Crucial has launched its first mainstream PCIe 5.0 SSD, the T700. Not to be confused with Terminator T-700. The T700 product page is already live, but some details about the M.2 2280 SSD are still missing. However, it does show some basic specs that suggest the T700 will offer higher performance than rival 1st Gen PCIe 5.0 drives.
Although they look different, the first wave of SSDs all have one thing in common. It leverages Phison’s PS5026-E26 PCIe 5.0 controller and its 8-channel design. There are other PCIe 5.0 SSD controllers for storage vendors to choose from, such as Silicon Motion’s SM2508 and InnoGrit’s IG5666. However, the E26 has become the de facto PCIe 5.0 controller for PCIe 5.0 SSDs.
The T700, like many of its rivals before it, uses the E26 controller. Crucial rates the T700’s sequential reads and writes at up to 12.4 GB/s and 11.8 GB/s respectively. It’s 2x faster than a P5 Plus PCIe 4.0 SSD and up to 22x faster than an MX500 SATA SSD. Granted by Crucial Linus Tech Tips A small preview of the T700. Excerpts from the previewer guide reveal the T700’s sequential and random performance. According to the snippet, the expected sequential read and write performance for the T700 is 12 GB/s and 11 GB/s. This number is slightly lower than the specifications on the T700 product page. The T700 figures reach 1.5 million IOPS read and write for random performance. Performance varies slightly between different capacities.
If the T700 lives up to that demand, the drive will be one of the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSDs, giving it an edge over competitors such as the Corsair MP700, Gigabyte Aorus Gen5 1000 and MSI Spatium M570 Pro. The only fast drives in development are Adata’s Project Nighthawk and Project Blackbird SSDs, with sequential read and write speeds of 14 GB/s and 12 GB/s, and 14 GB/s and 10 GB/s respectively. Adata’s upcoming PCIe 5.0 SSD is the only drive confirmed to feature the Innogrit IG5666 PCIe 5.0 controller.
| Crucial T700 specs | |||
| 1TB | 2TB | 4TB | |
| Sequence read (MB/s) | 11,500 | 12,000 | 12,000 |
| Sequence write (MB/s) | 8,500 | 11,000 | 11,000 |
| Random read (K IOPS) | 1,200 | 1,500 | 1,500 |
| Random Writes (K IOPS) | 1,500 | 1,500 | 1,500 |
| Endurance (TBW) | 600 | 1,200 | 2,400 |
Combined with 2,400 MT/s NAND, the E26 controller can deliver sequential read and write speeds of up to 14 GB/s and 11.8 GB/s respectively. Unfortunately, current PCIe 5.0 SSDs are nowhere near exploiting the full potential of the E26 due to the limited supply of the latest generation NAND. Therefore, the 10 GB/s barrier cannot be broken. Like its competitors, the Crucial T700 uses a Micron 232-layer 3D TLC NAND chip. Micron’s 232-layer NAND operates at various speeds of 1,600 MT/s, 2,000 MT/s, and 2,400 MT/s. Crucial didn’t specify the grade of NAND on his T700, but given the SSD’s advertised performance, it stands to reason that the drive will likely use the 2,000 MT/s variant. Micron being the parent company has obvious perks. Crucial is likely to have faulty NAND chips in higher bins, so getting 2,000 MT/s NAND isn’t that big of a deal. Surprisingly, Crucial said he didn’t equip the T700 with 2,400 MT/s, but that’s either a cost-benefit decision or there’s a steady supply of 2,400 MT/s NAND yields. You may not have reached the point.
Crucial offers the T700 in 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB capacities. The 4 TB model has the highest endurance at 2,400 TBW. The T700 is available with or without a heatsink, so the drive fits in desktops, laptops, and game consoles. Results from Linus Tech Tips show that after stressing the SSD at 100% disk utilization for 15 minutes, the T700 with the attached heatsink (67 degrees Celsius) and the T700 with the motherboard heatsink (66 degrees Celsius) The maximum operating temperatures between were similar. However, there was no testing with the non-heatsink version. Many PCIe 5.0 SSDs come with strong passive heatsinks and some even have small cooling fans for active cooling. On the T700 product page, Crucial recommends that consumers install the non-heatsink version on their motherboard or alternative heatsink to ensure the best performance.
Crucial needs to clarify the price of the T700. However, the company has tweeted that the T700 will launch in his May, so stay tuned for more details on the PCIe 5.0 drive.
