Pros & Cons
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- Emphasis on data protection instead of maximum speed.
- Affordable per-gigabyte pricing for SATA M.2.
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- Shortish warranty, Mid-pack performance.
Crucial MX200 M.2 (250GB) Specs
| Capacity (Tested) | 250 |
The M.2 form factor makes solid-state drives (SSD) more compact, and allows PC manufacturers to put multiple drives in small-form-factor (SFF) desktops and thin-and-light laptops. Crucial's MX200 M.2 SSD ($120) gives you the option of adding an extra drive to your home-built desktop or an upgrade to your laptop. Thanks to its strong data protection and decent performance, its a solid choice for a midrange M.2 SSD.
The MX200 M.2( at Amazon) comes in 250GB and 500GB capacities, which is a good upgrade to the smaller 64GB or 128GB SSD in your laptop. The M.2 SATA form factor doesn't offer any speed improvements over traditional 2.5-inch SATA SSDs, but they are physically smaller (under an inch wide and just over 2 inches long). If your PC's motherboard has a M.2 slot, you can install the MX200 M.2 to supplement the traditional spinning hard drive already in the system.
The SSD comes with additional features that differentiate it from other drives, like a redundant array of independent NAND (RAIN), power loss protection, adaptive thermal protection, and hardware-based 256-bit AES encryption. These features help ensure that your data stays put on the drive, even under stressful use. Crucial includes its Storage Executive software to monitor usage and thermal stress. The MX200 M.2 has a 3-year warranty, which is shorter than the five years that some rivals include.
Performance is middle of the road for SSDs, which is to say it's still going to be faster than the spinning hard drive in your laptop or desktop. It ran performance tests at SATA speeds, rather than the PCIe speeds of performance-oriented SSDs.
Overall, the Crucial MX200 M.2 is a solid choice among the recent crop of moderately priced SSDs. For more details, check out the Crucial MX200 M.2 (250GB) review on our sister site, Computer Shopper.
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