison of the CrystalDiskMark values, which will be gradually expanded with more new drives:
And here is an extract of the latest CrystalDiskMark values for a better overview, which will gradually be replaced with the latest drives:
The HD Tach benchmark values show the course of the performance very nicely, but it’s clearly different in an SSD than in a conventional HDD. Due to the new logical management of the SSD controllers when accessing the NAND cells, the values with the HD Tach version 3.0.4.0, which is designed for hard disks, can fluctuate as with similarly constructed SSDs.
HD Tach shows with the Crucial BX500 240GB, 480GB and 1TB SSDs in AHCI mode during read operations a usual continuous transfer image with the lowest displayed access time of 0.0ms. During write operations there are also very even transfer rates with a few peaks.
For easy comparison, the values of the previous SSD tests can be selected and viewed via a drop down field.
Here is a screenshot of the HD Tach benchmark values:
In order to see how the new 64 layer 3D TLC NAND flash behaves during a larger file transfer, we additionally executed the lengthy Long Bench, which takes several hours with the 1TB SSD. As with older TLC or 3D TLC SSDs, you can see a stronger performance drop at longer write rates. From about 7GB data transfer on, the performance of the small 240GB version drops significantly.
From approx. 20GB data transfer the performance of the 480GB version drops significantly.
And the performance of the large 1TB version only breaks down significantly from about 140GB data transfer.
Here is a comparison of the HD Tach benchmark values, which are gradually being expanded with new drives:
And here is an extract of the latest HD Tach benchmark values for a better overview, which will gradually be replaced with the latest drives:
SiSoftware Sandra Benchmark results
The SiSoftware Sandra benchmark was of course a must in the test series. With the SiSoft Sandra program, SiSoftware has had a very comprehensive tool on the market for several years, with which very reliable test results can be obtained from all hardware components.
The average access time of the Crucial BX500 240GB, 480GB and 1TB SSD was with SiSoftware Sandra with 21-84us very low and the drive index of 539.73-543.57 MB/s is an excellent value for a SATA SSD.
Here is a screenshot of SiSoftware Sandra benchmark read performance (SATA3 AHCI)
In the SiSoftware Sandra write performance measurement, the average access time of the Crucial BX500 240GB, 480GB and 1TB SSD was also at a very low 25-71us and the drive index reached a good 455.16-467.38 MB/s.
Here is a screenshot of the SiSoftware Sandra benchmark write values (SATA3 AHCI)
Here is a comparison of the SiSoftware Sandra benchmark values, which are gradually being expanded with more new drives:
And here is an extract of the latest SiSoftware Sandra benchmark values for a better overview, which will gradually be replaced with the latest drives:
Crucial BX500 240GB, 480GB, 1TB Result and general impression …