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Crucial M4 SSD review: Good deal

CNET editor Dong Ngo's take on Crucial's SATA 3 (6Gbps) M4 solid-state drive.

Dong Ngo SF Labs Manager, Editor / Reviews
CNET editor Dong Ngo has been involved with technology since 2000, starting with testing gadgets and writing code for CNET Labs' benchmarks. He now manages CNET San Francisco Labs, reviews 3D printers, networking/storage devices, and also writes about other topics from online security to new gadgets and how technology impacts the life of people around the world.
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Dong Ngo

The Crucial M4 solid sate drive.
The Crucial M4 solid-sate drive. Dong Ngo/CNET

Solid-state drives (SSDs) have always been sort of extreme. They are, for the most part, extremely fast and, unfortunately, even more extremely expensive. I wouldn't mind having one that's slightly less fast so that it could be more affordable, and the Crucial M4 just about fits that bill.

The drive performed well in our testing, though it was slower than others. Compared with traditional hard drives, however, it's still easily two or three times faster. In terms of pricing, it's the most affordable 2.5-inch SATA 3 SSD we've reviewed.

At around $440 for 256GB (or 210 for $128GB), the M4 has a cost per gigabyte of approximately $1.72, compared with the $2.26 of the OCZ Vertex 3. Its top 512GB version is even better, with just a $1.56 cost per gigabyte, compared with the $3.76 per gigabyte of the 480GB Vertex 3.

Now, obviously, this is still in no way cheap enough for most of us, but so far this is probably the most affordable SSD on the market that will still wow you with its performance. Ideally, I would love to see SSDs' prices go down to around a dollar per gigabyte. Hopefully, that's the near future.

In the meantime, if you want to find out exactly why it is such a good deal, check out the full review of the Crucial M4.