Let me introduce myself. I am a huge computer nerd. I have been dismantling computers from the age of 16, back when I got my first AMD K6 PC. After a week my Windows 98SE packed in, and because I had no money to pay a professional to fix it, I did the unthinkable and started tinkering with it...

Incredible performance. I plugged this into my Ultrabook which now just flies along on Windows 8. The transfer speeds are incredible and the laptop boots up in under 10 seconds.

Bought this for my 2009 27" iMac, seemed a good replacement for the 1TB built in spinner. Had no trouble from it so far, speed improvement is fantastic. Tried putting an SSD into a MacBook previously and the MacBook wouldn't take it, so very happy that this worked first time.

Installation and setup were a breeze. This fast SSD makes editing photos a lot faster.

Easy To Install; Fast; Highly Compatible; Reliable

Crucial's new M500 SSD is built on an upgraded Marvell flash controller with new 20 nanometer 128 Gbit die MLC flash. This combination makes for a very affordable drive that also provides excellent performance in both synthetic and real-life performance testing.

Great pricing; 7.5 mm thin-Ultrabook compatible; Adapter for 9.5 mm drives included; Supports TRIM; 3-year warranty

Can't find anything wrong

Crucial M500 Solid State Drive Review Micron Technology updates their product family with the new Crucial M500 solid state drive, which arrives in capacities ranging from 120GB-960GB for 2.5" SATA, mSATA, and M.2/NGFF form factors.

Very fast 539/445 MBps read/write speed with ATTO; TCG Opal 2.0 security with 256-bit AES hardware encryption; Marvell 88SS9187 controller supports TRIM; NCQ; and Windows 8 drive telemetry; 3-Year Micron Technology product warranty support; 120/240/480/960GB high-speed SSD storage capacities; Device

Some manufacturers offer five-year warranty; High-end performance only available from 480/960GB versions; Expensive enthusiast-level product

The drive itself comes in a shiny 7mm silver enclosure, so you can jam it into an Ultrabook. A 9.5mm spacer is also included, but there is no 3.5-inch adapter in the box, nor is there any software in the box or online aside from a firmware updating tool, which is disappointing.

Fastest drive in its class by a hair; great value

Bare-bones bundle; 3 year warranty

The improvements of a solid state drive over a traditional hard drive, in our opinion, are nothing short of astounding. So scintillating is the difference that you'll wonder how you ever survived without one.

Sleek design; Excellent incompressible data results; Great value; Massive storage capacity

Not the fastest on the market

Behind Crucial stands Micron Technology, one of the world's largest semiconductor makers, which may go some way to explain the great value that Crucial SSD s have offered to date. See all Storage reviews .

The Crucial difference between this and the EVO?

Very good price; Good performance; Temperature control features; Good RAID 0 performance

Not as fast as the Samsung EVO