Crucial Discontinues the MX500 SATA SSD Line

[btarunr]

Crucial has reportedly discontinued the MX500 line of SATA SSDs after nearly 7 years of market presence. The MX500 is arguably the most popular line of SATA 6 Gbps SSDs, and comes in both the 2.5-inch and M.2-SATA form-factors. The drive continued its run into 2020s given its extremely low price-per-GB, and reasonable levels of performance to serve as a warm storage solution in client PCs. The market is changing, with the advent of cheap QLC NAND NVMe SSDs, an increase in the number of NVMe slots on today's motherboards, and a reduction in SATA ports, which mean that it is time for Crucial to retire the MX500. The MX500 is still in stock with retailers, and comes in capacities of up to a respectable 4 TB, although at prices similar to NVMe Gen 3 or Gen 4 drives based on QLC NAND, such as Crucial's own P3 Plus. The 4 TB variant of the P3 Plus Gen 4 NVMe SSD in fact costs less than the 4 TB MX500, but with significantly higher performance.



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[sudothelinuxwizard]

This will suck for people who don't have NVMe slots. Now their only choices are Samsung or Chinesium.

 

[Hyderz]

This will suck for people who don't have NVMe slots. Now their only choices are Samsung or Chinesium.

Right there’s still seagate and western digital, pretty sure those aren’t Chinese company

 

[neatfeatguy]

That's a bummer, I like their 2.5" SSDs.

 

[Bwaze]

"The MX500 is still in stock with retailers, and comes in capacities of up to a respectable 4 TB"

7 years ago, imagine that. And now companies are offering us SSD lines that end at 2 TB, and are still regarding 8 TB as something that market doesn't deserve...

 

[eidairaman1]

That's a bummer, I like their 2.5" SSDs.

I still prefer them due to not being near a gpu which are a heatsource.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

"The MX500 is still in stock with retailers, and comes in capacities of up to a respectable 4 TB"

7 years ago, imagine that. And now companies are offering us SSD lines that end at 2 TB, and are still regarding 8 TB as something that market doesn't deserve...

IMO Its more to do with trickledown tech. Big corps that have a tonne of data centers, servers and server farms will get all of it first probably 8-10 years before it starts appearing on the non-commercial markets for the average joe to pick up and even then they'll still be sold at a premium. I bought an 8TB on black friday for £520. Its now £654. I think the original price was close to £800. No way would I pay that much.

So 8TB+ does exist and prices are coming down but the real question is if its worth it for manufacturers to bring it to market. A lot more people will pick up a 2TB or 4TB because they are just cheaper and more affordable for the masses.

 

[bug]

Wth, I thought the MX500 will be with us forever
Maybe I should snag a 4TB one, just in case.

 

[Chaitanya]

Sad day, these drives were cheap came with decent TLC flash and made perfect drives for NAS.

 

[Drash]

Didn't the latest ones get QLC snuck in? They have a habit of cost reducing, silently. But the TLC were great for the right price- I've got over 14TB worth between 3 PCs and a couple of kids laptops.

 

[TheLostSwede]

This will suck for people who don't have NVMe slots. Now their only choices are Samsung or Chinesium.

WD, SanDisk, Seagate, Kingston, Team Group, Silicon Power, PNY and Patriot aren't xinesium afaik.

Didn't the latest ones get QLC snuck in? They have a habit of cost reducing, silently. But the TLC were great for the right price- I've got over 14TB worth between 3 PCs and a couple of kids laptops.

That was the BX500, not MX500.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

This really sucks. They are my go to for any old PC that needs a SSD upgrade. I've bought probably close to a hundred MX 500s over the years.

Right there’s still seagate

Who doesnt make a consumer 2.5" SSD. OOPS. They make pro oriented barracude and firepro drives, but their consumer lines ended years ago with the 600s. Had one of those, good drive.

and western digital, pretty sure those aren’t Chinese company

WD got their NAND production from the acquisition of Sandisk a...wait for it....CHINESE company. Uhhhhh.......

I mean I know I'm being pedantic here, but Crucial was the only US NAND maker out there, and the crucial MX 500 was the only 2.5" drive that still used them.

"The MX500 is still in stock with retailers, and comes in capacities of up to a respectable 4 TB"

7 years ago, imagine that. And now companies are offering us SSD lines that end at 2 TB, and are still regarding 8 TB as something that market doesn't deserve...

Who do you know owns a 4+TB ssd? I mean sabarent has made 8TB consumer models for years, I've yet to see one.

Mos tof us that want high capacity jumped to commercial U.2 drives. They're just way better for mass storage.

WD, SanDisk, Seagate, Kingston, Team Group, Silicon Power, PNY and Patriot aren't xinesium afaik.

