When we are going to buy a solid state drive, the first thing we take into account is the capacity, being the first key factor in our search. In second place, we could put the price, since the cost of GB / euro is always looked at with a magnifying glass, while in third place would be the performance. If we talk about the latter and at a similar price or capacity in a premium brand such as Crucial, is one of its SATA SSDs better or an external one?
You need an SSD and you don’t care if it’s internal in SATA format or external. A reality that more users experience every day precisely because mobility is gaining ground by leaps and bounds and laptops have made the definitive leap to SSDs as such. Therefore, and if we talk about Crucial, is it more worth buying an MX or an X6 with the same capacity?
Is it fair to compare a SATA SSD to an external one at Crucial?
Well, although you may think not at first, the reality is that yes, it is totally fair and we are aware that they are different segments of the market. The needs are changing, so let’s imagine a scenario where we buy a mid-range or even upper-middle-range laptop, where the SSD that it integrates is 512 GB and has no more internal expansion capacity, the typical current laptop.
But you need more storage capacity and you are away from home all day, which type of high-capacity SSD would you choose? SATA or external SSD in Crucial? Well, that is exactly where we are going to enter to put white on black and being more specific, we are going to opt for two different representative capacities to see pros and cons.
Crucial X6 2TB vs MX500 2TB
It doesn’t seem like a good comparison at first, but let us show you the data first. And it is that the 2 TB Crucial X6 boasts a speed of no less than 540 MB/s via USB 3.2 Gen 2, which is both in writing and reading, which makes it very complete and above all portable.
The MX500 2 TB has lower figures despite being a typical SATA SSD 560 MB/s in sequential read and no less than 510 MB/s in sequential write, which is surprising since even in size it is physically larger. So the X6 apart from being faster is clearly a better option if you need to plug it into any device and have an all-in-one, but what if we increased the capacity to 4TB on both models?
Crucial X6 4TB vs MX500 4TB
As we well know from NAND Flash technology, in many cases, greater capacity implies greater performance. This is the case of the X6 with 4 TB, since its speed is increased to 800 MB/s in reading and writing, while the 4 TB MX500 maintains the 560/510 MB/s of its smaller brother in capacity, no performance changes.
The choice here seems clear for the X6, but be careful because the factor that we haven’t talked about yet comes into play: the price. The comparison leads us in the 2 TB version to show the 228 euros of the X6 2 TB for the 188 euros of the MX500 at the same capacity, both prices without occasional offers.
On the other hand, the 4 TB X6 goes for around 500 euros , while the 4 TB MX500 can be found for about 400 euros , being a much more palpable difference than in the lower capacity versions.
Logically, this is left to the tastes or needs of each one and it seems that the options go through portability + capacity versus price and not so much whether to opt for a SATA vs. external SSD within the Crucial range.
