Crucial P2 Announced: Company's Second QLC M.2 NVMe Client SSD

[btarunr]

Here's the first picture of the Crucial P2, the company's second M.2 NVMe client SSD series based on QLC NAND flash memory, and successor to the Crucial P1. The drive sticks to PCI-Express gen 3.0 x4 as its host interface, but increases sequential read speeds over the P1. Available in 250 GB and 500 GB models to begin with, the P2 offers sequential transfer rates of up to 2100 MB/s reads with up to 1150 MB/s writes for the 250 GB variant; and up to 2300 MB/s reads with up to 940 MB/s writes on the 500 GB variant. There's no word on whether the P2 uses the same QLC NAND chips as the P1, but we do spy a DRAM cache chip. Endurance of the P2 is rated at 150 TBW, and Crucial is backing them with 5-year warranties when they come out in the near future. Pricing in Europe is expected to be about 59€ for the 250 GB model, and 70€ for the 500 GB one.

Update 15:54 UTC: Crucial launched the drive Stateside at $54.99 for the 250 GB model, and $64.99 for the 500 GB model. We've added more images.



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[sutyi]

Wasn't all too impressed with the P1 to be honest, this seems a rather good upgrade over the previous series.

Looks like the Kingston A2000 and Intel 660p series might get some competition.

 

[dj-electric]

Looks like the Kingston A2000 and Intel 660p series might get some competition.

660p = Crucial P1, FYI
Guess what that makes the 665p

 

[sutyi]

660p = Crucial P1, FYI
Guess what that makes the 665p

The 660p has DRAM cache iirc, while the P1 does not.

Update: Was wrong, actually the P1 has more DRAM cache then the 660p.

 

[Assimilator]

Why only these low capacities?

 

[ChristTheGreat]

Wasn't all too impressed with the P1 to be honest, this seems a rather good upgrade over the previous series.

Looks like the Kingston A2000 and Intel 660p series might get some competition.

Well, someone who wants an NVME drive, 1TB, and not paying high price, the Crucial P1 was a very good choice IMO.

Personnally, I can find the P1 1TB for 168$ right now, which is 20$ less than a 660p or 30$ less than a A2000. The only one that I see that cost 10$ less is the WD Blue SN550. note the P1 is 1yo 1/2 old.

 

[R0H1T]

What about the Sabrent Rocket (TLC?) probably the best VFM in its class!

 

[sutyi]

Well, someone who wants an NVME drive, 1TB, and not paying high price, the Crucial P1 was a very good choice IMO.

Personnally, I can find the P1 1TB for 168$ right now, which is 20$ less than a 660p or 30$ less than a A2000. The only one that I see that cost 10$ less is the WD Blue SN550. note the P1 is 1yo 1/2 old.

Crucial P1 is good value for money on the 1TB front. Probably the cheapest brand NVMe you can get with decent warranty at that capacity.
Here in Hungary 1TB P1 and 660p are basically price identical, depending on etailer they have like a 5$ price gap forth and back.

However if you are looking around the 480-512GB segment the prices are much closer and for like 3$ more I can get an A2000 over here, not sure about the States tho.

 

[QUANTUMPHYSICS]

Why only these low capacities?

Apparently, they haven't realized yet that instead of targeting Desktop users who just want an OS boot drive, they should be targeting gaming laptop owners who typically only have space for 1 or 2 M.2 and possibly one Sata SSD.

The only reasonable choices I see for laptops right now are the Intel 660p 2TB, WD Blue 2TB and Samsung QVO 2TB or 4TB.

I would LOVE to see Crucial 2TB and 4TB models to compete with Samsung.

Crucial P1 is good value for money on the 1TB front. Probably the cheapest brand NVMe you can get with decent warranty at that capacity.
Here in Hungary 1TB P1 and 660p are basically price identical, depending on etailer they have like a 5$ price gap forth and back.

However if you are looking around the 480-512GB segment the prices are much closer and for like 3$ more I can get an A2000 over here, not sure about the States tho.

Intel 660p 2TB is what I'd be buying right now if I didn't already have my Gaming laptops sitting with a total of 4TB.

I'd rather spend $220 for 2TB than save a couple bucks for a 1TB.

 

[Caring1]

Apparently, they haven't realized yet that instead of targeting Desktop users who just want an OS boot drive, they should be targeting gaming laptop owners who typically only have space for 1 or 2 M.2 and possibly one Sata SSD.

That sounds more like a want than a need.
I'm sure Scotty from Marketing has it all worked out, consumer buys a small capacity NVMe for their "gaming" laptop, then realises they need more space.
Here comes the upsell, they probably also, and very conveniently sell external storage solutions. Kaching $$$$$

 

[newtekie1]

I'd rather spend $220 for 2TB than save a couple bucks for a 1TB.

1TB SSDs are like $110, so half the price. Not exactly a couple of bucks...

 

[Xuper]

I don't like NVMe .Chips get hot.

 

[newtekie1]

I don't like NVMe .Chips get hot.

Are you still posting from a 486 because all the processors after that got hot and needed heatsinks?

 

[Xuper]

59~ 68'c is ok ? for me it's a lot.

 

[TheLostSwede]

I don't like NVMe .Chips get hot.

Heat is good for NAND flash when you're writing data to it, as for whatever weird reason, if the NAND flash is around 40-55 degress C, it seems to retain the data better compared to it being written to at lower temperatures. It might sound made, but see the data below. The important part is that the drive gets to cool down after the data has been written, otherwise the data retention goes down the drain. The numbers in the diagram represents weeks of data retention after power off.

Source: https://www.anandtech.com/show/9248/the-truth-about-ssd-data-retention

59~ 68'c is ok ? for me it's a lot.

That would be the controller. Most of them are rated to function at might higher temperatures, so don't worry about it. If nothing else, the controller will thermal throttle if it gets too hot.

 

[dj-electric]

59~ 68'c is ok ? for me it's a lot.

Good thing computer hardware is not human

 

[newtekie1]

59~ 68'c is ok ? for me it's a lot.

Yep, perfectly acceptable temperatures. Plus, the high temps only happen during writing, not reading. And the writing has to be sustained for a good long while before the drive really start to get hot. Usually, it takes writing over 100GB sustained at over 1,000MB/s before the drive start to get even close to thermal throttling.

How many times do you write 100GB+ all at once at full speed to your SSD?

 

[NC37]

Don't need more of this, what we need is high capacity drives without the insane cost. Crucial announced high caps then never brought them to market. 2TB MX500...where is it Crucial? Teased it but never delivered it.