Crucial T700 Gen5 & T500 Gen4 NVMe SSDs Review – Fastest Gen5 (Yet!) & High-End Gen4

Earlier this year, we got our first taste of the latest PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSDs, offering up to 10,000 MB/s read and write capabilities. These drives were first but we knew that faster drives would be entering the market sooner or later as the technology matured. Furthermore, Gen5 platforms are more accessible to a wider range of audiences with the introduction of mainstream AMD & Intel motherboards.

But while Gen5 NVMe SSDs keep pushing the envelope of what storage products can achieve, the market for Gen4 drives is still very vivid with lots of competition and some really good options out for everyone. Crucial already has one of the fastest SSD solutions out at the moment in the form of its T700 Pro series, peaking out at over 12 GB/s speeds and now, the company is also introducing a brand new T500 Pro lineup which delivers top-notch Gen4 capabilities.

For today's review, we will be taking a look at both, Crucial's T700 PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSDs powered by the Phison E26 controller & T500 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs powered by the Phison E25 controller.

The Crucial T700 Gen5 SSD is part of the new Pro series lineup. The Crucial T700 Gen5 SSDs are based on the NVMe SSD form factor and feature the latest Micron 232-layer TLC NAND flash which offers larger capacities of up to 4 TB, twice the performance of Gen4 drives, & full compliance with Microsoft's DirectStorage API. The Crucial T700 SSDs are based on the high-end Phison E26 SSD controller which is in use by some of the fastest Gen5 drives at the moment.

As for the specs, the Crucial T700 Gen5 NVMe SSDs will come with the standard NVMe 2.0 PCIe Gen 5 x4 interface in the M.2 2280 form factor. It will feature 1 TB, 2 TB, and up to 4 TB capacities with a rated speed of 12.4 GB/s (Sequential Read) and 11.8 GB/s (Sequential Write). The majority of Gen 5 drives available right now peak out at 10 GB/s Read and 9.5 GB/s Write speeds. Furthermore, these T700 Gen5 SSDs will be available in a Non-heatsink and Heatsink option but will drop the active-fan cooler which means that you don't have to worry about extra noise in your PC when running these.

Note - The 1 TB model that we tested had a peak sequential read speed of 11,700 & a write speed of 9,500 MB/s. The Random Reads and Writes IOPS were rated at 1350K/1400K IOPS & endurance was rated at 600 TBW.

Crucial goes further into the heatsink design of the T700 Gen5 NVMe SSDs which feature a double-sided PCB with targeted thermal materials, a nickel-plated copper bottom plate, an aluminum plate & a sleek design to maximize airflow. The heatsink is quite chunky and measures 20.5mm tall. The prices are as follows:

The Crucial T500 Gen5 SSD is also part of the new Pro series lineup. The Crucial T500 Gen4 SSDs are based on the NVMe SSD form factor and feature the latest Micron 232-layer 3D TLC NAND flash which offers larger capacities of up to 4 TB, twice the performance of Gen3 drives, & full compliance with Microsoft's DirectStorage API with Phison's I/O+ technology. The Crucial T500 SSDs are based on the high-end Phison PS5025-E25 SSD controller which peaks out the Gen4 speeds beyond 7 GB/s.

As for the specs, the Crucial T500 Gen4 NVMe SSDs will come with the standard NVMe 2.0 PCIe Gen 5 x4 interface in the M.2 2280 form factor. It will feature 1 TB, 2 TB, and up to 4 TB capacities with a rated speed of 7.4 GB/s (Sequential Read) and 7.0 GB/s (Sequential Write). The Phison E25 'PS5025-E25' SSD controller is designed to offer external DRAM and a maximum transfer speed of up to 7.2 GB/s+. That's a 200 MB/s increase over the existing Phison E18 controllers & also features thermal & power management updates.

Note - The 2 TB model that we tested had a peak sequential read speed of 7,400 & a write speed of 7,000 MB/s. The Random Reads and Writes IOPS were rated at 1180K/1440K IOPS & endurance was rated at 1200 TBW.

The SSD comes in both heatsink and heatsink-less variants with the heatsink being a super-slim design with a thickness of 9.7mm. That's about as much as three T500 SSDs stacked on top of each other. The heatsink SKUs are also fully compatible with the PlayStation 5 console. The prices are as follows:

All three PRO Series SSDs from Crucial, the T700 & T500, come in a fairly standard and small package with a blue and white color scheme. The labels do a great job at telling what SSD you are getting since the capacities, speeds and warranty are clearly mentioned along with a picture of the device itself which makes sure you know if you are getting the heatsink and the non-heatsink SSD.

