Final Words & Conclusion
The T500 PRO is a member of the still favoured PCIe Gen 4.0 support and even though PCIe Gen 5.0 products are available, they still offer very competitive performance. This SSD, developed by Crucial, offers improved performance compared to its predecessors. It was engineered with a focus on enhancing load speeds and workflow efficiency for gamers. For an E25-based product, it doesn't hold the absolute top position for speed among SSDs, however, it is competitively placed in the PCIe Gen 4.0 NVMe tier 1 ranking for sure. As always we feel NVMe SSDs in PCIe Generation 4.0 or better do need some form of cooling, so please seat it under the motherboard heatsink. All motherboards these days offer it.
Endurance
We've talked about endurance previously; it's the number of times NAND cells can be written before they begin to malfunction. It is sufficient to remark that the values for QLC written (4 bits saved in a single NAND cell) are not particularly good at it. On this point, however, I always like to paraphrase Einstein: "Relativity, my man," he said (somewhat). You can improve endurance by increasing the volume of your NAND. Volume sizes that are larger result in more NAND cells, and more NAND cells result in greater endurance. The T500 PRO however uses TLC written NAND. A 1TB model has 600 TB written capacity, the 2TB model has a proper 1400 TB written capacity for endurance. Now, if a NAND cell fails, it does not necessarily mean that your data is lost. Many algorithms are constantly monitoring and managing your data; for example, if a cell's lifetime is about to expire, the bits inside that cell will be relocated to a more healthy cell. So how long does a storage unit last before NAND flash cells go the way of the dodo? Well, if you are a really extreme user, you might be writing 50 GB per day (really, normal users probably won't even write that per week), but based on that value, 50GB x 365 days = 18.25 TB per year written. You get 1200 TBW (for this 2TB model), so that's almost 66 years of usage and half that for the 1 TB SSD version. Let me make it very clear, 50 GB per day each day of the year is a very ambitious number.
Performance
From a performance analysis, the T500 PRO solid-state drive (SSD) holds its ground in the market for both mainstream trace and sustained workloads. While we acknowledge that while the T500 PRO performs well in synthetic benchmarks, these results can potentially skew the comprehensive performance view. In real-world testing, the SSD maintains efficiency, though the distinction with competitors is minimal. While it doesn't lead the pack, the 6 GB/sec read and write speeds are notable. Our trace testing indicates solid numbers, especially in the random 4K IOPS queues.
A 100% load write burst (linear performance) also proves to be reliable and consistent. The SSD was capable of writing linearly to approximately 38% of its total capacity before dropping performance. This translates to a writing speed of approximately 5850 MB/sec for a continuous 778 GB of writes. So that it's more than capable of a gaming PC workload.
Concluding
The Crucial T500 PRO NVMe SSD is a more advanced version of the company's pre-existing P5 range. It is designed to be compatible with Gen4 motherboards and intended for diverse users such as professionals, creators, gamers, and general consumers, the heatsink SKU actually can be used in a PS5 as well. The SSD includes sophisticated features like Dynamic write acceleration, adaptive heat protection, error correction code, and full-drive encryption capability. In performance terms, the Crucial T500 PRO occupies the high-end ground at top-tier PCIe Gen3 and high-end Gen4 drives, with the specific performance dependent on various factors such as workload. As a PCIe Gen 4 drive, the SSD uses high-quality TLC flash memory, rather than QLC NAND flash memory, offering a cost-effective option compared to comparable products like the WD Black. Compared to Gen5 products your typical workloads perform roughly the same. Yes, despite variability in performance, the Crucial T500 PRO demonstrates peak sequential performance with CrystalDiskMark write speeds consistently surpassing the 6000~7000MB/s range and read speeds reaching beyond 7000MB/s. Small queue depth 4K random numbers are slightly more modest. This SSD performs exceptionally well under most conditions, reaching high-end-class NVMe performance on specific workloads. Crucial provides a five-year warranty or up to the TBW value reached, whichever is first. The drive is available in three capacities: 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB.
During our review, the Crucial T500 PRO consistently performed in critical scenarios and compared favourably with other PCIe Gen 4.0 SSDs. We recorded linear writing of nearly 800 GB at full speed before observing any reduction in the SSD's performance. The Crucial T500 PRO SSD as such is precisely the performance level at PCIe 4.0 that users seek. There's an option to select the version with a heatsink, but just pop it under your mobo heatsink and be done with it. While the 2 TB storage at the $169 price point is relatively high, it's important to note that NAND prices are currently volatile and trending downward, often completely different from street prices in etail.
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