Performance: 32 out of 40
Yes. Eagled eyed readers will take note of the fact that even though this 2280 edition’s overall performance is the same as the 2230 P310 2TB we have scored the 2280 edition lower. This is because while the standard P310 series is being held to a 2230 class standard, the 2280 is in the big boi leagues with big boy competition. Against the likes of the Crucial T500 the P310 is going to be somewhat slower. Still excellent for game drive (and similar) duties, but nevertheless slower. Thus a lower performance score. With that said. The P310 heatsink edition’s ability to handle “adverse conditions” better than the T500 does warrant a caveat. If such a scenario applies to your specific build we would suggest adding in 3 additional points to the final score as this is one easy drive to work with. Mix in very good RAID performance and in certain edge cases this is easily a 35 or even 36 out of 40 drive.
Technological Innovation: 17 out of 20
Much like overall performance score is slightly reduced compared to its smaller sibling so too is the Technological Innovation reduced. Make no mistake this is a very, very innovative model. It is just that some of the innovation is… in the wrong direction. Crucial should have taken the time to tack on an extra NAND IC or two to allow the 2280 edition to outperform its smaller 2230 variant. They did not, and that is not very innovative, is it? Counter-acting this cost cutting is the fact that the P310 2280 edition still offers darn near PCIe 4.0 bus saturating (read) speeds. It sips power. It runs as cool as a cucumber. All of which buyers will love, and that is also innovative. Just not an across the board innovation that will apply to every buyer or ever build.
Build Quality & Warranty: 17 out of 20
Unlike the previous two scores, the 2280 edition does rank higher than the standard P310 edition. It does so because it does not force you to use bodges or ‘adapters’ to get the darn thing to work in the vast… vast majority of devices. That counts for a lot in our books. Mix in the cool running, nature with the fact that this drive does offer rather good performance and there is not much to dislike (beyond the lack of additional NAND ICs). The same goes for the warranty. The Total Bytes Written specification is a little on the low side for our tastes, but it is still ‘good enough’. Even for the extended five year warranty period. Which once again beats the snot out of most other companies feeble three years.
Value: 19 out of 20
There are no ‘ifs’. There are no ‘buts’… and there certainly is no coconuts when it comes to the overall value of the 2280 edition of the P310 series. It is a fan-fuu…err… fan-favorite-fantastic. Great warranty period. Great (low) heat output. Standard form-factor. Heatsink and non-heatsink editions. This all addsl add up to an easy to install, easy to use, and easy to (really) like M.2 drive.
Final Score : 85 out of 100
With its combination of low asking price(s) combined with surprisingly good adaptability the P310 2280 editions are an excellent edition to Crucial’s mainstream line up. Bluntly stated, when you mix ease of installation (with nearly zero worries over thermal limiting) with good enough levels of performance and then give said creation an asking price of under 7 cents per Gigabyte there is not much room to complain about the quirks. Put another way Crucial has finally fully filled the hole in their M.2 2280 line-up where the aged-out P5 Plus series used to reside. As long as you don’t expect it to perform like a T500 class drive you will love what this fully-fleshed out series now has to offer.
