Crucials new SSD! The M500! Pre-order for stock end of week!

Andrew Moore · 4 Apr 2013 at 13:53

Hello

Crucial have just released their new SSD called the M500...

Its said to be VERY fast and as always we will make sure a review is up at some point in the not so distant future.

Take a look below at these awesome new drives!

Crucial M500 120GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT120M500SSD1) @ £95.99 inc VAT

Crucial M500 SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive

Transform your system’s performance.
New interfaces and multitasking demands require more from your system than perhaps ever before. From connecting instantly with friends and accessing apps, websites, and playlists online, to simultaneously streaming videos and downloading files, your computer is faced with an entirely new set of performance expectations that a hard drive struggles to meet. That’s where the Crucial ® M500 SSD comes in. With data transfer speeds that are radically faster than a hard drive, the Crucial M500 SSD isn’t just a storage upgrade - it’s a complete system transformation. From its nearly instantaneous boot times, powerful data transfer speeds, increased multitasking capability, and rock- solid reliability, the Crucial M500 delivers dramatic performance gains – all at an affordable price.

- Interface: SATA 6Gb/s
- Sustained Sequential Read: 500MB/s
- Sustained Sequential Write: 130MB/s
- Random Read (4k transfer): 62,000 IOPS
- Random Write (4k transfer): 35,000 IOPS
- Form Factor: 2.5"
- NAND: 20nm Micron MLC
- Warranty: 3 year

Only £95.99 inc VAT.

ORDER NOW

Crucial M500 240GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT240M500SSD1) @ £163.99 inc VAT

Crucial M500 SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive

Transform your system’s performance.
New interfaces and multitasking demands require more from your system than perhaps ever before. From connecting instantly with friends and accessing apps, websites, and playlists online, to simultaneously streaming videos and downloading files, your computer is faced with an entirely new set of performance expectations that a hard drive struggles to meet. That’s where the Crucial ® M500 SSD comes in. With data transfer speeds that are radically faster than a hard drive, the Crucial M500 SSD isn’t just a storage upgrade - it’s a complete system transformation. From its nearly instantaneous boot times, powerful data transfer speeds, increased multitasking capability, and rock- solid reliability, the Crucial M500 delivers dramatic performance gains – all at an affordable price.

- Interface: SATA 6Gb/s
- Sustained Sequential Read: 500MB/s
- Sustained Sequential Write: 250MB/s
- Random Read (4k transfer): 72,000 IOPS
- Random Write (4k transfer): 60,000 IOPS
- Form Factor: 2.5"
- NAND: 20nm Micron MLC
- Warranty: 3 year

Only £163.99 inc VAT.

ORDER NOW

Crucial M500 480GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT480M500SSD1) @ £319.99 inc VAT

Crucial M500 SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive

Transform your system’s performance.
New interfaces and multitasking demands require more from your system than perhaps ever before. From connecting instantly with friends and accessing apps, websites, and playlists online, to simultaneously streaming videos and downloading files, your computer is faced with an entirely new set of performance expectations that a hard drive struggles to meet. That’s where the Crucial ® M500 SSD comes in. With data transfer speeds that are radically faster than a hard drive, the Crucial M500 SSD isn’t just a storage upgrade - it’s a complete system transformation. From its nearly instantaneous boot times, powerful data transfer speeds, increased multitasking capability, and rock- solid reliability, the Crucial M500 delivers dramatic performance gains – all at an affordable price.

- Interface: SATA 6Gb/s
- Sustained Sequential Read: 500MB/s
- Sustained Sequential Write: 400MB/s
- Random Read (4k transfer): 80,000 IOPS
- Random Write (4k transfer): 80,000 IOPS
- Form Factor: 2.5"
- NAND: 20nm Micron MLC
- Warranty: 3 year

Only £319.99 inc VAT.

ORDER NOW

Crucial M500 960GB SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - (CT960M500SSD1) @ £499.99 inc VAT

Crucial M500 SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive

Transform your system’s performance.
New interfaces and multitasking demands require more from your system than perhaps ever before. From connecting instantly with friends and accessing apps, websites, and playlists online, to simultaneously streaming videos and downloading files, your computer is faced with an entirely new set of performance expectations that a hard drive struggles to meet. That’s where the Crucial ® M500 SSD comes in. With data transfer speeds that are radically faster than a hard drive, the Crucial M500 SSD isn’t just a storage upgrade - it’s a complete system transformation. From its nearly instantaneous boot times, powerful data transfer speeds, increased multitasking capability, and rock- solid reliability, the Crucial M500 delivers dramatic performance gains – all at an affordable price.

