Packaging and Contents

Inside the package, you will find the SSD, some documentation, and an Acronis True Image download coupon.

The Drive

The drive uses the M.2 2280 form factor, which means it is 22 mm wide and 80 mm long. A thin copper foil, which has some Crucial artwork on it, acts as a basic heatspreader.


Note how the connector has two notches? These identify the drive as a SATA-based drive. So it is not using NVMe over PCIe like other high-end drives. This limits the transfer speeds to around 500 MB/s. You should be aware of the fact that you will "lose" one of the cabled SATA ports when connecting this drive. If your motherboard has six 2.5" SATA ports, for example, you will only have five of those active after installing an M.2 SATA SSD.


You will find the SSD controller and eight flash chips on the PCB. Two DRAM chips are 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 eight TLC flash chips are produced by Micron and are built using 64-layer 3D TLC NAND technology.