It's been two years since the launch of the Crucial T700, the company's fastest Gen5 SSD. Delivering up to 12.4 GB/s speeds, the T700 was phenomenal throughout our tests, and leveraged Phison's E28 controller. The company also introduced its follow-up, the T705, which features up to 14.5 GB/s speeds.
Now, Crucial is unveiling its new flagship product, The T710, which pushes things up to the next level, and leverages Silicon Motion's SM2508 controller alongside Micron's G9 NAND Flash. These combinations are helping T710 deliver well over 14 GB/s speeds which is a new benchmark for high-performance SSDs.
One of the biggest changes for the T710, besides the SMI controller, is the use of Micron's G9 NAND, which is both faster, and denser. With up to 276 layers, the new TLC NAND technology delivers IO speeds of up to 3.6 GB/s, a 50% boost over the current NAND, all in a package that is 28% smaller with a package area of 11.5mm x 13.5mm per NAND module.
For today's review, we will be taking a look at Crucial's T710 PCIe Gen 5 NVMe SSDs. Our sample is a 2 TB model which retails for $279.99 US for the non-heatsink, and $299.99 US for the heatsink version.
Crucial T710 PRO 1 TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD
The Crucial T710 Gen5 SSD now the flagship product within the PRO T-Series lineup. The Crucial T710 Gen5 SSDs are based on the NVMe SSD form factor and feature the latest Micron 276-layer G9 TLC NAND flash which offers larger capacities of up to 4 TB, & full compliance with Microsoft's DirectStorage API. The Crucial T700 SSDs are based on the high-end Silicon Motion SMI2508 SSD controller which is in use by some of the fastest Gen5 drives at the moment.
FEATURES
- Sequential reads/writes: Up to 14,900/13,800MB/s
- Capacity: 1TB, 2TB and 4TB2 with and without heatsink
- Form factor: PCIe 5.0 NVMe M.2 (2280)
- Warranty: 5-year limited warranty
- Endurance (TBW): Up to 2400TBW
- Random reads/writes (IOPS): Up to 2.2M/2.3M
- AES-256 encryption with TCG Opal 2.01+
- Microsoft DirectStorage optimized firmware
As for the specs, the Crucial T710 Gen5 NVMe SSDs will come with the standard NVMe 2.0 PCIe Gen 5 x4 interface in the M.2 2280 form factor. It will feature 1 TB, 2 TB, and up to 4 TB capacities with a rated speed of up to 14.9 GB/s (Sequential Read) and 13.8 GB/s (Sequential Write). Furthermore, these T710 Gen5 SSDs will be available in a Non-heatsink and Heatsink option, but will drop the active-fan cooler which means that you don't have to worry about extra noise in your PC when running these.
Compared to the T705, the Crucial T710 delivers 42% higher random writes, 28% higher random writes, 9% higher sequential writes, 24% reduction in average power while adopting the L1.2 NVMe low-power mode, and a 47% shorter heatsink which comes with embedded RGB LEDs.
Note - The 2 TB model that we tested had a peak sequential read speed of 14,500 & a write speed of 13,800 MB/s. The Random Reads and Writes IOPS were rated at 2.2M/2.3M IOPS & endurance was rated at 1200 TBW. The prices are as follows:
- T710 1.0 TB No Heatsink - $179.99 US
- T710 2.0 TB No Heatsink - $279.99 US
- T710 4.0 TB No Heatsink - $549.99 US
- T710 1.0 TB W/ Heatsink - $199.99 US
- T710 2.0 TB W/ Heatsink - $299.99 US
- T710 4.0 TB W/ Heatsink - $569.99 US
Crucial T710 Gen5 SSD Lineup Specifications:
Crucial T710 Gen5 NVMe SSD – Unboxing and Closer Look
The Crucial T710 SSD comes in a fairly standard and small package with a blue and black color scheme. The labels do a great job at telling what SSD you are getting since the capacities, speeds and warranty are clearly mentioned along with a picture of the device itself which makes sure you know if you are getting the heatsink and the non-heatsink SSD.
The Crucial PRO SSD series box includes a warranty booklet and the SSD itself. All drives are held within a plastic shell container.
Out of the package, all Crucial Pro series SSDs come in the standard M.2 2280 form factor and feature a black PCB which is great since some mainstream drives come with blue-colored PCBs.
The front of the drive comes with the Crucial sticker and model label.
The Crucial T710 features the Silicon Motion SMI2508 Gen5 SSD controller with two Micron G9 NAND flash modules and a LPDDR4-4266 (2 GB) DRAM IC.
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. The MSI Z790 ACE specifically houses a single Gen 5.0 x4 NVMe slot that sources its lanes from the Raptor Lake CPU.
Wccftech SSD Test Setup For Gen5:
| Processor | Intel Core i9-13900K |
|---|---|
| Motherboard: | MSI MEG Z790 ACE |
| Power Supply: | MSI MEG Ai1300P (1300W) |
| Solid State Drive: | Team Group T-Force GC PRO 2 TB Gen5 Crucial T710 PRO 2 TB Gen5 Samsung 9100 PRO 2 TB Gen5 KLEVV Genuine G560 2 TB Gen5 ADATA Legend 970 Pro 2 TB Gen5 MSI Spatium M580 Frozr 4 TB Gen 5 PNY XLR8 CS3150 2 TB Gen 5 MSI Spatium M570 Pro 2 TB Gen 5 Team Group T-Force CARDEA Z540 2 TB Gen 5 Inland TD510 2 TB Gen 5 Crucial T700 Gen 5 2 TB AORUS Gen 5 10000 2 TB |
| 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 T710 2 TB Gen5 NVMe 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 - Another Incremental Update To Gen5 Standard
Crucial has been setting new standards within the Gen5 segment since the launch of its T700. The T700 was the fastest drive when it launched, the T705 became the fastest drive when it launched, and now, with the T710, Crucial is once again gunning for the throne.
In terms of performance, the Crucial T710 makes a big change to Silion Motion's SM2508 controller, but it still delivers storage-shattering performance with lower temperatures and reduced power input. The T710 is a solid storage solution within the enthusiast segment, and as expected, it sits right at the top of our benchmark suite. We saw far reduced temperatures than what we saw on early Gen5 drives running with out an heatsink. The drive also comes with a heatsink variant for a little extra which will suit those who want to use the T710 under rigorous conditions.
Temperatures
As for the pricing, the 2 TB model starts at $279 which is on par with similar 2 TB Gen5 drives. The Samsung 9100 PRO 2 TB retails for $300 US but currently is on discount for $240 US, making it $40 US cheaper than the Crucial T710. The T710 does beat the 9100 PRO but these two are very near to one another. Similar to Samsung, Crucial has the headroom to adjust prices of its drives easily, as such, we are sure that the T710 will be price-matched in the next few months, making it the far superior choice for enthusiast users. So overall, the Crucial T710 is another solid, and crazy-fast Gen5 SSD release which accelerates the Gen5 standard to new heights.
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