Performance: 37 out of 40.
The 500GB is slower than the 1TB. That is to say it is decent, but not as good as the 1TB P1 model. However, both offer a near doubling of performance when RAID’ed. To us this makes both almost tailor made for enthusiasts who are on a tight budget… as you do get a lot of performance for your money. Either way they are insanely fast when RAID’ed. RAID is where you want to be if you have a need for speed but cannot afford 3DXpoint / Optane solid-state drives.
Technological Innovation: 17 out of 20
Like it or not, QLC 4-bit NAND is innovative and is going to cause a paradigm shift in huge portions of the solid-state drive market. It is how Crucial was able to create a high performance NVMe series that is priced more like a SATA SSD series. That is innovative and is sure to give pause to other manufacturers who are relying on TLC NAND for their ‘entry level’ NVMe models. Mix in what is the best pSLC buffer Crucial has ever released, and there is a lot to like about the P1 from an innovation standpoint. By the same token this NAND is very heat sensitive… so for some a lot of this innovation and performance is going to be wasted. Yes, there is a bit of a downside to QLC NAND to say the least.
Build Quality & Warranty: 15 out of 20
On the one hand Crucial did make a few missteps – such not using a heat spreader – which limits the performance to basically dual PCIe lane SSD levels, and generally making rookie mistakes. On the other they did get the pSLC buffer right, they even managed to create a 1TB M.2 drive that is only single sided. They even included enough of a RAM buffer to make a difference. That is a lot of positives. When you add in a very decent .1 DWPD write rating for its 5 year warranty and we doubt many will have to RMA a P1 drive due to it dying an early death.
Value: 17 out of 20
As long as you can keep the P1 series cool, the value it offers varies from very good to excellent. With good being for single drive configuration P1 500GB, and excellent for P1 500GB when RAIDed. Needless to say the 500GB is a killer good deal and for those who can accommodate two M.2 drives – and keep both cool – buying two 500GB’ers actually makes a lot more sense than one 1TB.
Final Score: 86 out of 100
The Crucial P1 series all but cries out for RAID. In RAID they go from offering very good value to insanely good. The only difficult decision is whether or not to double your budget and get two P1 1TB’ers or keep to your budget and get two 500GB P1s. That is a tough call. Just remember that this series is heat sensitive and before you go the RAID route you need good cooling for both M.2 drives. If you can only provide good cooling for one M.2 port, the choice is obvious. Get a single P1 1TB capacity drive. If your budget can not stretch that far the 500GB P1 still offers good performance at a great price… just not as good as the 1TB when only used in single drive configuration.
