Crucial was late to the "SSD Toolbox" software party, delivering an easy to use GUI software tool for SSD management years after many competitors. When finally released, Storage Executive still lacked one of the best software features many associate with Samsung's Magician software, DRAM cache.
Today, Crucial updated Storage Executive, adding a new feature called Momentum Cache. The features uses some of your system's DRAM to buffer random data writes. This increases the storage system's burst IO up to 10x, but it also has a long term impact on SSD endurance. Random data writes wear flash faster than sequential writes. With DRAM absorbing the random data, then pushing the data to the SSD as sequential data, the drive endurance increases significantly.
In addition to the new feature, Storage Executive also allows users to:
- Update to the latest firmware
- Monitor drive's temperature and health
- Reset the drive's encryption password
- Easily check how much storage has been used
The new Momentum Cache feature turns Storage Executive software into a must-run piece of software, rather than software users run just to update the firmware and forget.
"We want everyone to enjoy the benefits of solid state storage," said Jonathan Weech, storage marketing manager, Crucial. "Software that optimizes performance and keeps Crucial SSDs running efficiently is another example of how we make upgrading easy."
Crucial Storage Executive can be easily installed from www.crucial.com/se; is compatible with Microsoft Windows 7 and newer operating systems; and works with the Crucial M500, M550, MX100, MX200 and BX100 SSDs.
Like Samsung's RAPID software, the Crucial Storage Momentum only works on boot devices. Over the next month, we plan to test all of the SSD Toolbox software from all manufactures and write a review covering the features and usefulness.
Chris Ramseyer is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware, covering Storage. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Follow Tom's Hardware on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
