Conclusion, Pricing, and Final Thoughts

Conclusion:

PROS:

  • **Extremely competitive** cost/GB (256GB and 512GB)
  • Solid performance (on tested 512GB capacity)

CONS:

  • Cost/GB could be better on 128GB model.
  • Significant write speed reductions on capacities <512GB.

Pricing and Availability:

Introductory MSRP's were not given by Crucial, however they are available for order from their own site. Here are those prices:

  • 128GB – $80   ($0.63/GB) – Amazon
  • 256GB – $110 ($0.43/GB) – Amazon
  • 512GB – $225 ($0.44/GB) – Amazon 

As you can see, these are *really* low prices, especially for the 16nm equipped 256GB and 512GB models. I can't wait to see what happens to holiday sale prices on these!

Warranty:

All MX100 capacities come with a 3-year warranty.

Final Thoughts:

Given the MX100 was to be a budget SSD primarily meant to target the upgrade market, it was refreshing to see such strong performance from 16nm flash. Even better was the extremely competitive launch pricing. The 512GB capacity delivers excellent performance at less than $0.50/GB. Lower capacities also offer good read performance, but write speeds drop sharply as you notch down on the capacity. The 128GB model seems a bit out of place here, as its cost/GB is 150% of the other two capacities, its write speeds are limited to 150MB/sec, and it uses the previous 20nm flash. Those oddities aside, the Crucial MX100 offers competitive performance at an extremely competitive price point, especially for budget minded users in need of a larger capacity SSD.

I'm awarding Gold to the MX100 line as a whole. If the entire line had the performance at the cost/GB of the reviewed 512GB model, it would have easily been Editor's Choice. I would go as far as to say that moving forward, the 512GB MX100 will be my default recommendation for upgraders in search of a large capacity SSD.

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