Visual inspection
The Crucial P2 500GB is the second NvMe SSD released by Crucial, after the success of the first model, the P1. At the moment, the P2 is available in only two storage versions, 250GB and 500GB. However, Crucial announced that a 1TB version will be available later this year.
In terms of the design, there isn’t much to talk about, as the SSD has no dedicated heatsink or custom paint applied on the PCB. The P2 500GB uses the M.2 2280 form factor, which means that the SSD has a width of 22 mm and a length of 80 mm, with a thickness of just 2mm.
The SSD uses a Phison controller, with the model number: PS5013-E13T. This controller above all else, uses the NvMe revision 1.3 protocol, which introduces numerous features, such as a self-test mode similar with the SMART used on HDDs. The controller is also responsible with the temperature monitoring for the SSD and is also capable of speeds of around 2,500 MB/s sequential read and 2,100 MB/s sequential write.
The four memory flash chips used on the SSD are manufactured by Micron and are the 64-layer TLC NAND Flash type. The model number of these memory chips is NX959, which translates into the complete serial number MT29F1T08EMHAFJ4-3R:B.
The Crucial P2 SSD, uses a PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface.
