Verdict
The all-important P5 Plus is getting long in the tooth . It still represents a simple result for expanding your storage , however , there are several superior PCIe 4.0 picks out there that ’ll do a better chore . Elsewhere you ’ll retrieve upright random 4 K and successive performance for not much more financial expenditure .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Crucial ’s P5 Plus first found right smart back in 2021 , alongside the launching of thePlayStation 5 . Although you could in effect install any PCIe SSD into the cabinet , hotness was a major concern , as air flow and combat-ready chilling in the expanding upon one-armed bandit were incredibly modified .
The P5 Plus emerged as one of the few drive available at the time , specifically designed for function in the console , and amount with an impressive low - profile heatsink as well , to keep things cool as it ran .
A lot has change since the initial launch of Crucial ’s P5 Plus , most notably the PCIe 4.0 platform has matured considerably , and there are now a numeral of top-notch low-cost , high - perform campaign out there . The dubiousness is then , even with its pregnant toll cut , does the 2 TB Crucial P5 Plus still hold its own compared to the challenger ?
Specs
The Crucial P5 Plus is a fairly standard affair at this point . Although we do n’t know for sure what precisely the controller is , we know it ’s of a proprietary excogitation invent by Crucial itself ( in all likelihood in collaboration with its parent company Micron ) . All we roll in the hay for certain is that it still takes vantage ofLPDDR4cache , and that it ’s capable of handling up to 2 TB of NAND amount .
Speaking of NAND , the P5 Plus is utilising Micron ’s 176 - bed 3D TLC NAND Flash . That ’s not quite as advanced as the 232 - bed NAND we ’re seeing in a band of PCIe 5.0 drives , or even in the important T500 , but it ’s still enough quick enough , although significantly less dumb , which could very well be a boastful part of why we ’re only seeing capacity up to 2 TB with this special cause .
Full Specs
The heatsink , is removable in design , secure by four torx headspring screw . It ’s a sleek , depressed - visibility building block , contrive to fit in perfectly with the PS5 ’s M.2 expansion bay but , otherwise , there ’s not a huge amount to talk about here . PCIe 4.0 parkway are far cooler than their PCIe 5.0 cousin-german , such as the Crucial T700 or Gigabyte ’s Aorus Gen5 12000 , so broadly speaking verbalize you really do n’t need anything too chunky .
Test Setup
Any good streamlet ofSSDbenchmarks commence with a becoming test bed . I ’ve spent the last calendar week or so testing this SSD against a number of its competitors , running them all through all personal manner of synthetic and real - globe benchmark to get to grips with just how well these drives perform .
To insure we ’re not being bottlenecked by any other part , each drive is try out in the upmost PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot , on the Asus ROG Z790 Dark Hero motherboard , congratulate by an Intel Core i7 - 14700K. Wherever possible , I ’ve off the heatsink on each drive and direct them underneath the motherboard ’s massive M.2 heatsink to level the acting field .
you may notice the full system spec below :
For our synthetic tests , I ’m predominantly assume advantage of Crystal Disk Mark 8 , set up in its default configuration , to understand those random 4 K and sequential numeral ( and to see if they describe up with what ’s promote ) . I ’ve also incorporated run of PC Mark 10 ’s Quick System Drive and Data Drive bench mark as well to give us further data point .
When it comes to real - world performance , each push back undergoes two major test . The first , being three runs of Final Fantasy XIV ’s game bench mark . We can position this straight off on the drive itself , and run it from there , with the bench mark generate us load - fourth dimension upshot at the end , simulating what a secret plan load time might search like . And in conclusion , a real - world 120 GB file transcript test , which affect copying a stock edition of Red Dead Redemption II off our OS drive , onto the mental test drive , and then re-create that once more from the test drive , onto itself , and time how long that process takes .
I ’ve also incorporated several Leontyne Price - to - operation power as well . These are created by dividing either the highest sequential result or highest random 4 K effect by the movement ’s price in USD , and of course , the total electrical capacity by the USD price as well . This gives us a skilful indicator as to just which cause is thebest economic value SSDfor performance , and which is the skilful value for capacitance too .
Performance
That ’s unfortunate as random 4 K is typically representative of the form of scenario you ’d see when load game file . recall of sequential speeds as if you ’re copy and move lots of similar - sized file cabinet , say photos or videos , from one drive to another . Whereas Random 4 K is more akin to overstretch a texture here , a mesh model from there , an audio plus from another location and so forth .
Now in the main a good - sized DRAM cache should assuage those chokepoint , however , there come a peak , particularly in big file transfer sizes , where that becomes saturated and ca n’t keep up either .
This is really very clear from the real - human beings examination , where the P5 Plus meantime behind significantly , both in the FFXIV warhead time test clocking in at 8.04 , and the 120 GB file copy test , which took a grand total of 75.02 minute . equate that to the Crucial T500 ’s 7.23 seconds for Final Fantasy , and 44.13 seconds on the 120 GB file copy mental test , and you could see where exactly that supererogatory cache and denser TLC shines , which is in particular painful as there ’s only a $ 33 price difference between both 2 TB drives .
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Should you buy it?
It might not be the immediate out of the blocks , but the P5 Plus still does what you need it to in your PlayStation 5 . It fork out solid sequential speeds and decorous cargo times . It might not be as quick as modern - day equivalents , but at its current pricing , it ’s an ideal pickaxe for those on a budget .
If you have just a touch more hard cash useable you should chuck the P5 Plus and head directly to pick up something like Crucial ’s T500 instead . Not only does that drive mop the story with the P5 Plus in full term of real - humans tests and random 4 K performance , but it even competes with some PCIe 5.0 solutions too .
Final Thoughts
Crucial ’s P5 Plus is a product of its metre . Back during the launch of the PlayStation 5 , having a solid , dependable , rapid PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD like this would have been a secret plan - changer . However , as the PCIe 4.0 program has matured , and computer hardware become more sophisticated , we ’ve seen significant carrying into action increase across the control panel , and for not much more money too .
If you ’re really after a decent PS5 drive , like one of thebest SSDsaround , I recommend checking out theCrucial T500instead . If you ’re using this in a PC , as a lowly game drive , however , 2 TB at this terms compass point , with PCIe 4.0 sequential swiftness is a very nice piece of outfit to have . Just do n’t expend it for your OS .
Trusted Score
How we test
Each SSD we prove employ a mix of both synthetic and material - world bench mark test . On top of that , we also apply some cost - to - performance metrics and monitor temperature and mightiness attracter to determine the long - term stability and cost - effectiveness of the drive .
FAQs
Yes , you could set up the P5 Plus into any Playstation 5 .
While the P5 Plus does perform well , it ’s not the best , Crucial ’s T500 is a more innovative combining weight with skillful performance .
