Recently we took a long hard look at the Crucial T705 Pro 1TB and walked away impressed with the value that it offers. The one caveat to the T705 1TB is the fact that ‘value’ is relative. For enthusiasts, and power users, paying less than 2 bills (USD) is a very good deal. However, for many the very idea of spending even $150 USD for their OS drive is just not feasible. Crucial has been well aware of this need of a second string in their lineup and this more value option once was called the P5 series and then their P5 Plus. With the all new T500 series that all changes. Yes, the venerable P5 Plus is finally getting retired… ish.
We say retired’ish because the P5 Plus is a favorite of budget friendly builders and its extremely reasonable $85 (nude) and $92 (OEM heatsink equipped version) is pretty much a siren song. A siren song that the T500 is not able to match… as the 1TB worth of 2400MT/s B58R Replacement Gate NAND used in the T500 probably costs more than that. Yes, even with Crucial officially End Of Life’ing the P5 Plus there is a relative flood of them still widely available and will be available for the next quarter or three. Those facts transform ‘large shoes to fill’ into a massive undertaking. One that has to be done very delicately as you are trying to replace a cult classic / favorite / etc. in the hearts and minds of many.
To do this Crucial’s engineers opted for a different strategy. One that does not rely upon rock bottom prices to sell the T500 to buyers… as the 1TB capacity version’s MSRP starts at $120 (non-heatsink) and goes to $130 for the OEM heatsink equipped version. As such, instead of recylcing the P5 Plus strategy of being ‘good enough at a low enough’ price point, the T500 is based around tech innovation and even performance. For techies the idea of playing with some of the best NAND on the market today and doing so without breaking the back is pretty much the same as showing catnip to a cat jonesing for their daily fix.
However, Crucial did not stop there. They also have given the T500 another ‘hook’ in the form of being one of the first Phison E25 models. These days when a marketing blurb mentions ‘PCIe 4’ and ‘4 channel controller’ in the same sentence we usually stop reading. We stop and move on as ‘everyone knows’ 4 channel controllers are rock bottom, entry level controllers that will pretty much offer either dumpster fire… or flaming dumpster fire levels of ‘performance’. The Phison E25 promises to be different. So radically different this 4-channel controller based SSD series promises to be one of the fastest PCIe 4.0 models ever released. Mix in the fact that this is not a DRAM-less based SSD (which is a polite way of saying Dumpster Fire filled with Baby Diapers levels of performance). All for only twelve (denude) to thirteen cents a Gigabyte?! Now that sounds like an interesting combination. One worthy of investigation, and possibly even ending up on knowledgeable buyers short list of M.2 options even if it fails to unseat the P5 Plus as the value option of choice for budget builds.
