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Crucial M4 128Gb SSD Review
Content
-Prelude
-Which SSD?
-Price
-Unboxing
-Reliability
-Speed
-Noiselevel
-Heat
-General Conclusion
Prelude
In this review, you will read my findings and benchmarks of the Crucial M4 128Gb SSD.
I will compare the results of the M4 against the OCZ Agility 3 120 Gb ssd and a normal 7200 rpm HDD.
Which SSD?
The time came to speed up my system with a SSD. But which one, there are so many SSD's. Only thing I knew was that it was going to be around 120Gb.
And because I already had a OCZ Agility 3 which I was not happy of, it was certainly not going to be an OCZ SSD.
After reading some reviews of other SSD's and recommendation of others, I bought the Crucial M4.
Price
The price was also one of the big reasons for me to buy a SSD, cause in my country, they were getting cheaper by the day. For about 100 euro's you could have one. If you see half a year ago, they were much pricier back then than now. If you compare the prices of all the SSD's, the M4 was not the cheapest one but it wasn't that expensive either.
So I bought a Crucial M4 128Gb SSD for 108 euro's, the only ones that were cheaper were from OCZ which for me was a No-Go.
Crucial M4 128Gb SSD Unboxing
Below are some pictures of the Crucial M4 128Gb SSD.
The box
The packaging internal+installation guide
The Crucial M4 itself
As you can see, the M4 comes nicely packed.
Reliability
At the moment I didn't have any problems yet with the Crucial M4, but I also didn't use it yet (only for an hour or so), because my system isn't complete yet.
I only did an errorcheck with HD Tune Pro and it said that there were no errors so no reason for panic.
Speed
I tested the M4 on 3 sytems of mine. With all three tests the Crucial M4 is empty. The benchmarks I used were CrystalDiskMark and HD Tune Pro (Only READ) After testing the M4, the Agility and a HDD, I compared the results and this is what came out.
Test-Sytem1: Autobots For Life Mod (Click here for the components)
This system has only SATA2, so normally no full usage of the speed.
Crucial M4 128Gb:
OCZ Agility 3 120Gb:
You can see clearly that the M4 is a little bit faster than the Agility. Only with the 4k Write speeds the OCZ is faster.
Test-System2: PAMA Syteem (PC of my parents)(Click here to see the components)
CDM (both with their latest firmware update):
-Crucial M4 128Gb vs OCZ Agility 3 120Gb:
-Crucial M4 vs HDD:
Again the M4 is the winner.
HD Tune Pro:
-OCZ Agility 3:
-Crucial M4:
The average READ of the M4 is better and also the accestime, so again a victory for the M4.
Test-System3: Asus G74SX (Click here for the system specs)
The G74SX normally has SATA3, so normally we should get higher scores than before.
CDM:
-Crucial M4 (left) vs OCZ Agility 3 (right, with OS)
Big difference, and again the M4 wins, almost twice as fast.
HD Tune Pro:
-Crucial M4 (Left) vs OCZ Agility 3 (right):
Crucial m4: Min.: 182.7 MB/s
Max.: 327.3 MB/s
Avg.: 285.4 MB/s
Acces Time: 0.072ms
Burst rate: 143.9 MB/s
OCZ Agility 3: Min.: 111.2 MB/s
Max.: 307.8 MB/s
Avg.: 202.4 MB/s
Acces Time: 0.219ms
Burst rate: 169.6 MB/s
Again the Crucial M4 is victorious.
For fun the benchmark of the normal HDD:
Seagate Momentus 750Gb:
Clearly slower than either one of the SSD's.
Conclusion:
We can conclude that the Crucial M4 is faster than the Agility 3 and that the M4 was a good buy. Of course in perspective, I think that every SSD will be fast and that if I would putt an OS on the M4 that the M4 will start up the computer as fast as the Agility 3, so there will be little difference.
At this moment the G74Sx (with the agility) starts within the 30 seconds and I can fully work in Windows (for example: surfing on the internet, making a worddoc,...).
Starting up the pc, then opening the internet and loading google and then shutting down takes about 45 seconds, which is fast.
With the Crucial M4 it took 43 seconds, which is a minor difference.
Noiselevel
You don't hear a thing. When both SSD's were in my G74Sx (normally there is one HDD) I thought that my G74Sx didn't want to start up cause I didn't here a thing and that was a strange feeling, I never had before.
The only thing you might hear is sometimes a zoomy sound, but in order to hear that you will have to putt your ear on the SSD. (Which I did)
Heat
I putt my hand on the SSD for a couple of seconds (I could do longer) and it wasn't that hot, I think maybe 20 to 25 degrees Celcius. According to HDTune Pro the temperature of the M4 was 0 degrees Celsius, but for the Agility 3 it always said it was 128 degrees Celsius, which is of course wrong. And because of this high temp. there was constant a warning, which was very irritating. So I think that the M4 is the winner here because there is no warning.
General Conclusion
We can obviously conclude that the Crucial M4 is better than the Agility 3. And , as we all know, that buying a SSD is the best thing to do to upgrade your system. Your computer will load faster, and it is quieter, ideal for a HTPC or something else.
So if you don't have a SSD yet, then I clearly recommend to buy a Crucial M4 128Gb SSD.
Summary:
Pro's:
-Price
-Speed
-Quiet
-Cool
-Good packaging
Con's:
-not yet a negative thing about this SSD.
Any questions do not hesitate to ask them!
This review was translated from my review on another forum which is in Dutch. You can read that one here. Thank you for reading!
PS: My native language is not English so don't be to harsh on me about spelling errors and other things.
And sorry again for the big pictures, couldn't find them on my pc so I couldn't shrink them down cause I copied them from the Dutch review.
