Since Crucial is arguably the most conservative of all Tier-1 SSD manufactures today it should come as no surprise that the new ‘Pro’ shipping container is very similar to the older one used in their ‘P’ series. Albeit now with a bit more punch via the inclusion of gray to go along with their use of white. To be blunt, this new Pro shipping container is noticeably more attractive than the older “P” models. All the while not being garish, gaudy, or gauche; and instead it exudes a sense of self-confidence one would expect from a flagship model’s shipping container.
Make no mistake, the colors are about all that has changed. The outside of these cardboard boxes still includes not only all the details one would need to make an informed decision (right down to bluntly stating that the denude variant must be used with heatsinks) but also a nicely (near full size) color image of the T700 housed inside. The only minor point of contention is once again the only way to tell a 1TB from a 2TB or 4TB is via a small label. Thus, making it easy to mistakenly pick up the wrong capacity.
Also as expected, the internal protection has not changed one iota from the P series. It consists of a multi-part ‘clamshell’ type plastic container that ensures the T700 is securely held in the center of the box where any blunt force trauma must first ‘crumple’ said clamshell before any can be transferred on to the T700. Overall, the new Pro series’ shipping container(s) takes the best from its predecessors while at the same time putting a newer, and more confident, spin on things.
Let us start with large, neon pink, elephant in the room. This is a PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD. Not a PCIe 4.0 SSD. The largest and most noticeable change in moving from PCIe 4.0 x4 to a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface is the theoretical bandwidth this new standard has to offer. With PCIe 3.0 each lane was good for about 985MB/s – or about 3.9GB/s in four lane configurations. PCIe 4.0 each lane was good for about 1.97GB/s per lane – or a theoretical bandwidth of about 7.88GB/s.
PCIe 5.0 once again ‘doubles’ the theoretical bandwidth of each lane to a whopping 3.94GB/s… or basically the same as four PCIe 3.0 lanes. Thus, giving any PCIe 5 x4 device a bus that is 15.76GB/s wide. Theoretically speaking that is. The reality is the likelihood of continuously “maxing out” the bus in unlikely. There is always rando-overhead that comes into play that is not accounted for in the ECC overhead and as such ~15.5GB/s is a more realistic maximum for this generation of NVMe drives.
On the surface that screams “MOAR POWER!”… and while true, there are some caveats that go along with the change to the latest and greatest PCIe bus. For example, does this mean the T700 is fully capable of taking advantage of the wider bus? No. The reason for this is manyfold but most due to power consumption and heat production. Let’s break it on down on why this is the case.
