While PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSDs are setting new storage performance benchmarks, the real-life and application benefits of getting those drives are still not worth the price you are paying for them. It's still very much an early adopter product for now and while we appreciate the speed-up, we would love to see the performance transition from synthetic benchmarks to actual use cases.
And you know what's still considered to be quite fast without breaking your wallet? The current-gen PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs. Gen 4 SSDs are now available at very affordable price rates and offer great performance. We recently tested the Crucial P310 SSD which comes in a 2230 form factor, offering great performance for gaming handhelds and the full 2280 variant without heatsink. Now, we are looking at the heatsink variant of the 2280 drive.
Today, I will be testing the Crucial P310 PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD. This is a high-end Gen 4.0 SSD that targets the handheld market and we have the 2 TB variant in our hands which retails for $137.99 US right now.
Crucial P310 2 TB (2280) PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD
The Crucial P310 is the latest addition to the Crucial SSD portfolio powered by Micron. We have tested loads of Crucial SSDs including their high-end Gen5 and Gen4 products. For the P310, the company offers a high-end storage solution based on Gen4 architecture. The Crucial P310 SSDs are based on the NVMe SSD form factor and feature QLC-based 3D NAND flash, offering up to 2 TB of capacity, better performance, and slightly lower power input.
The SSDs are based on the Phison E27t "PS5027" controller which is PCIe 4.0 compliant. The chip is based on TSMC's 12nm process node and features a Single-CPU architecture with a 32-bit microcontroller. Being a cheaper alternative to faster Gen4 drives, the SSD comes without a DRAM cache & only features an onboard HMB (Host Memory Buffer) but does support Phison's 5th Gen LDPEC, ECC & RAID ECC. The controller has a maximum voltage of 1.2V and supports both 3D TLC & QLC NAND with 4 channels and flash rates of up to 3600 MT/s. The SSD also features Micron 232-layer QLC NAND Flash.
As for the performance aspects, the Micron P310 2 TB SSD is rated at 7100 MB/s Read, 6000 MB/s Write, and an endurance of 440 TBW.
Crucial P310 2 TB (2280) w/Heatsink PCIe Gen4 SSD – Unboxing and Closer Look
The Crucial P310 2 TB SSD comes in the same standard package. The package is colored white/blue and it features a picture of the SSD. The front lists the 2 TB capacity & the 5-year warranty. The SSD is also compatible with the PlayStation 5.
The back of the package lists some specifications of the SSD and some performance figures which we will get to in a bit.
The Crucial P310 SSD package includes a manual and the SSD itself which is protected under a clamshell plastic case.
The front of the SSD has the standard sticker. This is the standard NVMe 1.4 standard & measures slightly more than the non-heatsink version.
Since the SSD comes with a pre-installed heatsink, you get better thermals and a non-worrisome experience.
There is a single NAND Flash chip and the Phison E27T Gen4 controller situated on the front. These NAND Flash chips are the "4FD2D-NY325" spec.
The front of the SSD heatsink lists the "P310" label.
The backside of the heatsink lists down a few specs.
The heatsink is a low-profile version and can be accommodated easily on the motherboard.
Test Setup
Our test platform for this review consisted of an Intel Core i9-13900K processor which ran at stock clocks on the MSI Z790 ACE motherboard. The platform was coupled with 32 GB of DDR5 memory from G.Skill (Trident Z5/ 16 GB x 2) and the MSI MEG Ai1300P PSU. For graphics, I used the MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X. This rounds up as a high-end platform for tests with modern-day SSDs.
Wccftech SSD Test Setup (2025):
| Processor | Intel Core i9-13900K |
|---|---|
| Motherboard: | MSI MEG Z790 ACE |
| Power Supply: | MSI MEG Ai1300P (1300W) |
| Memory: | G.Skill Trident Z5 DDR5-7400 (2 x 16 GB) |
| Case: | Cooler Master C700M |
| Video Cards: | MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X |
| Cooling Solutions: | MSI MEG S360 AIO Liquid Cooler |
| OS: | Windows 11 64-bit (24H2) |
Crucial P310 2 TB (2280) w/Heatsink PCIe Gen4 SSD Performance Benchmarks
First up, we have the official performance stats for these drives as listed by their manufacturers. You can compare these stats with the rest of the drives I tested in the following chart:
Official SSD Stats (MB/s)
AS SSD Benchmark
AS SSD Benchmark download is a Windows 10 utility software program that tests the performance of solid-state drives. With its help, you can find out the speed of all installed SSDs and take care of any issues that the tests may reveal. The free app performs three separate tests to provide you with conclusive evidence of your driver's general behavior while it copies, reads, and writes data. The app determines the access time of an SSD, along with its speed and performance capabilities
AS-SSD Benchmark
ATTO 3.05 Disk Benchmark
As the industry’s leading provider of high-performance storage & network connectivity products, ATTO has created a widely-accepted Disk Benchmark freeware software to help measure storage system performance. As one of the top tools utilized in the industry, Disk Benchmark identifies performance in hard drives, solid-state drives, RAID arrays as well as the host connection to attached storage. Top drive manufacturers, like Hitachi, build and test every drive using the ATTO Disk Benchmark.
The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturer's RAID controllers, storage controllers, host bus adapters (HBAs), hard drives, and SSD drives, and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.
ATTO v3.05 128 KB Sequential QD4
Crystal Disk Mark 7.0.0 x64
CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark software. It measures sequential reads/writes speed, random 512KB, 4KB, 4KB (Queue Depth=32) reads/writes speed, selects test data (Random, 0Fill, 1Fill),
Crystal Disk Mark 7.0.0 x64 SEQ1M Q8T1
Crystal Disk Mark 7.0.0 x64 4KiB Q1T1
File Transfer Speeds (100 GB File Size)
To test the maximum average transfer speeds of the drives, I used a 100 GB file to test the limits.
File Transfer Rate (MB/s)
PCMark 10 Storage Benchmark
The PCMark 10 Storage benchmark is designed to test the performance of SSDs, HDDs, and hybrid drives with traces recorded from Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, and a selection of popular games. You can test the system drive or any other recognized storage device, including local external drives. Unlike synthetic storage tests, the PCMark 10 Storage benchmark highlights real-world performance differences between storage devices.
PCMark 10 System Disk Storage Bench
PCMark 10 System Disk Access Times
Forspoken DirectStorage Benchmark
Forspoken DirectStorage Benchmark (Load Time In Seconds)
Conclusion - Crucial Brings Top Performance To Handheld & Portable Gamers
Crucial's P310 SSDs have already proven to be a great high-end solution for consumers' PCs in our earlier tests. The drive features a very similar design and spec as the non-heatsink version without any additional worries related to bottlenecks due to thermal throttling. We noticed up to 70C temps on the non-heatsink version whereas the heatsink version operates at around 50C under load.
Temperatures
In terms of pricing, the heatsink version of the 2 TB P310 retails for $137.99 US, which is $10 US higher than the non-heatsink version. This is a decent price given the performance on offer and deserves another recommendation from us.
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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