General

Brand	Micron
Model	M500DC
Capacity	240GB
Usage Class	Enterprise

Interface

Host Interface	SATA 6Gb/s
Total Interface Bandwidth	6 Gb/s

Physical Dimension

Form Factor	2.5" 7mm

Flash & Endurance

NAND Flash	20nm MLC
Drive Writes Per Day	2
Total Bytes Written	870 TBW

Performance

Sequential Read	425 MB/s
Sequential Write	375 MB/s
Random Read IOPS	63000
Random Write IOPS	35000
Average Latency	50 μs

Reliability

Mean Time Between Failures	2 Million Hours
Uncorrectable Bit Error Rate	1.0×10⁻¹⁷
Power Loss Protection	Yes

Engineer's Note

The MTFDDAK240MBB-1AE1ZA (M500DC) is a strong fit for read-intensive virtualization boot volumes, CDN edge caching, and web serving tiers that need enterprise endurance without moving to higher-cost SAS. Its 20nm MLC NAND, 2 DWPD / 870 TBW durability, and balanced 425/375 MB/s with 63K/35K IOPS performance give it a clear advantage over typical client-grade SATA SSDs in sustained mixed-workload stability and write tolerance.

Endurance & Reliability

With an endurance rating of 870 TBW and 2 DWPD, the MTFDDAK240MBB-1AE1ZA is designed to handle sustained write activity well beyond typical client or light server workloads. In practical terms, for common OS, boot, logging, and application-drive use cases, this level of endurance supports many years of stable operation and can serve confidently as a system drive over a long deployment cycle. Its enterprise-focused reliability features further reduce operational risk: power-loss protection (PLP) helps preserve in-flight data and metadata during unexpected power interruptions, improving data integrity and minimizing the chance of corruption. An UBER of 1.0E-16 indicates a very low unrecoverable bit error rate, which is important for maintaining read reliability in business-critical environments and gives procurement teams added confidence in long-term dependable use.

Technical Specs & Insights

1. The SATA interface provides broad drop-in compatibility for legacy enterprise servers and storage arrays, enabling cost-effective upgrades without changing the existing backplane or controller architecture.
2. Its sustained sequential read performance helps accelerate boot storms, image distribution, and large-file retrieval in read-focused enterprise workloads.
3. Strong random read capability improves responsiveness for virtualized environments, metadata-heavy applications, and high-concurrency database access patterns.
4. The endurance profile supports consistent daily full-drive rewrites over years of operation, making it well suited for mixed-use business applications with steady write pressure.
5. Built on enterprise-grade MLC NAND and backed by very low typical latency, the drive delivers a balanced combination of predictable QoS, solid write durability, and fast transaction handling in always-on systems.

Capacity Sweet

Within this Micron enterprise SSD family, the nearest lower capacity reference is 120GB, while the next higher capacity is 480GB. The 240GB model sits at the sweet spot of the lineup: compared with 120GB, it offers much better headroom for OS growth, logging, patching, and application overhead, reducing the risk of early capacity pressure. Compared with 480GB, it preserves essentially the same enterprise-class sequential and random performance while delivering a more efficient cost-per-deployment balance. It is best suited for small to mid-size virtualization clusters, such as hosting boot volumes for about 35 to 50 lightweight virtual machines.

FAQ