Monday, March 5, 2012

Crucial 128 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT128M4SSD2

Crucial 128 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT128M4SSD2

Product Details

  • Product Dimensions: 3.9 x 2.8 x 0.4 inches ; 2.7 ounces
  • Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
  • ASIN: B004W2JKZI
  • Item model number: CT128M4SSD2

By : Crucial
List Price : $212.99
Price : $162.14
You Save : $50.85 (24%)
Crucial 128 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT128M4SSD2

Product Description


Size: 128 GB
From the Manufacturer
The Crucial m4 SSD: raising the bar on Solid-State Drive technology.
Continuing the tradition of our award-winning solid-state drives, the Crucial m4 SSD offers mobile and desktop users scorching-fast read and write speeds, groundbreaking SATA SSD computing, and unparalleled performance for the dollar.
Introducing our fastest Solid State Drive to date! The Crucial m4 SSD.
  • High-speed synchronous MLC NAND
  • Advanced controller technology
  • Optimized NAND management
  • Second-generation SATA 6Gb/s interface
  • Available in 64GB, 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB capacities


Latest and greatest. Designed for client computing, the Crucial m4SSD delivers faster boot and application load times for mobile and desktop users alike. Low power, lightweight, and durable, it empowers high-speed synchronous MLC NAND, advanced controller technology, optimized NAND management, and the second-generation SATA 6Gb/s interface. Together, that technology dramatically improves data transfers for bandwidth-demanding applications.
Proud history. Delivering on the highest quality based upon Micron's leading-edge NAND media, the Crucial brand of SSDs has long been synonymous with reliability and high performance. And because we're part of Micron, the Crucial m4 SSD was bred and built entirely in-house. So you can rest assured you'll get one of the highest quality products available�from the company that knows memory.
Why an SSD? SSDs provide many benefits over traditional hard drives. You'll enjoy reduced power consumption, less heat generation. Because they have no moving parts, SSDs are quiet, more lightweight, and they're rugged and reliable even the most demanding operating environments or temperature extremes.
Compatible. Crucial m4 SSD series employ a standard hard drive interface and dimensions, so it is an easy storage upgrade for most laptops.


The m4 SSD fits in place of your old hard drive

A simple installation for more speed and performance

duplicate all the files from your old hard drive quickly and easily
The 128GB CRUCIAL M4 2.5IN SATA 6GB/S.

 

Crucial 128 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT128M4SSD2

 

Technical Details

  • Groundbreaking SATA SSD performance
  • Sustained Sequential Read: Up to 500 MB/s (SATA 6Gb/s) Sustained Sequential Write: Up to 175 MB/s (SATA 6Gb/s)4KB Random Read: Up to 45,000 IOPS4KB Random Write: Up to 35,000 IOPS
  • Second-generation SATA 6Gb/s w/ Native Command Queuing (3Gb/s backward compatible)
  • Most advanced NAND process technology in the semiconductor industry
  • Limited three-year warranty
Crucial 128 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT128M4SSD2

Customer Reviews


Test Laptop - Dell Latitude D630 - 2.0GHz core 2 duo with 4GB ram
I installed this drive and then installed Windows XP pro. When complete I then installed Windows 7 home premium and set laptop up as a dual boot system. I then tested both by booting into Windows XP and Windows 7. I then ran every update and every service pack on both Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 SP1. I installed antivirus, adobe reader, Microsoft Office 2007, Firefox 5.0, etc. When all was perfect with both operating systems I pulled out he HD and cloned it over to a brand new standard SATA drive. Then came the fun of testing both HD's and OS's for boot times, etc.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pros: $2 per GB is a great price. Drive will breathe new life into ANY PC. Easy to install, lots of fun. Drive has NEVER locked up for me, not with hibernation, sleep mode anything.
Cons: $2 per GB is a lot higher than a standard SATA drive. Firmware was hard to locate, although easy to install.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows XP Pro
Standard SATA HD - power on to hear windows startup sound 1:30 seconds
Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 - power on to hear windows startup sound :22 seconds
Standard SATA HD - power on to fully pull up www.google.com 1:55 seconds
Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 - power on to fully pull up www.google.com :28 seconds
Standard SATA HD - power on to hard drive activity light to go off completely 1:45 seconds
Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 - power on to hard drive activity light to go off completely :29 seconds
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1
Standard SATA HD - power on to hear windows startup sound 2:10 seconds
Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 - power on to hear windows startup sound :20 seconds
Standard SATA HD - power on to fully pull up www.google.com 3:00 seconds
Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 - power on to fully pull up www.google.com :25 seconds
Standard SATA HD - power on to hard drive activity light to go off completely 3:30 seconds
Crucial M4 CT128M4SSD2 - power on to hard drive activity light to go off completely :26 seconds
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All of this was with original firmware 001, I did update (after all testing) to 002 but nothing changed HD runs solid and sleeps/hibernates, etc. runs like a dream with 0 issues for me. It has never locked up. I cannot imagine how fast this drive would be in a new PC or laptop with an i7 CPU and more ram. Sadly my laptop is now so fast there is no way that I can justify replacing anytime soon. Buy this drive you will not be sorry.

