Sharing the same design and interface as most of the other solid-state drives we've reviewed, the Crucial m4 stands out where it matters most: the price. It's still much more expensive than a traditional hard drive, but the m4 is the most affordable SSD on the market, especially its top-capacity 512GB version. In fact, its cost per gigabyte is low enough for us to look past its comparatively slow performance and the fact that it doesn't include a drive-bay converter to fit in a desktop computer.
The Good
The <b>Crucial m4</b> solid-state drive is competitively priced and offers fast performance. The drive supports SATA 6Gbps and works in all SATA-based storage applications.
The Bad
The Crucial m4's performance could be better comparatively, and it doesn't come with a drive-bay converter to work with desktop computers.
The Bottom Line
So far, the Crucial m4 offers the best value among SSDs. Though it's not the fastest, it's by far the most affordable among its peers.
If you are looking for an SSD to upgrade your system with, be it a laptop or desktop, at its street price of around $440 for 256GB (or $220 for 128GB and $800 for 512GB), the Crucial m4 will make a totally worthwhile investment.
Design and features