CONCLUSION

   Ever since their introduction in the market many years ago DRAM-less SSDs have been a mixed bag in terms of results. On one hand they offer very good performance levels for everyday use but on the other as workload increases performance quickly starts to decline. Now I do have to admit that PHISON has done a great job with their PS5021-E21 controller since in most of the “normal” benchmarks the Crucial P3 Plus even surpasses their very own and “higher-end” P5 Plus model. Still in lengthy benchmarks like the entire IOMeter suite (and a few others) things rapidly change and the P5 Plus shows exactly why it’s placed higher. Another thing we really have to talk about is NAND flash memory durability/endurance and here is where the P3 Plus is also clearly inferior to its higher-end brother, the P5 Plus. Just take into account that for the 2TB capacities Crucial reports a TBW of 440 for the P3 Plus and its 176-layer 3D QLC NAND (N48R) and 1200 for the P5 Plus and its 176-layer 3D TLC NAND (B47R). This of course should matter mostly to people who intent to use the drive with intensive workloads, for regular every day use the P3 Plus is clearly more than enough (strangely enough Crucial reports read & write numbers far less compared to what I got with the 4TB model).

   At USD299.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 394.12Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the P3 Plus 4TB M.2 NVMe Gen4 SSD by Crucial is priced extremely well, at least on the other side of the Atlantic. Overall, the P3 Plus may not be the fastest or most durable M.2 Gen4 SSD out there but it still seems to be a very good choice for everyday use and for that it gets the Golden Award.

PROS

- Impressive Overall Performance (For a DRAM-Less Drive)
- Up To 4TB Capacity
- Storage Executive Software (Online Download)
- Cloning Software Included (Online Download)
- 5 Year Limited Warranty
- Price (USA)

CONS

- Thermal Throttling (During SNIA Tests)
- Durability / Endurance (Compared To TLC NAND Drives)
- Price (EU)