I've already covered the first two. Patriot uses NAND from YMTC. the rest are dependent on other asian companies for NAND. AFAIK, crucial was the only US based manufacturer of NAND, and the only other US source is a single Samsung factory in austin.

 

[Bwaze]

IMO Its more to do with trickledown tech. Big corps that that have a tonne of data centers, servers and server farms will get all of it first probably 8-10 years before it starts appearing on the non-commercial markets for the average joe to pick up and even then they'll still be sold at a premium. I bought an 8TB on black friday for £520. Its now £654. I think the original price was close to £800. No way would I pay that much.

So 8TB+ does exist and prices are coming down but the real question is if its worth it for manufacturers to bring it to market. A lot more people will pick up a 2TB or 4TB because they are just cheaper and more affordable for the masses.

Sure 8 TB SSDs exists, but they existed almost a decade ago, and in consumer space half a decade ago. But while just before that capacity of consumer drives jumper every year, it completely stopped with the arrival of M.2 form factor, and SATA SSDs stopped advancing.

And sure, sometimes the prices of 8 TB drives dip. But it usually coincides with other low prices, so it's always about twice the cost of lower capacities per TB.

 

[londiste]

"The MX500 is still in stock with retailers, and comes in capacities of up to a respectable 4 TB"

7 years ago, imagine that. And now companies are offering us SSD lines that end at 2 TB, and are still regarding 8 TB as something that market doesn't deserve...

4TB MX500 was introduced several years later. I want to say late 2021 but not too sure about the exact time.
Also, it was worse and if I remember correctly had the typical "you never know what you are going to get" shenanigans going on.

 

[Drash]

That was the BX500, not MX500.

Rumour that MX500 now has QLC variants?

Here is some info. Also increasing stories on reddit for failures. I wonder if reviews should start saying "correct only at time of publication".

www.techpowerup.com

maybe, maybe not.

 

[_roman_]

I want a brand without looking for issues or low quality. For SATA it's a data drive lottery now.

---

I never had problem with CRUCIAL SSDs or DRAM. I bought several those for electronics repair. Never a complaint. Always the fastest while assembling the device. Never heard a complaint later. Always happy people. I used for myself several 120GB Crucial SATA drives.

WD is not an option = Those SANDISK drives gave me always a headache. Full of issues and quality and data transfer issues for any WD = Sanddisk based drive in my point of view. (Same story as with SAMSUNG, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't) edit: my criteria = brand without issues. (I'm well aware of that curcial also had firmware issues with their sata drives much later)

I just had to replace a laptop storage which died after 4 years of hardly any use. A hp laptop which maybe was used a little bit for emails on the weekend. A bulk - oem german cheap brand i never heard of M2 drive with SATA protocol. (PN 00- 10234555 www.innovationit.de) HP laptop have a first day born timestamp in bios. I know the user for a long time myself.

 

[dirtyferret]

i owned two of them over the years, did the job

 

[Veseleil]

They were one of the best choices until they switched from TLC to QLC, and using all kinds of controllers. Come on people, are we using the same site? Yes, the TLC ones were good, good luck to those that plan to buy them nowadays!



They're gone, good grief. And yes, the internet is full with proofs of QLC variants.

 

[z1tu]

I have 3 in my PC, they're great

 

[Readlight]

Who is now the best and cheapest?

 

[bug]

They were one of the best choices until they switched from TLC to QLC, and using all kinds of controllers. Come on people, are we using the same site? Yes, the TLC ones were good, good luck to those that plan to buy them nowadays!



They're gone, good grief. And yes, the internet is full with proofs of QLC variants.

Oddly enough, I would have thought that would have made it easy for you to point them out..

 

[TheDeeGee]

"The MX500 is still in stock with retailers, and comes in capacities of up to a respectable 4 TB"

7 years ago, imagine that. And now companies are offering us SSD lines that end at 2 TB, and are still regarding 8 TB as something that market doesn't deserve...

€312 for the 4TB variant is rather steep, and has been going up in price since December last year, when they were still €208.

The 4TB BX500 is €239 and has the same lifetime stats.

 

[Vincero]

IMO Its more to do with trickledown tech. Big corps that have a tonne of data centers, servers and server farms will get all of it first probably 8-10 years before it starts appearing on the non-commercial markets for the average joe to pick up and even then they'll still be sold at a premium. I bought an 8TB on black friday for £520. Its now £654. I think the original price was close to £800. No way would I pay that much.

Just out of interest / for frame of reference, was that M.2 or a full expansion slot card/drive, or something more exotic like U.2?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Just out of interest / for frame of reference, was that M.2 or a full expansion slot card/drive, or something more exotic like U.2?

M.2

 

[lexluthermiester]

This will suck for people who don't have NVMe slots. Now their only choices are Samsung or Chinesium.

To be fair, KingSpec is a solid "budget" brand.