Crucial Releases New (20% Faster) m4 SSD Firmware
Crucial's new firmware update provides a "free" performance increase for its m4 Series.
Crucial has issued a firmware update for its m4 series of SSDs and promises a range of performance improvements beyond your normal firmware fixes. The company is claiming up to a 20 percent performance increase in sequential read speeds. It is like "having your cake and eating it too" - You get those little firmware bugs fixed and you get a nice performance increase for free.
SSDs rely heavily on their firmware for their performance, along with controller-related features such as Garbage Collection, Wear-leveling, to name a couple. Other improvements in the firmware upgrade includes; increased throughput performance, lower write latency, improved chipset compatibility, improvement for cold boot failures, and faster boot up time. The firmware comes through an ISO image that is installed through a CD or DVD. (This is one area I would've like to see Crucial take a page from OCZ and provide its firmware updates from a "Crucial Toolbox".)
Crucial's Official Release Notes:
“Release Date: 08/25/2011
Change Log:
- Changes made in version 0002 (m4 can be updated to revision 0009 directly from either revision 0001 or 0002)
- Improved throughput performance.
- Increase in PCMark Vantage benchmark score, resulting in improved user experience in most operating systems.
- Improved write latency for better performance under heavy write workloads.
- Faster boot up times.
- Improved compatibility with latest chipsets.
- Compensation for SATA speed negotiation issues between some SATA-II chipsets and the SATA-III device.
- Improvement for intermittent failures in cold boot up related to some specific host systems.”
Firmware Download: Crucial
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sseyler If these claims are even 50% true, then great! It would put even more pressure on OCZ Vertex 3 drives.Reply -
eklipz330 sseylerIf these claims are even 50% true, then great! It would put even more pressure on OCZ Vertex 3 drives.i don't wanna sound rude, but OCZ reliability has plummeted, that's why they've become cheaper. look at the newegg reviews, there are many complaints of their SSD's failing after 7 or so months. that doesn;t so too great. crucial on the other hand seems to be rolling out with great products... i might pick up the 64gb m4 for OS =]Reply -
heroictofu Yeah, based on all the Sandforce errors I've been hearing about, Crucial's M4 looks mighty fine right about now. And with a potential 20% increase in performance, that puts it pretty darn close, if not surpassing some of the Sandforce controllers out there.Reply -
chick0n mute20If this was released by apple they would have charged 40$Reply
Why not? Anything outa Apple's labs/factory comes with free magic dust.
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AbdullahG Well that's good news. Might pick up a Crucial SDD for a new build of mine (just need to save up a little more).Reply -
roscolo Looks like the best just got a little better. Glad I picked one of these up when Newegg had 'em on sale. I've only just now installed the 128GB m4, so I look forward to giving the new firmware a go!Reply -
wintermint This is what SSD manufacturers should be focusing on: providing us with FREE firmware updates that will IMPROVE our PERFORMANCE instead of OFFERING us more EXPENSIVE products that holds the same storage amount :]Reply -
ikyung Been using Crucial c300 for about a year now. Haven't failed, and the firmwares fixed any bugs or problems.Reply -
fyend Why is free in quotes in the title since it is actually free and all, makes one think there is some catch or hidden charge.Reply
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By Mark Tyson