Crucial T700 SSD review: The king of PCIe Gen5 SSDs

PCIe 5.0 SSDs were supposed to be one of the key components in the new generation of computers, but they took longer to arrive than the other next-gen parts like DDR5 RAM. Well, they’re finally here, but is it a good time to upgrade? Of course, you will need the latest generation hardware to use one, including a PCIe 5.0-supported motherboard. But if you’re looking at an upgrade, you should check out the Crucial T700 SSD. It’s one of the first 5.0 SSDs on the market and promises all the speed and performance of this new generation of PC storage. It’s available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities, and with or without a fanless heatsink. It’s one of the best PCIe 5.0 SSDs you can buy right now, but it may not quite be a necessary upgrade for many people.

Source: Crucial

 

Crucial T700 NVMe SSD

Best PCIe 5.0 SSD

$160 $180 Save $20

The Crucial T700 is the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSD you can buy right now, and the one to buy if you’re looking at an upgrade.

Storage capacity

1TB / 2TB / 4TB

Hardware Interface

PCIe 5.0 NVMe

Brand

Crucial

Transfer rate

11,700-12,400 MB/s read / 9,500-11,800 MB/s write

TBW

600TB / 1200TB / 2400TB

DRAM

1GB / 2GB / 4GB LPDDR4

Warranty

5-year limited warranty

Price

Starting at $180

Controller

Phison E26

Pros

• Fastest consumer SSD in the world
• Considerably quicker than PCIe 4.0 SSDs
• Multiple sizes available

Cons

• Expensive despite the discounts
• Thermal throttling can deter performance

Crucial T700 pricing and availability

The Crucial T700 is now widely available across all retailers in major global markets. You get three storage versions — 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB, and each version is available with and without a heatsink. The starting price of the T700 is $180 for the 1TB version without the heatsink. The non-heatsink version of the 2TB storage variant costs $340, while the 4TB version costs $600. All heatsink-equipped versions cost $30 more than standard ones.

The T700 is definitely on the pricier side of SSDs, but despite having launched very recently, it’s already selling at a discount across retailers. Crucial’s own online store has considerable discounts on the 1TB and 4TB heatsink versions and the 2TB standard version. Other retailers like Amazon and Newegg are also offering similar discounts.

How the Crucial T700 was tested

PCIe Gen5 SSDs require the latest hardware, and our test bench had exactly that. I tested it in a PC with the Ryzen 9 7950X CPU, an ASRock X670e Taichi motherboard, and 32GB of Kingston HyperX Fury DDR5-6000 RAM. Crucial sent the 2TB version of the T700 without the heatsink, so I had to test it with the Taichi motherboard’s included SSD heatsink.

The T700 was tested alongside the 2TB version of the Crucial P5 Plus, which was also provided by Crucial. The P5 Plus was installed on the lower PCIe 4.0 slot, leaving a gap of one slot between the two SSDs. It also had a motherboard heatsink installed over it.

The P5 Plus isn’t the fastest PCIe 4.0 SSD on the market (that would be the Samsung 990 Pro), but it’s positioned well to be compared against the T700 and the performance gains that come with the new standard.

In regards to software, the testing was carried out on Windows 11, with the latest Windows update and drivers installed. I used CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4 for the benchmarks, with both the Default and NVMe profiles, CrystalDiskInfo 9.0.1 to monitor thermals, and ATTO Disk Benchmark in the default configuration. I also tested a few games on separate Windows instances installed on the two drives to check the real-world performance.

Crucial T700 performance

The fastest consumer SSD out there

When it comes to measuring SSD performance, especially with this new generation, it’s more than just the raw speed. However, the Crucial T700 absolutely wins at raw speed anyway. CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4 measures the read and write speeds of the drive with different kinds and sizes of data. Sequential files (SEQ) are bigger files, which are easier to transfer, while random files (RND) are clusters of small files that are tougher to move.

Scores are organized by read/write and are measured in MB/s.

