Crucial E100 M.2 PCIe4x4 480GB SSD

Description

Gen 4 Speeds at a Budget Price — What That Actually Means

The E100 is positioned as a no-frills entry point to PCIe Gen 4 performance. Whether you’re replacing an HDD or SATA SSD, or building a budget-friendly system, the E100 boosts storage performance significantly — reaching read speeds up to 4,700MB/s, nearly nine times the sequential read ceiling of any SATA drive. For everyday workloads — booting Windows, loading applications, opening large project files — the real-world responsiveness advantage over SATA is immediately noticeable. Write performance at 2,500MB/s is a genuine step above most Gen 3 NVMe drives at this capacity, making the E100 a legitimate upgrade path for users coming from any previous storage tier.

Micron-Derived TLC NAND — The Pedigree Behind the Price

Crucial has installed SpecTek 232-layer 3D TLC NAND on the E100. SpecTek is Micron’s value-tier memory brand — the same fundamental NAND manufacturing process, with chips selected for the consumer storage market. Every E100 SSD is engineered and tested by Micron, meeting rigorous quality control standards for consistent reliability and sustained performance. TLC NAND stores three bits per cell, giving the E100 a meaningful endurance advantage over QLC alternatives at this price point.

SM2268XT — HMB-Assisted DRAM-less Design

The E100 uses the Silicon Motion SM2268XT controller with no dedicated DRAM cache, relying instead on SLC caching and Host Memory Buffer (HMB) support. HMB allocates a portion of system RAM for drive mapping table caching, delivering near-DRAM-cache performance on Windows 10 and later without the cost and power overhead of on-drive DRAM. SLC caching handles burst write acceleration for typical desktop and laptop workloads.

Backwards Compatible With PCIe Gen 3

The E100 is a PCIe Gen 4 drive and performs at its rated figures on Gen 4 platforms. It is fully backwards compatible with PCIe Gen 3 M.2 slots, where it will operate at approximately half the rated sequential read speed — still meaningfully faster than any SATA drive, and a valid upgrade even on older platforms.

Micron Quality Backed by Decades of Storage Engineering

Micron’s 45+ years of innovation are baked into every Crucial SSD, offering proven reliability and long-term stability. The E100 is not a white-label drive from an obscure controller vendor — it’s a Micron-designed and tested product, which carries meaningful assurance about the consistency of quality control across production runs.

ℹ️ PCIe Gen 4 slot recommended — full 4,700MB/s read performance requires a PCIe Gen 4 M.2 slot. The E100 will operate in Gen 3 slots at reduced speeds (~half the rated sequential figures). A worthwhile upgrade regardless of platform generation.

⚠️ TBW note — important — the 480GB E100 carries a 60TBW endurance rating — the lowest in our NVMe range at this capacity. For light daily use as an OS and applications drive, this is adequate, but it is not suited to sustained write-heavy workloads. Users who regularly write large amounts of data should consider a higher-TBW alternative.

ℹ️ NAND transition notice — Micron reserves the right to transition between NAND series during future production cycles. Internal components may vary between production batches while remaining within the advertised performance specification.

ℹ️ DRAM-less design — the E100 uses HMB rather than on-drive DRAM. HMB is active on Windows 10 and later with a compatible NVMe driver.

Key Highlights

• Capacity: 480GB
• Form Factor: M.2 2280
• Interface: PCIe Gen 4 x4 / NVMe (backwards compatible with Gen 3)
• Sequential Read/Write: Up to 4,700 / 2,500 MB/s
• NAND: SpecTek 232-layer 3D TLC (Micron-derived)
• Controller: Silicon Motion SM2268XT (DRAM-less)
• DRAM Cache: None (HMB + SLC caching used)
• TBW: 60TB
• Warranty: 3-year limited (TBW or period, whichever first)
• Part Number: CT480E100SSD8

 

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