Back in the summer of 2016, Crucial released the successor to its popular MX200 drive. The MX300 left behind the 16-nm planar MLC we knew and loved in its predecessors for IMFT's then-newfangled 3D TLC NAND. Despite our initial misgivings concerning the move from MLC to TLC, the MX300's 3D chops were enough to ensure that its speeds kept up with the older drive. Just a couple of months ago, Crucial took the wraps off of the next drive in the MX line, the MX500. 

As you can see, little has changed on the exterior. But it's what's on the inside that counts. Like the MX300, the MX500 is built on IMFT's 3D TLC NAND, but this time it's stacked 64 layers high instead of a mere 32. And a Silicon Motion chip has displaced the Marvell controller which ran the show before. More on that in a second. The MX500 is available in 250-GB, 500-GB, 1-TB, and 2-TB capacities. We've got the 500-GB and 1-TB models on hand to play with.