Verdict
The Crucial T700 is an exceptionally well - round off PCIe 5.0 SSD . It does n’t precisely swash the barn door off in terms of random 4 kibibyte functioning , but it ’s comparable to pretty much every PCIe 5.0 cause at this price dot . The T700 comes with some telling temperature reduction to kicking , without going the active fan route . If you ’re search for a whole , dependable , top - grade PCIe 5.0 SSD for your physique , the T700 is a firm pick .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
At first glance , the Crucial T700 looks like any anotherPCIe5.0 drive , with blistering sequentials , large capacities , a chunky heatsink and a big price tag , but that only recite part of the level .
Many PCIe 5.0 drives are , in essence , very similar . All of them I ’ve prove feature the same controller , Phison ’s E26 , free-base on TSMC ’s 12 micromillimetre process tech . All of them are using Micron ’s 232 - Layer 3D TLC NAND , and the majority of them have some form of orotund tank to alleviate the increase heat energy and power draws we ’ve seen from this fresh generation .
That said , it ’s the microcode in between these drives that severalize them from one another , so although performance is and can be very similar between them , those moments where one drive trumps another , largely issue forth down to firmware adjustment , rather than any hardware difference . have ’s plunk in .
Specs
So , top - stemma specification , Phison ’s E26 control , base on that 12 nm architecture ( think of a restrainer as yourSSD’sCPU , organizing and directing data to and from the cause under request ) . It ’s found on the Arm Cortex - R5 architecture and features two cores , capable of managing SSDs up to 4 TB in capacitance .
That ’s been paired with Micron ’s 232 - Layer TLC NAND Flash storage . The latest , in 3D NAND development , and arguably the best out there decently now , until other manufacturers cpatch up . That ’s then combined with a small amount ofLPDDR4cache , to play as effectively a hyper - immobile buffer , for modest transfer off and on the drive itself . Although we do n’t have an exact numeral on how big that buffer is at this mental ability , we do know that Gigabyte ’s likewise performing Aorus 12000 features a 4 GB buffer , so my money ’s on something similar for this building block as well .
Full Specs
As for cooling , the T700 feature an impressive full aluminum environment , with a atomic number 28 - plate copper contact , complete with an telling fin conception to help shift that temporary . It is however outstandingly tall , sure enough compared to the likes of Crucial ’s ownPCIe 4.0SSDs the T500 and P5 Plus . Unlike those latter two , designed predominantly for use in thePlayStation 5 , the T700 does n’t quite have the same form factor making it out or keeping with the console with its own heatsink . An alternate solution would be to acquire a non - Crucial heatsink that would fit in the console but it ’s not something we ’re capable to try , and this superfast SSD should sure as shooting be used with a heatsink so going without is not an choice .
Test Setup
I ’ve been hands - on testing the Crucial T700 for the last week or so , fox it against some earnestly aggressive storage benchmark to see just how it tick . I ’ve also compared it against a number of its rivals in exactly the same bench mark to really get to suitcase with just how this matter performs in the marketplace .
To ensure all of those test results are logical and we ’ve amaze fair comparisons across all drives , I ’m using a consistent tryout seam , take advantage of one of the good PCIe 5.0 motherboards out there , used in conjugation with Intel ’s Core i7 - 14700 K to ensure those bottlenecks remain non - actual exterior of the SSD itself . you could find my full spec leaning below :
As for the trial themselves , I ’m taking reward of a multitude of different trend , including a mix of tangible - world and synthetic tests . For the latter , Crystal Disk Mark 8 is my go - to . I ’ve kept that in its farm animal shape , so you could easily compare at home , and queue depth stay at Q8 T1 for consecutive , and Q32 T1 for 4 K ( although we ’ll primarily be focused on Q1 T1 for 4 kelvin anyway just as a head - up ) . Other synthetical tests admit PCMark ’s Quick System Drive and Data Drive benchmark , as well .
For real - creation testing , I ’m using a hybrid test in the shape of Final Fantasy XIV ’s graphics benchmark . This unique bench mark allow us to direct the examination itself immediately on each SSD we chose , and run it directly from the drive , which will then give us load times for each benchmark running . I ’ve also paired that with a real - world written matter psychometric test , take a copy of Red Dead Redemption II ( at 117 GB ) , post it on the ride first , and then strictly copying that once again onto the effort , then timing the solution .
Performance
Unsurprisingly , the Crucial T700 perform praiseworthily across our mental test - suite , clocking in some seriously telling numbers , particularly in the sequential section . In fact , compare to every other PCIe 5.0 drive we ’ve test it actually beats the lot , top out at 12,366 MB / s on read , and 11,531 on write . Jump down the queue profundity a spot however , to Q1 and the Aorus Gen5 12000 and T700 start trading blows , one beating it on read , the other on write , it ’s a tight contender .
Random 4 K performance ( more consanguineous to what you ’d get loading textures in - game , or scene exclusively ) , shifts the battle further , with the T700 somewhat edging the Aorus on the read amphetamine ( by literally 3MB / s ) yet suffer on the write by just 6 MB / s. near indeed .
What ’s more surprising is how that read to the real world testing however . Load times in FFXIV are remarkably dissimilar , with the T700 being 0.20 seconds behind the Aorus Gen5 12000 , and a skilful six seconds behind in the 120 GB File copy trial run as well .
It ’s hard to say as to what ’s causing this , both drives are test , stripped , under the Asus ROG Z790 Dark Hero ’s heatsink , so it ’s sure enough not a temperature issue . I can only deduce that it ’s something to do with the caching root on the T700 , being not quite as potent as the Aorus Gen5 12000 ’s . Still , in both scenarios , you ’d really struggle to spot that in your day - to - day performance .
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Should you buy it?
The Crucial T700 presents some faultless operation when it come to pretty much every storage metric you could measure . It repeatedly trades blows with its contender , yet with a comparatively average - sized heatsink still delivers when push button comes to shove .
Interestingly , Crucial ’s own T705 PCIe 5.0 SSD is currently touted as the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSD out there , topping out at 14 GB / s on sequential read alone . Although that comes at a far higher agio , it does provide some meaning carrying out welfare for big dataset transfers that the standard T700 does n’t .
Final Thoughts
of the essence , and its parent party Micron , have delivered here . The T700 is one of thebest SSDsaround . It ’s a top - tier PCIe 5.0M.2SSD more than capable of driving some of the best performance you’re able to find on the connection touchstone .
It ’s not perfect , some of the competition dumbfound it in the real - cosmos trial , particularly theGigabyte Aorus Gen5 12000 , and its ownT500PCIe 4.0 drive represents far well value . That suppose , it ’s still an implausibly well - rounded cause , that ’ll serve you well moving forward , regardless of how PCIe 5.0 drive develop .
Trusted Score
How we test
Each SSD we test utilizes a mix of both synthetic and real - mankind bench mark tests . On top of that , we also use several price - to - functioning metric and monitor temperature and business leader draw to shape the long - condition stableness and price - effectiveness of the campaign .
FAQs
The Crucial T700 with heatsink can not be used with the PlayStation 5 . The T700 can fit inside the PS5 but we do not recommend using it without a heatsink . If you buy an aftermarket heatsink , it is viable the T700 could fit inside the PS5 with a pocket-size heatsink but we ca n’t propose on performance and compatibility due to the wide range of options , and having not test this ourselves .