- Interface: SATA 6Gb/s
- Sustained Sequential Read: 500MB/s
- Sustained Sequential Write: 400MB/s
- Random Read (4k transfer): 80,000 IOPS
- Random Write (4k transfer): 80,000 IOPS
- Form Factor: 2.5"
- NAND: 20nm Micron MLC
- Warranty: 3 year

Only £499.99 inc VAT.

ORDER NOW

Andrew Moore · 4 Apr 2013 at 14:19

No idea on performance as yet other than that they are faster than the M4.

From what i understand its new controller and NAND so if these drives are to be as popular as the M4 once was then lets hope Crucial have got it right.

Once I have benchmarks I will post a thread up with them

Andrew Moore · 4 Apr 2013 at 15:17

Its not quite 1TB but near as dammit!

Its about time a decent SSD in an 2.5" form factor was released that although expensive is more affordable.

Andrew Moore · 5 Apr 2013 at 11:07

mSATA will be stocked yes! The M4 has been a difficult unit to keep in stock. Hopefully this will be much better

Andrew Moore · 8 Apr 2013 at 08:45

IN RESPONSE TO ALL THE ABOVE COMPLAINING ABOUT PRICE

Firstly, £450 at time of dollar rate would work out at around £480 based on when these were purchased and ordered in. If you check our competition its not just OcUK that has priced it as it is. Infact at time of publishing on our site we were the lower price in the UK.

If you look at the American prices that do not include VAT or TAX (as this is tax by state) you will notice that adding the same as VAT (20%) it brings you in at £500+

Theres no "robbing" or extra cashing in here. Just another case of forum members seeing a price and assuming its gospel which if I am honest is exactly what I did which left me a little disappointed as I was told it was going to be "sub £500"

As for a resller having it for £347. Show me where it is and I will buy all their stock. Thats significantly below cost and cost doesnt even include VAT and by significantly we alre talking 25% less than ours or ours are 33% more, which ever way you look at it someone whos selling those has messed up.

However as a good will gesture, price will be reduced to £499.99inc which as far as i can see is the lowest price in the UK now that is actually "correct" and from a reseller who will have stock and not a reseller who has a phantom product.

Andrew Moore · 8 Apr 2013 at 10:39

Locky said:
No it doesn't

Are we forgetting the small amounts of margin that a disti has to make when selling into an etailer?

Purchased originally on a 1.498 rate, date of price quoted at a rate of around 1.56.

This is as you stated app $32 which is around £20 making it £470.

960GB SSD between these dates has gone up based on the cost of NAND by around $28 which is £18ish

£20 + £18 is £38...

So if we really wanted to be pedantic that would make them £488.

Andrew Moore said:
snip .. £480 snip

Looks like I under sold that there actually doesnt it. :rolleyes:

Andrew Moore · 8 Apr 2013 at 10:42

CaptainUnlikely said:
I see what you did there...

I was just hoping that someone in the know (Andrew Moore) might be able to give a reason to buy the Crucial drives over the Plextor, when on paper the Plextor seems better. Like how, for example, all Sandforce drives have inflated benchmark scores using compressible data, and in the real world their performance is much lower - or, maybe the Crucial drives use better NAND.
I'm genuinely not putting the new Crucial drives down, I'm a big fan of their drives and own an M4 myself, I'm just trying to gather information on how they compare to something that, on paper, seems to use similar hardware yet perform better and offers a better warranty.

I will hopefully be providing one as you are correct to say the Plextor M5s and M5 pro are indeed faster on paper. If we cast back until August 2011, Crucial updated the M4 and brought the speeds up to 550/450 on some drives, up from 400/340 as it was before.

Heres hoping!

Samsuns 840 series on paper is slower than the 830 series but in reality its faster. The same can be said of the m500 over the m4 but until we have some benchies i cannot as yet provethat to you. In time I will

Andrew Moore · 8 Apr 2013 at 10:58

Locky said:
Doesn't matter how you dress it up over 10 quid, you still price gouged the crap out of it

The very fact you priced dropped it to £499 after reading this thread shows this.

We are making sub standard margin now so it doesnt show it. A gesture of good will is a gesture of good will something that if you continue to argue about on a forum that is paid for by OcUK so that members such as yourself can use will ultimately result in the good will gestures being withdrawn.

