Crucial MX500 - 2.5" SATA SSD - 500GB

The Crucial MX500 is Crucial's mainstream SATA SSD and the drive to get if you want a DRAM-equipped 2.5" SATA drive at a reasonable price. It uses Micron 3D TLC NAND with a Silicon Motion controller and dedicated LPDDR4 DRAM cache, delivering 560/510 MB/s sequential read/write, near the ceiling of what SATA III allows.

DRAM Cache

The dedicated LPDDR4 DRAM cache is the key differentiator from budget drives like the BX500. It stores the flash translation layer mapping in fast memory, which keeps performance consistent under mixed and random workloads. The cache scales with capacity, from 512MB on the 250GB model up to 4GB on the 4TB variant.

Power Loss Immunity

The MX500 includes integrated power loss immunity, which uses onboard capacitors to flush in-flight data to NAND if power cuts unexpectedly. This is unusual at this price point and makes the MX500 a more reliable choice for systems without a UPS: NAS boxes, home servers, and desktops where sudden shutdowns happen.

Endurance and Warranty

Endurance ratings: 100 TBW (250GB), 180 TBW (500GB), 360 TBW (1TB), 700 TBW (2TB), 1,000 TBW (4TB). Five-year limited warranty. AES 256-bit hardware encryption is supported.

Best for: General-purpose boot and storage drives, NAS caching where SATA is the only option, and any build where you want DRAM-backed consistency without overspending.

Avoid if: Your system has an M.2 slot. A budget NVMe drive like the Crucial P310 will outperform any SATA SSD for similar money. For NAS-specific use, the WD Red SA500 has higher endurance and is designed for always-on operation.