Testing
The following system was used to test the SSD and all competing SSDs:
– Processor: Intel i7 13700K @ 5.4GHz
– Motherboard: Biostar Z790 Valkyrie
– RAM: Neo Forza MDK5 DDR5 96GB 6000MHz
– Graphics Card: MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Suprim X
– SSD: NeoForza NFP075 2TB
– HDD: N/A
– PSU: Seasonic Prime TX-1000
– CPU Cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer II 240
– Case: be quiet! Silent Base 802 White
– OS: Windows 10 64-Bit (After April Update)
To test the SSD, the following software was used:
– ATTO Disk Benchmark,
– CrystalDiskMark 8,
– Shadow of the Tomb Raider;
– Windows File Copy.
In order to obtain a precise result each test was performed three times.
CrystalDiskMark 8 – Read
CrystalDiskMark 8 – Write
ATTO Disk Benchmark Read
ATTO Disk Benchmark Write
Shadow of the Tomb Raider – Level Loading
File Copy Test
Windows File Copy
Temperature
Final thoughts
The Crucial P5 Plus 1TB is an M.2 SSD that plays it safe in terms of design, and especially in terms of performance and price. The performance if this drive is excellent with good reading and writing speeds across the board. However, some competing PCIe 4.0 SSDs are performing better and are not more expensive.
The highlight of the P5 Plus 1TB is the usage of brand-new components: a new eight-channel DM02A1 controller, new B47R 176-layer flash memory chips and of course a DRAM cache chip. All these give the P5 Plus the edge when compared to other more classic M.2 SSDs, especially the DM02A1 controller.
While in some synthetic benchmarks the Crucial P5 Plus did not perform as well as you’d expect. In the real-world testing, the SSD did very well, especially in file copy tests but also in video game loading level testing. And to be honest, this is where everyone wants to see the best performance for an SSD, especially gamers and work station users.
As more and more developments are made in the M.2 SSD field, an issue started to appear more and more, high temperature. While many M.2 SSDs, especially those that use high end controllers, will require dedicated heatsinks to stay below the thermal throttling point, the P5 Plus does not have those issues. In fact, the temperature of this SSD is impressive, it did not hit its thermal throttle point while testing it. And keep in mind, this was all done without the usage of a heatsink or some special metallic label to dissipate some of the heat. For a price of 90USD, you cannot really go wrong with this SSD, even though there are better models out there, the Crucial P5 Plus is still a good choice for a gaming or even a work station system.
In conclusion, the Crucial P5 Plus 1TB is a great M.2 SSD for both gaming and work usage. This SSD not only performs good but it stays cool even after hours of constant benchmarking. And this is impressive, especially since the P5 Plus does not have a heatsink or a special label to drop the temperatures. And you will get all this performance and brand-new components for under 90 USD.