I recently installed this in the current 13" Macbook Pro and have had excellent results. No hang ups; no problems going in and out of sleep; everything is SO much faster. Bootup is about 30 seconds; Firefox opens nearly instantly; About this Mac loads instantly; Disk Utility functions run in under a minute; multitasking is smoother; just overall snappiness. I never would have thought that even my websites would load quicker. Note that when you first boot after installation Spotlight will reindex everything (that little dot in the magnifying glass) so expect some lagging until that's ready. A huge selling point for the M4 is a three year warranty and the fact that it is SATA III (which my macbook pro supports; not sure about previous models). The additional throughput allows for a huge speed increase. I'll update this as I spend more time with it, but really it's a great drive with great reviews so far. It's predecessor - the C300 - was highly regarded as well so I'm confident that this was a good purchase.
For tips on installation: First thing I did was install the harddrive and swap the original HDD into an external casing. When I rebooted I held down the option key and booted from the original harddrive (now in the external). I used Disk Utility, formatted the SSD, then used SuperDuper to clone the external to the SSD. Everything worked perfectly; no errors or need to change settings. Mine shipped with Rev 0001 firmware. I installed Rev 0002 which claims to fix known issues. Rev 0009 was released days ago but I'm waiting to see if there are problems before upgrading (update regarding this posted below). To upgrade firmware just download from the crucial website, burn to CD, and boot from the CD. It's all very very simple.
Regarding TRIM: I'm running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 and TRIM is listed as disabled. I heard it's because only Apple-branded SSDs will turn on TRIM, but there is software floating around to enable TRIM support. I'm not sure if Lion fixes this, but I'm not going to bother until it becomes a problem or if Apple has an official fix as SSDs become more popular.
Optimizing your SSD: I haven't seen much that will make a difference but the first thing I did was disable the Sudden Motion Sensor. I also went into Energy Saver and turned off "put hard disks to sleep when possible." Then I repaired disk permissions and verified the disk in Disk Utility for a final time.
Regarding Windows 7 and Bootcamp: Some people have luck with Winclone to copy their Windows 7 partition from Bootcamp. I didn't have luck but I'm not overly concerned since I don't want to give up 20GB of space (minimal size Boot Camp Assistant allows) for an OS I don't really need and rarely use. This isn't a problem related to the SSD, but I just thought I'd mention that.
UPDATE: I've used my machine heavily over the past week and recently upgraded to Rev 0009. Everything is slightly faster, still no beach balls or other problems.
UPDATE 2: So after a few weeks of daily use I finally upgraded to OS 10.7.1 (Lion). The first thing that I noticed is that in the system information the harddrive does not show up as having TRIM enabled. The drive works perfectly fine, but if TRIM is a concern keep in mind that the current version of Lion does not enable it when using the M4. On a side note, I've noticed my system backups are quicker when writing to an external harddrive using a Firewire 800 port, and my DVD ripping is about 15% quicker.
Update 3: So this will be the last one until new firmware comes along or if Apple releases any significant Lion updates. I always see people saying that a huge benefit of an SSD is better battery life. I've noticed almost no change in real world usage although I'm sure there is a slight difference. Don't expect your battery life to change dramatically though. My computer is significantly quieter (and has less vibrations- very nice when I'm watching a movie late at night).
Update 4: Still speedy, average about 12 hours of use per day. For those looking for some Macbook Pro specs:
Results 443.78
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.7.3 (11D50b)
Physical RAM 8192 MB
Model MacBookPro8,1
Drive Type M4-CT256M4SSD2
Disk Test 443.78
Sequential 272.50
Uncached Write 465.35 285.72 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 444.25 251.35 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 112.01 32.78 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 740.20 372.02 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 1194.66
Uncached Write 1095.88 116.01 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 816.10 261.26 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 2098.55 14.87 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 1362.67 252.85 MB/sec [256K blocks]

 

Crucial 128 GB m4 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive SATA 6Gb/s CT128M4SSD2

 

No comments:

Post a Comment