INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   PCIe 5.0 Gen5 M.2 NVMe SSDs may hold the crown for the fastest consumer storage media currently but due to both the somewhat limited number of compatible motherboards in the market and the evident temperature issues under certain scenarios (upcoming NAND controllers may get that fully resolved) it will take a while for them to surpass their PCIe 4.0 Gen4 brothers in both popularity and sales. Even so with performance numbers easily surpassing 10.000MB/s in both reads and writes (and in some cases 12.000MB/s) there's a clear benefit for demanding users and professionals alike. Crucial released their T700 series of Gen5 M.2 NVMe SSDs a few months back and after having already reviewed the 2TB heatsink variant (review here) today I’ll be taking a thorough look on the 4TB heatsink variant.

   We are an industry leader in innovative memory and storage solutions, transforming how the world uses information to enrich life for all. With a relentless focus on our customers, technology leadership and manufacturing and operational excellence, Micron delivers a rich portfolio of high-performance DRAM, NAND and NOR memory and storage products through our Micron® and Crucial® brands. Every day, the innovations that our people create fuel the data economy, enabling advances in artificial intelligence and 5G applications that unleash opportunities — from the data center to the intelligent edge and across the client and mobile user experience. To learn more about Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), visit micron.com. http://www.micron.com/

   Once again, the T700 line of PCIe 5.0 Gen5 M.2 NVMe SSDs by Crucial is currently available in 2 versions (with and without a large aluminum and nickel plated copper heatsink) and 3 different capacities (1/2/4TB). The entire line is based on the latest client-grade PS5026 (E26) PCIe 5.0 Gen5x4 NAND flash controller by PHISON which supports data throughput of up to 14GB/s. The NVMe 2.0 compliant PS5026 is an 8-channel (32 CEs) dual-CPU (ARM Cortex-R5) controller which features Phison's 5th generation LDPC ECC & RAID ECC together with SmartECC (RAID ECC), End-To-End Data Path Protection, TRIM and AES 256-bit encryption (with SHA 512 and RSA 4096) and is compliant with Toggle 5.0, ONFi 5.0 and TCG Opal 2.0. Needless to say, in order to achieve optimal results (up to 12400MB/s) Crucial (Micron) has paired the PS5026 NAND controller with their very own 232-layer 3D TLC NAND flash together with 8GB of LPDDR4-4266 DRAM for the 4TB variant (4GB for the 2TB variant and 2GB for the 1TB variant). Finally Crucial covers the entire T700 line of Gen5 SSDs with a 5-year limited warranty and reports a TBW (Terra Bytes Written) of 600 for the 1TB model, 1200 for the 2TB model and 2400 for the 4TB model. Well time to see what the 4TB variant of the T700 is capable of.

 

 

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crucial is using a new package which has a large product picture at the front along with their logo, product performance and warranty.

 

 

A few words about the product are printed at the rear in 8 languages.

 

 

Just the T700 M.2 NVMe Gen5 SSD and its user manual are placed inside the box.

 

 

 

 

THE T700 PRO SERIES 4TB (HEATSINK)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to its rather thick heatsink the T700 Pro Series Gen5 SSD looks and is quite unique.

 

 

As expected, details for the drive are printed on a sticker located at the base of the enclosure.

 

 

The heatsink is held in place with 4 screws so removing them and then the top is quite easy.

 

 

At the top we find the Phison PS5026 (E26) NAND flash controller together with a 2GB LPDDR4-4266 DRAM module and two 232-layer 3D TLC NAND flash modules.

 

 

Turning the drive over we find two more 232-layer 3D TLC NAND flash modules and another 2GB LPDDR4-4266 DRAM module.

 

 

Here you can see the T700 Pro Series installed on the ASRock X670E Taichi.

 

 

 

 

STORAGE EXECUTIVE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just like with past SSDs by Crucial you can download their Storage Executive software for more control over the T700.

Typically, from the first tab you can check basic details of both your system memory and the SSD(s) installed.

 

 

Of course, the software also allows you to check the drives details including its SMART page.

 

 

The T700 doesn't support features like sanitize, flex capacity and namespace management but it does support PSID Revert, momentum cache and over provisioning for people who want to push performance even more (there's also a self-test function which can be useful if you are afraid something's wrong with your T700).

 

 

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   I've been using pretty much the same testing methodology for PCIe 3.0 Gen3 and PCIe 4.0 Gen4 SSDs for far too many years now so i decided to "tweak" it for PCIe 5.0 Gen5 models. Needless to say, Gen5 M.2 NVMe SSDs will be tested using one of my latest test rigs (AMD Ryzen 9 7900X / ASRock X670E Taichi) and unlike with both Gen3 and Gen4 SSDs i will not be using the SNIA (Storage Networking Industry Association) IOMeter benchmarks since they proved to be rather heavy for Gen5 SSDs, at least for current models (temperature issues). Instead i decided to use the latest versions of AIDA64, AS SSD, ATTO, Crystal Disk Mark, HD Tune Pro, HD Tach RW, Performance Test, IOMeter (4k Random Writes) and Sandra Titanium 2021 for performance measuring and ForSpoken for all of you who might be wondering just how well Gen5 SSDs do in regards to Microsoft's DirectStorage API/Technology. Each test will be run a total of 5 times after which the average number will be recorded in each chart.

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - HD TUNE PRO / HD TACH RW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AS SSD / CRYSTAL DISK MARK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - SANDRA TITANIUM / IOMETER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - PERFORMANCE TEST / 3DMARK STORAGE TEST / FORSPOKEN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Again the 3 extra drives are in the charts to showcase just what you can expect in loading times from previous connectivity models – in regards to a DirectStorage compatible game – FPS doesn't change).

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Even though I was expecting the 4TB variant of the T700 (heatsink edition) to easily surpass its smaller capacity brother in reality both drives were exchanging blows throughout all my tests. In the end it’s safe to say that both drives perform roughly along the same lines which isn’t a bad thing since we’re talking about performance levels surpassing even 12.000MB/s in some tests. Of course, thermal issues are still a thing with heavy workloads which is why I skipped my regular SNIA tests altogether but for most usages that don’t require long and intense periods of reads and writes current Gen5 drives with heatsinks on them will probably never surpass 40 degrees Celsius (still with PCIe 6.0 not that far away I can’t help to wonder what issues related to temperatures manufacturers will face then).

   At the time of my review the 4TB variant of the T700 Pro Series (Heatsink) Gen5 M.2 NVMe SSD by Crucial retails for USD499.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 478.84Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de). As expected, consumers looking for one of the best (if not the best currently) Gen5 SSDs in the market today are required to pay a premium over Gen4 models and that’s obviously fine. Overall, there’s not much I can say about the T700 Pro Series by Crucial that this review hasn’t already revealed. Performance is great, cooling thanks to the bundled heatsink is very good (again, during all my tests temperatures didn’t exceed 45 degrees Celsius for the 4TB model) and as for endurance levels with a TBW of 2400 for the 4TB variant well it doesn’t get better than this so the Golden Award is once again in order.

PROS

- Quality
- Top Performance (Over 12000MB/s)
- Large Heatsink (Cooling)
- DirectStorage Improvements
- Storage Executive Software
- 5 Year Limited Warranty

CONS

- Price (For Some)
- Temperatures (Heavy Workloads)