The Crucial PRO SSD series box includes a warranty booklet and the SSD itself. All drives are held within a plastic shell container.

Out of the package, all Crucial Pro series SSDs come in the standard M.2 2280 form factor and feature a black PCB which is great since some mainstream drives come with blue-colored PCBs.

The front of the heatsink drives comes with the Crucial and model label while the heatsink-les variant has the same labels mentioned over a sticker.

In terms of sizes, the drives measure:

The Crucial T500 features the Phison E25 Gen4 SSD controller while the Crucial T700 SSDs feature the Phison E26 Gen5 SSD controller.

Our test platform for this review consisted of an Intel Core i9-13900K processor which ran at stock clocks on the MSI Z790 ACE motherboard. The platform was coupled with 32 GB of DDR5 memory from G.Skill (Trident Z5/ 16 GB x 2) and the MSI MEG Ai1300P PSU. For graphics, I used the MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X. This rounds up as a high-end platform for tests with modern-day SSDs. The MSI Z790 ACE specifically houses a single Gen 5.0 x4 NVMe slot that sources its lanes from the Raptor Lake CPU.

First up, we have the official performance stats for these drives as listed by their manufacturers. You can compare these stats with the rest of the drives I tested in the following chart:

AS SSD Benchmark download is a Windows 10 utility software program that tests the performance of solid-state drives. With its help, you can find out the speed of all installed SSDs and take care of any issues that the tests may reveal. The free app performs three separate tests to provide you with conclusive evidence of your driver's general behavior while it copies, reads, and writes data.  The app determines the access time of an SSD, along with its speed and performance capabilities

As the industry’s leading provider of high-performance storage & network connectivity products, ATTO has created a widely-accepted Disk Benchmark freeware software to help measure storage system performance. As one of the top tools utilized in the industry, Disk Benchmark identifies performance in hard drives, solid-state drives, RAID arrays as well as the host connection to attached storage. Top drive manufacturers, like Hitachi, build and test every drive using the ATTO Disk Benchmark.

The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturer's RAID controllers, storage controllers, host bus adapters (HBAs), hard drives, and SSD drives, and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.

CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark software. It measures sequential reads/writes speed, random 512KB, 4KB, 4KB (Queue Depth=32) reads/writes speed, selects test data (Random, 0Fill, 1Fill),

To test the maximum average transfer speeds of the drives, I used a 100 GB file to test the limits.

The PCMark 10 Storage benchmark is designed to test the performance of SSDs, HDDs, and hybrid drives with traces recorded from Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, and a selection of popular games. You can test the system drive or any other recognized storage device, including local external drives. Unlike synthetic storage tests, the PCMark 10 Storage benchmark highlights real-world performance differences between storage devices.

Crucial's T700 & T500 are finally out and they are setting a new benchmark for NVMe SSDs. Both the T700 and T500 stood tall and strong within our benchmark suite and no matter what we threw at them, they just crunched it like nothing in each respective segment (Gen 5 and Gen 4).

Starting with the Crucial T700, it is currently the fastest line of Gen5 drives offering up to 12.4 GB/s speeds and even the 1 TB with its 11.7 GB/s offered outstanding performance. This kind of NVMe performance comes at a cost though and the 1 TB drive is listed for $167.99 US at the moment or almost twice as much as 1 TB Gen4 drives. The Gen5 SSDs also require a fast PC with the latest specs and support for Gen5 hardware so it makes perfect sense for those who are building their new PCs and going to use the T700 Gen5 for the primary OS.

Meanwhile, the T500 is the fastest Gen4 drive that I have tested and offers a blistering fast NVMe performance which you'd expect from it given its high-end pricing which is more expensive than Samsung's 990 Pro 2 TB which can be found for $134.99 & $149.99 US (Heatsink) right now. T500 retails for $169.99 US for the standard and $179.99 US for the heatsink model which is a very high price to be paying for a 2 TB drive this late. The good thing is that both drives come with software and encryption support and the heatsink provides very decent temperatures since the T500 uses a single-side PCB layout.

Crucial's PRO series with the T700 & T500 tackle the high-end Gen5 and Gen4 segments and win with strong and competitive performance versus the competition. The pricing may see adjustment as faster products are rolled out later down the road but if you are looking for a speedy drive, then Crucial has the products to power your PCs!

Subscribe to get an everyday digest of the latest technology news in your inbox

Some posts on wccftech.com may contain affiliate links. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com

© 2024 WCCF TECH INC. 700 - 401 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada

You need to login to use this feature.