Packaging and Contents

The Drive

The drive conforms to the dimensions set forth by the 2.5" form factor. It is made out of metal to improve its durability and is only 7 mm thick, which makes it compatible with Intel's Ultrabook specification.


Like most recent SSDs, the Crucial MX500 uses the SATA 6 Gbps interface. It is compatible with any older SATA standard, but will, in such a case, work at reduced performance.


You will find the SSD controller and 16 flash chips on the PCB. One DRAM chip is also present to provide the SSD controller with RAM and soak up write bursts.


The SMI controller is a first for the MX Series, which used Marvell controllers before.


The sixteen TLC flash chips are produced by Micron and are built using 64-layer 3D TLC NAND technology.