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Crucial M4 256GB SSD Review (C400)

For testing, the drives are all wiped and reset to factory settings by HDDerase V4. We try to use free programs and some real world testing so you can compare our findings against your own system.

This is a good way to measure potential upgrade benefits.

CPU: Intel Core i7 2600k
Cooler: Thermaltake Frio OCK
Motherboard: Asus P8P67 Deluxe
Memory: ADATA DDR3 2000mhz 9-11-9-24
PSU: ADATA 1200W
Graphics: Sapphire HD6950 Flex Edition
Chassis: Thermaltake Level 10 GT
Operating System: Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate
Monitor: Dell U2410

Other Drives for comparisons:
Corsair Force 3 120GB
OCZ Vertex 3 240GB
OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS 240GB
ADATA S511 240GB
Intel 510 120GB
Corsair F100 100GB
OCZ Vertex 2 120GB
Crucial Real SSD C300 64GB
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1TB

Software:
Atto Disk Benchmark
HD Tach
CrystalMark
AS-SSD Benchmark
IOMeter
PCMark Vantage
PCMark 7
SiSoft Sandra
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call Of Pripyat

All our results were achieved by running each test five times with every configuration this ensures that any glitches are removed from the results. Trim is confirmed as running by typing fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify into the command line. A response of disabledeletenotify =0 confirms TRIM is active.

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10 comments

  1. Im curious, and no one has ever explained this really well, when would compressible and incompressible data make a difference, isnt ‘windows’ code all compressible data regardless?

  2. Sandforce is really in a league of its own right now.

  3. I always liked crucial, their website is great too which has helped my family in the past when they are looking for upgrades. the scanning capability.

  4. Rumors right now that Sandforce 2281 has some quality control issues, until this is cleared up this might be a better bet. always had a problem with sandforce quality control. Crucial will never have that problem.

  5. Intel and Crucial just cant compete with SF. they are miles ahead.

  6. I agree, a small price drop would Be a good move for crucial

  7. Sandforce is great but this is a good option, just not quite as quick, most people wouldnt notice

  8. Chances are you are using the Intel RST 10.1 drivers (and/or earlier versions). It is buggy when used in conjunction with the M4 and particular firmware because of a buggy Link Power Management setting that is enabled by default by Intel. This is most apparent by the no-score for gaming in Vantage. This Intel driver issue “will” also adversely affect other M4 benchmark scores, even when it’s not readily apparent.

    There are four ways to fix it that I’m aware of:
    1.(this one worked for me in lab troubleshooting before I knew it was a LPM driver issue) Go into device manager and change to MSAHCI driver, reboot, and then change back to Intel RST driver and reboot again.
    2. Upgrade to latest rev firmware
    3. Manually edit LPM registry lines. You’ll have to look up the exact registry enries as I can’t remember them off hand.
    4. Use Intel RST 10.5+ driver versions (available from numerous sources, but probably not WHQL certified yet).

  9. >While the M4 256GB is clearly ahead of the previous generation C300 drives, it is fair
    >to say that it has a tough time competing against the latest Sandforce 2281 powered
    >solid state drives.

    This is late in the game, but I fail to see the “clearly ahead” of the C300 proof when you are comparing a 256G C4 to a 64G C300… the smaller drives are significantly slower than the larger ones, so this is truly NOT a fair comparison. I hope you are comparing apples to apples in current reviews, but I arrived here mainly hoping to find a comparison of the C300 to the newer M4.
    Thanks,

  10. Its a very old review Jack. there are much more indepth comparisons now in the SSD reviews.