Right from the get-go, the T700 beats out the P5 Plus in every test except one write test. At its peak, it’s twice as fast as the P5 Plus, though the gap is thinner but still considerable in other tests. ATTO Disk Benchmark painted a similar picture. The T700 topped out at 11GB/s after the 1MB mark and fell down to around 9.8 GB/s in the latter tests, likely due to thermal throttling.

Scores are organized by read/write and are measured in MB/s.

ATTO Disk Benchmark showcases data transfer performance by reading and writing data in chunks of increasing sizes from 512 bytes to 64 MB. In ATTO, the T700 performed well, too, but there were instances where the P5 Plus outperformed it. Specifically, the 512B and 1KB write tests. In repeated tests, I found the T700 lagging behind in some of the smaller data size write tests.

In terms of real-world performance, there was virtually no difference between the two SSDs while gaming. The FPS figures were pretty much the same, with a 1–2 FPS difference on either side, which is within the margin of error. I also tested load times, which showed the T700 at a slight advantage, with games loading about 5–6 seconds quicker on average.

Crucial T700 thermals

The Achilles’ heel of PCIe 5.0 SSDs

While benchmark performance was solid, there is one major issue that plagues this new generation of SSDs: thermals. They get quite hot, which affects performance. Since I reside in a hot and humid climate, the effect was even more pronounced for testing.

With the motherboard heatsink installed, the T700 was hitting a temperature of 81 degrees Celsius under peak load when benchmarking. The P5 Plus ran cooler in comparison, hitting up to 70 degrees Celsius. Thermal throttling is a real concern with PCIe 5.0 SSDs, and the T700 started hitting its limits when pushed.

This happens when you put the T700 under sustained loads of reading or writing data. This was particularly noticeable when benchmarking the T700 repeatedly, where I noticed the results dropping with each instance and eventually settling around the same figures as the P5 Plus.

The thermal throttling may be less of an issue with the bundled heatsink, but I don’t expect it to be much better. The results may vary according to the overall system airflow, heatsink design, thermal pad placement, and the ambient temperature of the room in which the PC is located.

While gaming, both SSDs ran around 66-68 degrees Celsius, s gaming performance was unaffected. Overall, I noticed that having this dual-SSD setup raised my motherboard temperature reading by 2-3 degrees Celsius.

This isn’t an issue specific to the Crucial T700, however. The current batch of PCIe 5.0 SSDs are all running very similar hardware, with Micron memory chips and the same Phison controller. That means that likely all of these SSDs will throttle if not cooled properly.

Who should buy the Crucial T700?

You should buy the Crucial T700 if:

• You have or want the latest and greatest hardware
• You want the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSD available

You shouldn’t buy the Crucial T700 if:

• You don’t have a use for blazing-fast storage
• You have a limited budget and need to spend on other components

The T700 is an excellent demonstration of what this generation of computing is capable of. If you have a new-generation system or are planning on building one, the T700 is worth considering, especially if you want the best hardware. You’re going to get cutting-edge performance, and even in the worst-case scenario, with a heatsink on, you’ll likely get performance that matches any PCIe 4.0 SSD.

However, there is very little to demonstrate the use of this faster storage for practical purposes. Games with DirectStorage aren’t quite here yet, and existing games are unlikely to have any noticeable performance gains with a PCIe 5.0 SSD. I expect this to change in the coming months as DirectStorage games release, and we get better cooling solutions for SSDs.

Regardless, the Crucial T700 is the best PCIe 5.0 SSD you can buy right now. You should buy it if you’re looking to get a PCIe 5.0 SSD and cannot wait. I would recommend you get the version with the heatsink and ensure your system has a good cooling setup.

Source: Crucial

 

Crucial T700 NVMe SSD

Best PCIe 5.0 SSD

$160 $180 Save $20

The Crucial T700 is the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSD you can buy right now, and the one to buy if you’re looking at an upgrade.