Crucial P5 Plus 1 TB

[W1zzard]

The Crucial P5 Plus is the latest flagship SSD from Crucial. It is built using a new in-house PCI-Express 4.0 controller made by Micron, paired with the company's state-of-the-art 176-layer 3D TLC NAND flash. At $180, the Crucial P5 is priced similarly to the offerings of WD and Samsung, but does it have the performance to match?

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[Selaya]

/yawn

mediocre performance (can't even beat the best PCIe 3.0s, KEKW) w/ PCIe 4.0 tax?
Yeah, that's just what the world needs. Not.

 

[Wooden Law - Black]

can't even beat the best PCIe 3.0s, KEKW

The best PCIe 3.0 SSDs don't have Micron B47R flash, though.

By the way, it doesn't beat top PCIe 3.0 SSDs as random performance 4K, but as sequential performance yes.

 

[Mescalamba]

Crucial stuff is deceptive, they dont look like much on paper, but somehow they do perform really well in actual use. Got I think third set of RAMs from them and SSD thats clocking happily 4th year. No complains.

Also never had compatibility issue with their RAMs, which I cant say for all of manufacturers.

 

[Garrus]

I really don't know why you'd consider any drive except the Adata S70. You can get the 1TB S70 Blade for $137 USD, and the S70 with heatsink for $145 USD from Amazon. UNBEATABLE. I know ADATA hurt their reputation with the S50 Lite (garbage) but the S70 is a top drive.

I'm not trying to be a fanboy, I genuinely don't know why you'd buy any of the other drives. Anyone explain from this review?

 

[Selaya]

The best PCIe 3.0 SSDs don't have Micron B47R flash, though.

By the way, it doesn't beat top PCIe 3.0 SSDs as random performance 4K, but as sequential performance yes.

who cares about sequentials, possibly the most useless spec number of a given SSD since raw sequential workloads basically don't happen as the average joe user

theres two PCIe 3.0 SSDs ahead of this, the DRAMless, mid-tier 980 ($.10/GB tier) and the premium P31 (w/ DRAM and extreme energy efficency) ($.13/GB tier)
they're both cheaper and better products than this ...
(and the 970 PRO I guess, but yeah.)

 

[Garrus]

who cares about sequentials, possibly the most useless spec number of a given SSD since raw sequential workloads basically don't happen as the average joe user

theres two PCIe 3.0 SSDs ahead of this, the DRAMless, mid-tier 980 ($.10/GB tier) and the premium P31 (w/ DRAM and extreme energy efficency) ($.13/GB tier)
they're both cheaper and better products than this ...
(and the 970 PRO I guess, but yeah.)

And the S70 Blade is cheaper than the 980, and the P31 isn't available in most countries. And it is PCIe 4.0. I don't understand why you'd buy anything but Adata. I'm trying to sell my 1TB 980 right now (the price has gone way up, if I can swap it for free for an S70 that is great).

 

[Selaya]

$.15/GB cheaper than $.10/GB? Wat? Pardon me?
I'm talking of the 980 (PCIe 3.0, DRAMless), not the 980 PRO ...

 

[Xzibit]

$180 / 169 still too high for 3% more

The P5 1TB was $89.99 on Amazon last week. The Hynix P31 drops down to $108 on sale and $119 on discount

 

[Minus Infinity]

Pretty much wouldn't even consider this drive at all. Middle of the road performance at high prices and yet again showing how PCI-E 4 drives are basically a total waste of time. Just look at all the performance charts and taking out. few trash drives like the BX500 and 870 QVO unless you do huge sequential file transfer all day it makes no difference what you get to real world experience. My 970 EVO Plus has higher sustained writes and is far cheaper. Until we see Optane like performance for random operations just pick up the best value best warranty SSD you can find and forget whether it's PCI-E 3 or 4.

 

[mechtech]

I wish W!zz would review the new WD Blue 2TB sata drive. I know I know only sata, but 5yr warranty, 2TB, and cheap!! Just bought one and replaced a 2TB spinner with it.

 

[Garrus]

$.15/GB cheaper than $.10/GB? Wat? Pardon me?
I'm talking of the 980 (PCIe 3.0, DRAMless), not the 980 PRO ...

Where are you getting the 980 for $100? It is $120 USD. $145 where I am. More expensive than the S70, and the S70 is A LOT faster than the 980 non-pro.

 

[Wooden Law - Black]

who cares about sequentials, possibly the most useless spec number of a given SSD since raw sequential workloads basically don't happen as the average joe user

Sequential write represents SLC cache and I don’t care about that relative performance graph, I don’t know on what it’s based. Only performance? No sense.

By the way the Samsung 980 isn’t better, it’s a DRAM-less drive with 128L flash.

