Micron M500DC Enterprise Class SSD Review

Name: Micron M500DC 480GB and 800GB Enterprise SSD Review
Brand: Micron

by Marco Chiappetta — Tuesday, April 22, 2014, 08:00 AM EDT

Performance Summary: Micron’s new M500DC series of enterprise-targeted solid state drives offered strong performance across the board. The 800GB and 480GB drives we tested offered competitive sequential and large file transfers, though they didn’t lead the pack in this area. Access times, however, were among the best we’ve seen and 4K random transfers, especially at higher queue depths, were excellent. The Micron M500DC series drives also offered consistent performance regardless of data type being transferred.

The Micron M500DC In 480GB and 800GB Flavors

Micron doesn’t disclose pricing on its enterprise-class drives, but we were told the Micron M500DC series will be "priced competitively versus drives targeting the same market segment" and that they’ll be available immediately. Assuming that holds true, the new Micron M500DC series should be excellent offering in solid state storage. The drives perform well across a variety of workloads, they offer enterprise-class data path protection, and leverage Micron’s XPERT features. They’re also outfitted with power loss protection, and are built with high endurance in mind. These new SSDs will also be offered in both 1.8” and 2.5” flavors. Sequential transfers weren’t quite as high as some competing drives in their category, but overall there aren't many compromises with this new breed of Micron drives. The M500DC series is yet another strong family of products to come out of Micron.

Find Micron SSDs at Amazon here, starting at $99.


High Endurance Top Notch NAND Speedy 4K Random Transfers Overall Performance	Pricing Not Disclosed Larger Sequential Transfers

Tags: SSD, Micron, MLC, SATA, Enterprise, 20nm, M500DC

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com