58 PCWorld SEPTEMBER 2020REVIEWS CRUCIAL P5 SSD
The P5 was impressive in the 48GB read/
write tests too, though again, the contest was
very tight.
Where reality struck home was in the
450GB write test. Obviously the P5 ran out of
SLC cache, though it was so far into the
process (about 300GB) that we can think of
few real-world scenarios where you’d actually
see the slowdown.
It’s not alone in this behavior, as you can
see. Of the midrange 1TB drives we’ve tested,
only the Kingston KC2500 (go.pcworld.com/
knkc) shown here doesn’t slow down. Note
that as an SSD fills up, there’s less NAND
available for cache, so long writes will slow
down. We test with the drive empty, so this is
best-case performance.
Regardless of when a slowdown happens,Crucial P5 SSD (1TB)
PROS- Excellent everyday performance.
- Great bang for buck.
CONS - Will slow down during very long writes.
BOTTOM LINE
99.99 percent of the time the P5 will perform
competitively with NVMe SSDs costing far more. An
excellent midpriced product from Crucial.
$150
The P5 ran out of cache during our 450GB write
tests, as do most midrange NVMe SSDs. The
exception is the Kingston KC2500. The winner
here, Seagate’s outstanding FireCuda 520, is a
top-tier drive.450GB write450GB write
Seconds1,20 01,24 0SHORTER BARS INDICATE BETTER PERFORMANCE257360Crucial P5 WD Black NVMe SN750
Kingston KC2500 Seagate FireCuda 520it does happen with most midrange drives—
so there’s still a reason to go for a pro-level
drive. Unless of course you consider
Kingston’s midrange KC2500: Its synthetic
benchmark tests aren’t as impressive as those
of other drives, but it rocks in long transfers.
Testing is performed on Windows 10
64-bit running on a Core i7-5820K/Asus X99
Deluxe system with four 16GB Kingston
2666MHz DDR4 modules, a Zotac (Nvidia)
GT 710 1GB x2 PCIe graphics card, and an
Asmedia ASM2142 USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps)
card. Also on board are a Gigabyte
GC-Alpine Thunderbolt 3 card and
Softperfect’s Ramdisk 3.4.6, which is used
for the 48GB transfer tests.BOTTOM LINE
The P5 is an excellent midrange SSD that can
run with the big drives in everyday
performance, and even in all but the most
demanding long transfers. It’s a short-lister for
sure. Nice job, Crucial.