Is there only 1 version of a Crucial M4

BaNksY IV · 2 Feb 2012 at 11:10

Hey people,

Im just on my last part to order which is a SSD.

Going from the reviews/tests that OCUK have done ive decided on the Crucial M4.

This Morning I got a Email With a offer on a 64GB Crucial M4 for a great price.

When I read the information the read and write speeds are slower than stated elsewhere, is this only a firmware update that is needed to bring it up to speed or is there a older model version to avoid?

Many thanks

PhillyDee · 2 Feb 2012 at 11:13

Is it not the size of the drive as well? Ive found different capacities can have different speeds.

cmndr_andi · 2 Feb 2012 at 11:16

Yes, with the newer firmware (0009 and later) there is a decent performance boost, so that could account for the difference.

Also bear in mind that the performance of the 64GB version is quite a bit slower than the 128GB version (which itself is slower than the 256GB version) - this is due to the lower capacity drives having a smaller number of chips running in parallel.

You should also be aware that there is a bug with the earlier firmwares (0009 and earlier) where the drives shut down every hour once ~5200 hours (7 months) of total use are clocked up. To fix/prevent this issue you need to ensure the drive is running the latest 0309 firmware which fixes this problem.

BaNksY IV · 2 Feb 2012 at 11:24

Cool, yeah Ive just been reading about updating the firmware, seems quite daunting to a me (semi noob) but i assume its easy enough following the guide on the Crucial website.

Im happy with just a 64GB Drive as it will only be for Windows, BF3 Maybe Skyrim and Photoshop CS3 depending on Space left over.

Will also allow me to save £70 to put towards a GPU.

cmndr_andi · 2 Feb 2012 at 11:35

With any luck it will come shipped with the latest firmware (0309). You can check which one it is running by running the freeware version of SSD life.

If you do need to update the firmware then the hardest part is ensuring your motherboard's BIOS is set so it will boot from the CD/DVD and ensuring the HDD controller is set to IDE or AHCI (not RAID) mode. Also, make sure the drive is plugged into one of the first 4 SATA ports (you can change it back over after updating the firmware, if needed).

May I ask what make and model number motherboard you are using?

BaNksY IV · 2 Feb 2012 at 12:11

I have sitting next to me a Asus P8 Z68-V Gen3

It will be a complete new build, so i will only plug the ssd in when it arrives and install windows then I can check what firmware it is running.

Adster3000 · 2 Feb 2012 at 17:17

cmndr_andi said:
With any luck it will come shipped with the latest firmware (0309). You can check which one it is running by running the freeware version of SSD life.

If you do need to update the firmware then the hardest part is ensuring your motherboard's BIOS is set so it will boot from the CD/DVD and ensuring the HDD controller is set to IDE or AHCI (not RAID) mode. Also, make sure the drive is plugged into one of the first 4 SATA ports (you can change it back over after updating the firmware, if needed).

May I ask what make and model number motherboard you are using?

Would just like to mention that my 128GB M4 that I received on Tuesday actually has the firmware that is shipped with it printed on the drive itself.
Mine came with version 0009 but I have no idea how old the stock was, so I can't tell if brand new stock has the latest firmware yet.