I wish W!zz would review the new WD Blue 2TB sata drive. I know I know only sata, but 5yr warranty, 2TB, and cheap!! Just bought one and replaced a 2TB spinner with it.

I’m curious if it uses 96L (or even 112L) flash with the same controller or not. Or even if it uses the same hardware.

 

[Space Lynx]

That's funny, the original P5 had one of the best thermal sensors W1zz ever reviewed. The P5 Plus does not though, weird.

 

[W1zzard]

I wish W!zz would review the new WD Blue 2TB sata drive. I know I know only sata, but 5yr warranty, 2TB, and cheap!! Just bought one and replaced a 2TB spinner with it.

I have the WD Blue NVMe SN750 here though, had to buy it because I can't reach anyone at WD for sampling

 

[chrcoluk]

Personally I would be more exited for a SATA TLC/MLC 2TB ssd for $100 than faster and faster m.2, I know I am dreaming though.

I got my 970 evo 1TB for about 3/4 of the price of this drive, and it seems no gains have been made on value since then, as price has gone up.

@W1zzard are you able to do the following test?

Keep the system powered up with the drive for a week, no power cycles, idle load, and see if the erase cycle bug the MX500 has is present on this drive?

 

[Wooden Law - Black]

Personally I would be more exited for a SATA TLC/MLC 2TB ssd for $100 than faster and faster m.2, I know I am dreaming though.

SATA TLC/MLC 2TB $100? Are you talking about AliExpress SSDs? Because I don't think there are good/decent TLC/MLC SSDs 2TB for only $100.

Keep the system powered up with the drive for a week, no power cycles, idle load, and see if the erase cycle bug the MX500 has is present on this drive?

The only bug that MX500 had (since the new revisions don't have it anymore) was the high WAF (write amplification factor), not PEC.

 

[W1zzard]

@W1zzard are you able to do the following test?

Keep the system powered up with the drive for a week, no power cycles, idle load, and see if the erase cycle bug the MX500 has is present on this drive?

I've been using about a dozen MX500 SSDs as primary SSD in all my test systems this year. They were idle and loaded for VERY long times, zero issues

 

[mechtech]

Sequential write represents SLC cache and I don’t care about that relative performance graph, I don’t know on what it’s based. Only performance? No sense.

By the way the Samsung 980 isn’t better, it’s a DRAM-less drive with 128L flash.


I’m curious if it uses 96L (or even 112L) flash with the same controller or not. Or even if it uses the same hardware.

The atto scores were pretty good that I got. Well I thought so anyway

 

[Wooden Law - Black]

The atto scores were pretty good that I got. Well I thought so anyway

Do you have it?

 

[mechtech]

Do you have it?

At home on my pc. I will post after work

 

[chrcoluk]

SATA TLC/MLC 2TB $100? Are you talking about AliExpress SSDs? Because I don't think there are good/decent TLC/MLC SSDs 2TB for only $100.

The only bug that MX500 had (since the new revisions don't have it anymore) was the high WAF (write amplification factor), not PEC.

High WAF and PEC seem related, my MX500 does have high PEC which is caused by yes as you said high WAF. I am getting on my MX500 in order of 50x the rate of other SSD's.

I expect its unlikely their newest SSD's have the same problem, but I was curious.

Thanks for confirming the new MX500 revision no longer has it, others I asked were not sure as didnt know anyone who had a new revision. I got my MX500s within the past 18 months and they were the older revision (forgot exact purchase date), they do work fine, its just an annoying problem I wouldnt want on a new drive.

Also regarding the SSD prices I did say I was dreaming. and I wont be buying unknown branded SSD's.

As to why W1zzard doesnt see the problem is interesting, the issue seems known, as others like yourself know of it, but I have never seen a published article on it, so seemed to be an issue just discovered by a few end users here or there. I do think SSD reviews need to have a follow up months later to confirm if any problems were observed after initial review. Especially as manufacturers wont always do what I consider to be the right thing, I reported the issue to crucial and was effectively told "tough luck", if the revision has this fixed, I think it would have been reasonable for them to offer to replace with the revised model. Sadly that customer service experience combined with the bug probably means I wont buy another crucial/micron combo SSD again.

 

[lexluthermiester]

mediocre performance

Did you actually read the review? Maybe you should try again...

 

[Selaya]

at $.18/GB this performance is mediocre given that it is neither the cutting edge in real-world performance nor has gamebreaking sequentials (lol), when there's (multiple) competing products that are like half the price and perform just as well ...

 

[lexluthermiester]

at $.18/GB this performance is mediocre given that it is neither the cutting edge in real-world performance nor has gamebreaking sequentials (lol), when there's (multiple) competing products that are like half the price and perform just as well ...

Looking at the performance numbers compared to other products, then looking at the price and I'm seeing a good value drive. If you can't see that, well, that's on you...