INTRODUCTION

    PCIe 5.0 Gen5 M.2 NVMe solid state drives (SSDs) may not be quite free of their thermal issues but new firmware upgrades and even controllers have certainly helped with that and well, these along with a now significant number of PCIe 5.0 compatible motherboards are the reason as to why Gen5 SSD sales have finally taken a turn for the better. Granted, there's still a somewhat limited number of available Gen5 SSDs in the market but more will be making their appearance before long, with a few surprises I might add. For now, probably the most popular Gen5 SSD line is no other than the T705 one by Crucial and since quite a few asked today I'll be testing the 4TB capacity model.

    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 T705 line of PCIe 5.0 Gen5 M.2 NVMe SSDs by Crucial is currently available either with or without a black or white (limited edition) aluminum and nickel plated copper heatsink and in 3 different capacities (1/2/4TB).  The T705 uses the client-grade PS5026 (E26) PCIe 5.0 Gen5x4 NAND flash controller by PHISON along with Micron's 232-layer 3D TLC NAND flash (B58R 2400MT/s) and LPDDR4 DRAM (1GB per TB of NAND flash). This combination allows the 1TB variant of the T705 to surpass 13GB/s in reads (10GB/s in writes) and the 2/4TB variants to surpass 14GB/s in reads (12GB/s in writes). Once again, the 8-channel (32 CEs) dual-CPU (ARM Cortex-R5) E26 NAND flash controller by PHISON is NVMe v2.0 compliant, features Pison’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 supports Toggle 5.0, ONFi 5.0 and TCG Opal 2.0. Crucial typically covers the entire T705 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.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

At the front of the box, we find a picture of the T705, company logo, product performance and warranty.

A few words about the product are printed at the rear in 9 languages.

Just the T705 M.2 NVMe Gen5 SSD and its user manual are placed inside the box.

THE T705 4TB

The entire T705 line uses the same heatsink (in either black or white color).

Again, details for the drive are printed on a sticker located at the base of the heatsink.

Again removing the heatsink is easy, do keep in mind however that doing so not only voids your warranty but you may also end up breaking the drive.

At the top of the T705 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 by Micron.

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

STORAGE EXECUTIVE

Just like with past SSDs by Crucial you can download their Storage Executive software for more control over the T705.

Typically, from the first tab you can check basic details of both your system memory and all available drives.

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

The T705 doesn't support features like sanitize, PSID revert, flex capacity and namespace management but it does support 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 T705.

Namespace is also not supported.

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) 12 hour IOMeter benchmark since it proved to be rather heavy for Gen5 SSDs, at least for current models (temperature issues). Instead, I decided to use the latest versions of 3D Mark, AIDA64, AS SSD, ATTO, Crystal Disk Mark, HD Tune Pro, HD Tach RW, Performance Test, IOMeter (4k Random Writes / 4k Random Reads – since September 2024 / SNIA Mixed) and Sandra Titanium 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 / 3D MARK / FORSPOKEN

CONCLUSION

    Just like with its smaller capacity brother the 4TB variant of the T705 did extremely well across the board in terms of read & write performance. It might not have been able to produce stable reads and writes at its maximum advertised performance but the same applies for most drives out there so that’s nothing new. Of course, the primary reason behind this are the high temperatures this drive reached (especially during the IOMeter tests) even though it does come with a large heatsink. At 2400TBW endurance/durability for the T705 4TB is also very good and at least for me (and most people I'd expect) this is very important.

    With a current price tag set at USD506.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and at 715.31Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) the Crucial T705 4TB Gen5 SSD is priced well, at least on the other side of the Atlantic. Price aside however the T705 4TB is clearly among the fastest and most durable consumer SSDs one can buy today and for that it deserves the Platinum Award.

PROS

- Quality
- Top Performance (Over 14000MB/s)
- Large Heatsink
- DirectStorage Improvements
- 2400TBW Endurance
- 5 Year Limited Warranty
- Price (USA)

CONS

- Price (EU)
- Temperatures