Content
-Prelude
-Which SSD?
-Price
-Unboxing
-Reliability
-Speed
-Noiselevel
-Heat
-General Conclusion
Prelude
In this review, you will read my findings and benchmarks of the Crucial M4 128Gb SSD.
I will compare the results of the M4 against the OCZ Agility 3 120 Gb ssd and a normal 7200 rpm HDD.
Which SSD?
The time came to speed up my system with a SSD. But which one, there are so many SSD's. Only thing I knew was that it was going to be around 120Gb.
And because I already had a OCZ Agility 3 which I was not happy of, it was certainly not going to be an OCZ SSD.
After reading some reviews of other SSD's and recommendation of others, I bought the Crucial M4.
Price
The price was also one of the big reasons for me to buy a SSD, cause in my country, they were getting cheaper by the day. For about 100 euro's you could have one. If you see half a year ago, they were much pricier back then than now. If you compare the prices of all the SSD's, the M4 was not the cheapest one but it wasn't that expensive either.
So I bought a Crucial M4 128Gb SSD for 108 euro's, the only ones that were cheaper were from OCZ which for me was a No-Go.
Crucial M4 128Gb SSD Unboxing
Below are some pictures of the Crucial M4 128Gb SSD.
The box
The packaging internal+installation guide
The Crucial M4 itself
As you can see, the M4 comes nicely packed.
Reliability
At the moment I didn't have any problems yet with the Crucial M4, but I also didn't use it yet (only for an hour or so), because my system isn't complete yet.
I only did an errorcheck with HD Tune Pro and it said that there were no errors so no reason for panic.
Speed
I tested the M4 on 3 sytems of mine. With all three tests the Crucial M4 is empty. The benchmarks I used were CrystalDiskMark and HD Tune Pro (Only READ) After testing the M4, the Agility and a HDD, I compared the results and this is what came out.
Test-Sytem1: Autobots For Life Mod (Click here for the components)
This system has only SATA2, so normally no full usage of the speed.
Crucial M4 128Gb:
OCZ Agility 3 120Gb:
You can see clearly that the M4 is a little bit faster than the Agility. Only with the 4k Write speeds the OCZ is faster.
Test-System2: PAMA Syteem (PC of my parents)(Click here to see the components)
CDM (both with their latest firmware update):
-Crucial M4 128Gb vs OCZ Agility 3 120Gb:
-Crucial M4 vs HDD:
Again the M4 is the winner.
HD Tune Pro:
-OCZ Agility 3:
-Crucial M4:
The average READ of the M4 is better and also the accestime, so again a victory for the M4.
Test-System3: Asus G74SX (Click here for the system specs)
The G74SX normally has SATA3, so normally we should get higher scores than before.
CDM:
-Crucial M4 (left) vs OCZ Agility 3 (right, with OS)
Big difference, and again the M4 wins, almost twice as fast.
HD Tune Pro:
-Crucial M4 (Left) vs OCZ Agility 3 (right):
Crucial m4: Min.: 182.7 MB/s
Max.: 327.3 MB/s
Avg.: 285.4 MB/s
Acces Time: 0.072ms
Burst rate: 143.9 MB/s
OCZ Agility 3: Min.: 111.2 MB/s
Max.: 307.8 MB/s
Avg.: 202.4 MB/s
Acces Time: 0.219ms
Burst rate: 169.6 MB/s
Again the Crucial M4 is victorious.
For fun the benchmark of the normal HDD:
Seagate Momentus 750Gb:
Clearly slower than either one of the SSD's.
Conclusion:
We can conclude that the Crucial M4 is faster than the Agility 3 and that the M4 was a good buy. Of course in perspective, I think that every SSD will be fast and that if I would putt an OS on the M4 that the M4 will start up the computer as fast as the Agility 3, so there will be little difference.
At this moment the G74Sx (with the agility) starts within the 30 seconds and I can fully work in Windows (for example: surfing on the internet, making a worddoc,...).
Starting up the pc, then opening the internet and loading google and then shutting down takes about 45 seconds, which is fast.
With the Crucial M4 it took 43 seconds, which is a minor difference.
Noiselevel
You don't hear a thing. When both SSD's were in my G74Sx (normally there is one HDD) I thought that my G74Sx didn't want to start up cause I didn't here a thing and that was a strange feeling, I never had before.
The only thing you might hear is sometimes a zoomy sound, but in order to hear that you will have to putt your ear on the SSD. (Which I did)
Heat
I putt my hand on the SSD for a couple of seconds (I could do longer) and it wasn't that hot, I think maybe 20 to 25 degrees Celcius. According to HDTune Pro the temperature of the M4 was 0 degrees Celsius, but for the Agility 3 it always said it was 128 degrees Celsius, which is of course wrong. And because of this high temp. there was constant a warning, which was very irritating. So I think that the M4 is the winner here because there is no warning.
General Conclusion
We can obviously conclude that the Crucial M4 is better than the Agility 3. And , as we all know, that buying a SSD is the best thing to do to upgrade your system. Your computer will load faster, and it is quieter, ideal for a HTPC or something else.
So if you don't have a SSD yet, then I clearly recommend to buy a Crucial M4 128Gb SSD.
Summary:
Pro's:
-Price
-Speed
-Quiet
-Cool
-Good packaging
Con's:
-not yet a negative thing about this SSD.
Any questions do not hesitate to ask them!
This review was translated from my review on another forum which is in Dutch. You can read that one here. Thank you for reading!
PS: My native language is not English so don't be to harsh on me about spelling errors and other things.
And sorry again for the big pictures, couldn't find them on my pc so I couldn't shrink them down cause I copied them from the Dutch review.
