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The MX500 comes in a small, blue box. While there aren't a lot of technical details, the packaging provides basic information like the drive's capacity and a list of the box's contents. Inside, you'll find the SSD, a mounting spacer for use with traditional 9.5mm drive bays and a small guide with information on where you can get additional help and download the migration and cloning software.
Physical Features:
The MX500 looks very similar to Crucial's other 2.5-inch SSDs. The outer casing is made entirely out of metal and is covered by a grey, textured finish. The top of the drive also has a large, blue and gray sticker showing that it is part of Crucial's MX series.
While earlier versions of the MX500 used Silicon Motion's SM2258 controller, the 4TB model is equipped with the SM2259. Designed for use in cost-effective, small form factor and low power SSDs, this SATA 6Gb/s controller has four channels with up to eight chip enables (CE) per channel. The SM2259 also supports 3D NAND flash from all major suppliers and features Silicon Motion's proprietary NANDXtend error-correcting code (ECC) technology as well as Direct-to-TLC and SLC caching algorithms for optimal sustained performance.
For the 4TB version of the MX500, Crucial opted to use Micron's 176-layer (B47R) 3D TLC NAND flash. Looking at the picture above, you can see that there are two 1TB NAND flash packages on either side of the PCB. The drive also has a single 512MB Micron DDR3L memory chip that is used for caching.
