THE M500 480GB

We've seen a large number of SSDs over the years and the 7mm thick aluminum body of the M500 is not something new (although we hardly ever see the SATA power and data connectors facing upwards).

The product model, serial number, barcode, connectivity type, available capacity, factory location, electrical requirements and installed firmware can all be seen on a large sticker placed at the rear.

As expected at the rear of the drive we find the usual SATA power and data connectors (luckily no pins are present which means that you can update the FW without any effort).

Opening the drive is very easy although that means voiding the 3 year warranty.

The M500 480GB comes with a grant total of 16 32GB Micron 20nm MLC NAND Flash Modules on both sides of the PCB.

The 88SS8197-BLD2 controller by Marvell features eight channels and wears a brand new custom firmware by Crucial/Micron (next to the controller we see the 512MB DDR3 cache).