Andrew Moore · 8 Apr 2013 at 11:11

Locky said:
No, I go from facts and what is presented in front of me. I know full well how it all works, but matter of fact remains regardless how you have set your rates doesn't account for the massive difference in price.

Not going to argue over it now, the price has been amended to a more realistic value and the customer has won - so good work.

Are you going to complain to every other etailer who is priced above us? Being argumentative doesnt get you anywhere. Occasionally it may work but most of the time I read comments with a negative attitude that mayy be a little argumentative and I instantly ignore the issue so the customer ultimately loses out. There are ways of getting a point across in a positive manner which keeps everyone happy so please help towards achieving this as we are all more than happy to help.

Andrew Moore · 8 Apr 2013 at 11:36

Locky said:
If you knew me, you know full well that I pick on other retailers, much, much more than ocuk - don't forget I like ocuk

Look I'm not trying to be a **** or anything and I glad we can have this debate with ocuk about issues and have a transparent discussion - sets you apart.

Don't forget it wasn't me that dug up the press release pricing. I mealy worked out the difference with the tools at hand and pulled you up on it, you acted by doing a price drop (good work) and customer wins.

I know you like OcUK and I know this was once your stomping ground for work and I know that your not being an arse for the sake of it as what you have said is pretty much valid on all levels bar the odd factors you had missed out but thats to be expected given the face value of the information you have at hand.

I agree, customer wins which is always a nice thing to see as a happy customer buys again but $ rate iwasnt the only factor that caused a bump thats all. NAND is on the way up which may mean that the price may have to increase in a couple of weeks as theres only so much of a price inflation we can swallow before it becomes uneconomical for us as a company (factor in returns, warehouse staffing, storage costs from overheads of the building) now in the grand scheme of things the cost is minimal but it all adds up and all it takes is one unit to come back as faulty in say 50units to wipe out any profit that had been made.

A price bump from a manufacturer of 10% usually equates to a 11.2% price increase as margin made by the supplier remains at a constant 2% which means that 0.2% is added before the stock even arrives and the set margin we make is technically 10% higher (per percentage of margin due to a price increase) again as a minimum too. NAND prices are hard to work out but all in all where we was was about right based on the factors mentioned so where we are now leaves us little if not no room to promote in the future.

Andrew Moore · 9 Apr 2013 at 09:43

Test unit will be with us shortly! Heres hoping for some nice performance figures but more importantly, here is hoping for some nice real world performance figures so we can see just how fast this drive really is

Andrew Moore · 9 Apr 2013 at 11:09

Jono8 said:
Damn, i thought the 240GB drives would be more like £100 for these and the 480GB ~£200 . But instead they are quite a bit more expensive than M4's / 840's e.t.c : /

The only kinda of decently priced on is the 960GB and im not spending £450 on a hard drive.

This is unfortunately what happens when the $ rate becomes unfavorable and the price of NAND increases.

RAM has been hit the hardest, as low as £25 for an 8GB kit 6 months ago... its double that if not more now

Andrew Moore · 9 Apr 2013 at 11:12

Tute said:
Is there an ETA for availability on the mSATA variants, also are they likely to be similar in pricing to the full sized drives?

I have no information on either at the moment however as soon as I do there will be a new thread

Andrew Moore · 11 Apr 2013 at 10:01

Locky said:
If what Andrew Moors says is true, than ocuk has been shafted, as direct they're cheaper on 480 and 960.

I don't think I will buy another crucial drive now, not when I got shafted by them on the 4k read performance degrading to nothing (huge thread on their forums) and they just ignored everyone.

Theres just enough movement to hit the 480GB which will be amended when stock frees up but as for the 960GB, very disappointed in Crucial for doing that. Even our competitors at best are the same as us or within a few pence.

Andrew Moore · 11 Apr 2013 at 10:16

KIA said:
Are you sure?

One of your competitors is only £6.55 more expensive (960GB model) than Crucial direct.

We have 5 competitors, the rest are just smaller and use EDI mostly. If they dont hold stock they are not competition and if they do and they havent been looked at then they cant pose much of a threat to us.

Anyone can set up a site and a feed taking a couple of quid profit off of cost to just shift boxes out of someone elses warehouse which I can see a few have done.

Checking these 5 competitors and a number of smaller companies shows £499.99 as the lowest price.

Andrew Moore · 16 Apr 2013 at 15:41

960GB in stock!! And sold a few too, cant be bad!

Not as slow as many made it out to be either.. thanks Locky!