The Crucial T700 is the second solid-state drive (SSD) we’ve tested that uses the new PCI Express 5.0 bus, and it’s by far the fastest. It starts at $179.99 for 1TB and costs $369.99 for 2TB with a heatsink. Benchmarks show that the T700 is just as fast as it says it is, and it is slightly faster than the Gigabyte Aorus 10000 in raw speed. The Crucial T700 speeds up faster than any other PCIe 5.0 NVMe drive on the market, setting a new standard for consumer SSDs. At least for now, it is the best when it comes to sequential bandwidth and random IOPS.
Crucial T700: Description
For future gaming, its native DirectStorage firmware optimization is an advantage over almost all PCIe 4.0 SSDs. Crucial has its own effective solution that is different from the reference heatsink design. It also offers a cheaper, bare-drive version that makes it easier to install with a motherboard and custom M.2 heatsinks. All of this makes it a good choice for early adopters and people who like to try new things.
The T700 is part of a wave of PCIe 5.0 SSDs that are about to hit the consumer SSD market. So far, they all use the same Phison E26 controller and Micron flash. This puts pressure on the companies to find other ways to set their products apart, especially in how they cool. This could bring some new ideas to the market, but the way things are going in the industry right now has made people worried about the future of NAND, which could eventually make it harder for the buyer to get a lower price because of the competition.
Crucial T700: Pros and Cons
Pros
- Breathtaking performance
- Available with or without heatsink
- Up to 4TB in capacity
Cons
- Extremely pricey
- Requires the still rare PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot
Specification Table
Internal or External | Internal |
Internal Form Factor | M.2 Type-2280 |
NAND Type | TLC |
Controller Maker | Phison |
Rated Maximum Sequential Write | 11800 MBps |
Rated Maximum Sequential Read | 12400 MBps |
Official link | Visit Website |
Crucial T700: Design
The T700 is a solid-state drive with four lanes and an NVMe 2.0 protocol that runs on a PCI Express 5.0 bus. The standard M.2 Type-2280 “gumstick” format is used for this two-sided internal SSD. The drive has 232-layer 3D TLC NAND chips from Micron and a new Gen 5-optimized controller from Phison called the PS5026-E26.The T700 can hold 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB of data, and you can buy it with or without a heatsink. If you buy it without a heatsink, you’ll need to use the one that came with your motherboard or another heavy-duty way to cool it.
As mentioned, to fully support Crucial’s new flagship or a similar PCIe 5.0 SSD, you must buy one of the few boutique desktops that are compatible with Gen 5 or build your own with a brand-new CPU and motherboard. Yes, the T700 is compatible with PCI Express versions 4.0 and even 3.0, but it will revert to the maximum throughput of those older interfaces. This defeats the purpose (and cost) of buying a Gen 5 drive in the first place. Both the 2TB version we tested and the 4TB version are rated for sequential read speeds of up to 12,400MBps and sequential write speeds of up to 11,800MBps.
The 1TB drive is rated for sequential read speeds of up to 11,700MBps and sequential write speeds of up to 9,500MBps. At 10,000MBps read and 9,500MBps write, the 2TB Aorus 10000 has slower peak speeds than the Crucial drive. The T700 has a slightly lower durability rating than the Aorus 10000 for the same capacities (700TBW for the 1TB Aorus drive and 1,400TBW for the 2TB). This is measured by the total terabytes written (TBW) over the lifetime of the drive. That makes the Crucial about the same speed as most PCIe 4.0 speeders. The WD Black SN850X, for example, is rated at 600TBW for 1TB and 1,200TBW for 2TB.
Software and Accessories
The Crucial Storage Executive is an SSD toolbox made by Crucial. It has all the features you would expect. This includes information about the drive, its SMART attributes, firmware updates, secure erase/sanitize, overprovisioning, and other encryption-related features. For cloning and imaging, it’s best to use third-party software like CloneZilla.
You can buy the Crucial T700 with or without the passive heatsink that it comes with. The heatsink is carefully made so that it doesn’t need a fan. It does this by using a variety of materials and a shape that helps air flow. The backplate lets it work with motherboards that have flush thermal padding, which can be removed for this drive.
The version of the drive that is not heatsinked comes with a label that shouldn’t be taken off, and the drive shouldn’t be used if it isn’t cooled enough. For this, you could use the M.2 heatsink on your motherboard or your own aftermarket solution. You shouldn’t use the drive by itself in a PlayStation 5 or a laptop. On the top side of the drive, there is an SSD controller, one DRAM package, and two NAND packages. There are two more NAND packages on the back, making a total of four. A power management integrated circuit, or PMIC, with the name Phison is also there.
Final Words
Even though PCI Express 5.0 is still new, the Crucial T700 is the best Gen 5 SSD we’ve seen so far. It comes in the largest size (4TB) and can be bought with or without a heatsink. It also has built-in 256-bit AES encryption and is the fastest drive we’ve tested so far. We know that Gen 5 drives will be even faster, with read speeds of up to 14,000MBps (the theoretical maximum for the interface). But new tech that is bigger, better, or faster is always on the way.
FAQs
The Crucial P3 connects to the rest of the system through a PCI-Express 3.0 x4 port. Phison’s PS5021-E21T is the SSD controller, and there is no DRAM cache.
The P3 Plus is one of Crucial’s cheaper NVME SSDs because it doesn’t have DRAM. However, as a PCIe 4.0 drive, it’s also one of their fastest.