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This report examines the Crucial P5 NVMe SSD which has just been released in the past month or so. It is a bit of an odd duck as we are seeing PCIe 3 SSDs settle with the latest and greatest in PCIe 4.0 entering the market. Historically, Crucial has been known to sit in the weeds with their SSD releases, and perhaps they have such a great reputation for quality and reliability because of such. Their reputation is one of the best in the business. Having said that, the Crucial P5 NVMe is Micron/Crucial’s entry ‘top tier’ SSD into the consumer flash storage space.
The Crucial P5 is a M.2 2280 (80mm) form factor SSD that is PCIe 3.0 x4 (four lane) and uses the latest NVMe 1.3 protocol. It is available in capacities of 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB and we are testing the 1TB version today. Performance is variable with all capacities reaching 3400MB/s read throughput, however the 250GB version write throughput drops to 1400MB/s while the others sit at 3000MB/s. As well, the P5’s lifespan starts at 150 TBW (Terabytes Written) which doubles for every capacity jump.
Crucial documentation states that the P5 has dynamic write acceleration, full hardware-based protection, adaptive thermal protection, and a 5-year limited warranty. MSRP pricing is set at $62.99 (250GB), $86.99 (500GB), $179,99 (1TB) and $399.99 (2TB)
Taking a look at components, it is very encouraging to see that Crucial has developed and gone with an in-house NVMe controller, branded DM01B2; this is there first and it is an 8-channel NVME chip.
There are also two Micron 96-Layer TLC NAND chips, each being 512GB RAW size and a 1GB Micron LPDDR4 DRAM chip. In short, this SSD is all Micron/Crucial, something we have only ever seen from Samsung in the past.
As a Crucial/Micron SSD client, you are also entitled to two free software packages which are the Crucial Storage Executive (as shown above) and Acronis True Image migration software.
Checking Amazon pricing, we see that at least some of the capacities are available and very close to listed MSRP.
I installed my new Crucial P5 500GB NVMe M.2 SSD just a few days ago, and I’m delighted with it. I had a bit of a problem with recognition by the free Crucial specific version of the Acronis software, but the Crucial support guy was brilliant, talked me through everything while he identified the cause, then emailed me a software patch to get it working, from which point the rest was a doddle. The Crucial Storage Executive management software which is included to download for free from their website is also a significant pluspoint, and has the potential to enable the drive to exceed its stated speed by quite a margin. It wasn’t the cheapest option, though it wasn’t the dearest either, and I feel like I got good value for my money as it’s an excellent drive.
Crucial support is awesome. That made it for me in my choice. Thanks for posting.
Currently running MSI X99S SLI Plus, i7-5820k, Corsair LPX 4x4GB C14, Samsung 850EVO SATA3 120GB x2 in RAID 1, 2 x WD Scorpio Black 320GB HDD in RAID 1, Radeon RX580, NZXT 850W PSU, Arctic Freezer 11, NZXT case & some very quiet fans. Nice quick system built in 2015, I re-used 2 old WD drives but as they are now very old and (along with EVOs) full, I need more storage, and it needs to be faster too, or I’d consider changing to RAID 0 as I now have external NAS backup. I decided it was time to bite the bullet and buy a fast M.2 NVME PCIE Gen.3 x4 SSD.
So… I have a strict budget of £120 to get the best 1TB stick that I can – Samsung’s EVO Plus and EVO are great, but above my price range, so I narrowed it down to 3 good value fast performers. The Adata SX8200 Pro, Sabrent Rocket and Crucial P5. All are very well reviewed and on various benchmark sites all have been well received, but there’s not a lot of information out about reliability and compatibility with 5 year old motherboards, even though I did get a good one at the time:
Adata: Couldn’t find much info on quality of Customer Service support. Hardware-wise, robust smart package. Couple of years old now so firmware established. Supposed to have compatibility with my m/b.
Sabrent: Again I couldn’t find much info on how good Customer Support was. Hardware-wise, another robust smart package, a bit newer than Adata and I was surprised to find it used Micron 96L cells. Nice. Supposed to have compatibility with my m/b.
Crucial: Customer Support (from experience with them) is great, also Dami confirms this in the review on here, and their online compatibility tool guarantees it will work with my MSI X99S SLI Plus Big plus point. As is Acronis Truimage for free. Only downside I can see is because the controller uses bigger data blocks in the controller which may hinder access slightly, but their controller writes super quickly. I’m not a major gamer so fractions in loading speed are not madly important for me, but I do need it to shift the data in and out quickly once things are going.
The result… I chose the Crucial P5 1TB. Crucial themselves in the UK have got it on offer at about £110 on their own website at the moment which is cheaper than I could find the others.
Should come by Christmas so guess what I’m doing between Christmas and New Year!!!
Can’t wait…