Crucial T500 M.2 SSD Review: Should Gamers Buy It?

In this review of Crucial’s new T500 PCIe 4 SSD, we’ll be looking at just how fast this new M.2 SSD is at dishing out data and dealing with real world tasks such as loading games.

First, the specifications, though, and this is one of the fastest-claimed PCIe 4.0 SSDs on the planet, with read speeds up to 7,400MB/sec and write speeds up to 7,000MB/sec – easily matching the fastest SSDs out there short of the latest PCIe 5.0 SSDs such as Crucial’s own insane 12,0000MB/sec T700 Pro – see the review of that monster below.

MORE FROM FORBESHere’s Why Crucial’s T700 Pro Is The PCIe 5 SSD To Beat In 2023By Antony Leather

However, PCIe 5.0 M.2 support is still extremely rare and only present on a select few of the very latest motherboards and the SSD’s themselves don’t offer much over the best PCIe 4.0 SSDs in the real world – certainly not enough to warrant the hefty extra outlay for most casual PC users. Which is why we still see new PCIe 4.0 SSDs joining the fray.

Crucial T500 Pricing

Crucial T500 specifications

As well as read and write speeds of 7,400MB/sec and 7,000MB/sec respectively for the 2TB model reviewed here, the T500 uses TLC NAND memory and has 1GB of LPDDR4 memory for every terabyte of storage space acting as a cache to speed up writing. For the moment, only 500GB, 1TB and 2TB models are available but a 4TB model will apparently be available in 2024 and that’s important for a few reasons.

Firstly, it gives it an edge over some other manufacturers such as Solidigm, which lack a flasghip PCIe 4.0 4TB model. Secondly, Crucial’s existing 4TB PCIe 3.0 and 4.0 SSDs are very popular and excellent value too, meaning the lack of a 4TB T500 would be a big step down, especially as games aren’t getting smaller. It uses the Phison E25 controller and being an NVMe SSD, also supports Microsoft DirectStorage, which can reduce game loading times. The endurance rating stands at 1200TBW for the 2TB model, which is fairly standard.

Crucial T500 performance

Crucial T500 Conclusions

The first thing to note is that you’ll need a heatsink with this SSD to prevent it throttling but that’s usual for PCIe 4.0 SSDs. This can come in the form of one included with your motherboard or by paying a little extra for the heatsink-equipped models. Without one, the speeds fell by around 1,000MB/sec as the SSD topped 80°C. Using a heatsink included with the test motherboard saw it peak at 63°C and maintain its peak performance.

The actual performance was exactly as Crucial claimed, with a read speed of 7,465MB/sec and write speed of 7,034MB/sec, which make it one of the fastest PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSDs out there. While its random 4K write speeds were impressive, the read speeds were a little slower than much of the competition.

Still, this didn’t seem to impact performance in 3DMark’s game performance storage test, where it was a match for everything except the Solidigm P44 Pro. The same was true in the game access times, where it even managed to match or better everything except the Crucial T700 Pro and Solidigm P44 Pro, even matching Corsair’s MP700 PCIe 5.0 SSD.

Overall the Crucial T500 is a little faster than many other SSDs in a range of tests, with the main competition coming from Solidigm’s P44 Pro, which bettered it in the game tests. Retailing for a similar or lower amount, the P44 Pro is a slightly better buy as a result given the choice of the two.

Where the Crucial will have the advantage, though, is with the 4TB version of the T500 as the Solidigm tops out at 2TB, as do many PCIe 5.0 SSDs such as Corsair’s MP700. As usual, pricing varies in different regions, but for gamers that are looking for high performance 1TB or 2TB M.2 SSDs, the Solidigm P44 Pro is still the speed king.