The Crucial P5 Plus SSD, the successor to the highly regarded P5 model, seems poised to occupy a similar market segment, offering both value and performance. This review focuses on the 1TB model. The storage device leverages Micron's latest 176 Layer TLC NAND technology. Crucial, as a subsidiary of Micron, has a direct line to this top-tier 176-Layer (RG NAND Gen 2) flash memory, enabling them to competitively price their products while ensuring high quality. The company utilizes an in-house controller and NAND for the P5 Plus series, delivering performance metrics in the vicinity of 6.5 GB/sec, a significant improvement over prior generations. While the performance numbers might appear chaotic due to a wide array of SSD options in 2021, they nevertheless offer a rough estimation of overall device performance. The latest NVMe M.2 SSD offers faster PCI-Express 4.0 (x4) connectivity compared to older models. The P5 Plus comes in three capacities: 500 GB, 1TB, and 2TB. According to Crucial, the 1TB variant of the P5 Plus can reach peak read speeds of 6,600MB/s and write speeds of 5,000MB/s. These figures may slightly trail the fastest PCIe Gen 4 drives, but remain impressively high. The SSD supports 3D TLC NAND, offering random read and write capabilities of up to 630K~700K IOPS and PCI-Express 4.0. SSDs at this performance level (X4) achieve incredibly high processing speeds when utilizing random access. Moreover, the SSD is built with high-density 3D TLC NAND, offering up to 600 TB Written for the 1TB model tested here, backed by a five-year warranty.

Prices now have dropped so hard that you can purchase a 2TB model for as little as $129, that's 6-7 cents per GB, closing in and even surpassing HDD pricing. 

 

Type / SKU	Solid State modules (SSM) / CT1000P5PSSD8
Form factor	M.2 2280
Controller	Micron DM02A1, 8 channels
Interface	M.2/M-Key (PCIe 4.0 x4)
Read	6600 MB/s
Write	5000 MB/s
IOPS 4K read/Write	630K / 700K
Memory modules	3D-NAND TLC 176-layer
TBW	300TB (500GB) / 600 TBW (1GB) / 1200 TBW (2TB)
Reliability prediction	2 Mio. hours (MTBF)
Cache	1GB (DDR4), pSLC-Cache
Protocol	NVMe 1.4

Known for its great performance and often value, the Crucial series SSD is an M.2 NVMe SSD that supports the PCI-Express 4.0 interface, bringing the P5 PLUS series up to date.  A non-volatile memory express (NVMe 1.4) capable M.2 form factor SSD, it is packed with unique Vertically stacked TLC written (3-bits per cell) NAND. In today's world, the performance numbers provided by a quality SATA3 SSD are still outstanding. However, with the more specialized NVMe SSDs, you can now have 10-fold performance, resulting in some impressive numbers across the board. With an M.2 2280 form factor of 8cm, the item will be compatible with the vast majority of ATX motherboards that support M.2. In any case, are you interested in learning more about the fundamental performance of this product? Well, it's all listed; on to the next pages and the remainder of the review.