With a string of PCIe 5 SSD launches already in recent months, Crucial is refreshing the rest of its line-up and the P310 aims to offer upper PCIe 4 speeds, competing with the likes of the Samsung 990 Pro and WD SN850X. However, its first goal was to offer an SSD in the shorter 2230 M.2 form factor for mobile gaming devices such as the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally. This time its a full size 2280 SSD for PCs and laptops.
Crucial P310 specifications and price
At $95 for 1TB and $150 for 2TB it’s actually slightly more expensive than Crucial’s own excellent T500. It does undercut Samsung’s 990 Pro, which is around $15 more for 1TB for example, so is reasonably priced for a modern high-end PCIe 4 SSD. However, pricing is absolutely critical with SSDs as capacity nearly always wins with real-world performance often not mirroring benchmark results, especially when it comes to sequential speeds and how they impact general workloads.
The SSD is comparatively simple in quite a few ways. The 1TB model reviewed here has just the Phison E27T PCIe Gen 4 controller and single 3D QLC NAND flash memory module on a single side. This should mean it’s easier to install onto motherboards with heatsinks too. It’s also DRAM-less, so there’s no DRAM cache.
The 1TB model has an endurance rating of 220TBW and the issue here is that while this is a much newer SSD, the T500 has nearly three times the endurance at 600TBW for the same 1TB capacity. Still, that equates to writing 44TB a year across its five year warranty.
Crucial P310 performance and temperatures
Starting with temperatures and bolted to our motherboard with no heatsink attached and the SSD eventually hit 80°C, which is toasty but entirely expected given this is a PCIe 4 SSD capable of reading data at around 7000MB/sec. It should just be possible to do without a heatsink under low loads, but if you plan on dealing with hundreds of gigabytes of data on a regular basis, a heatsink is essential.
The benchmark results are below and we can see that the P310 outperforms the older T500 in a number of tests, but that in some the T500 is still faster. It definitely has the measure of WD’s Blue SN5000, although it is cheaper and has a higher endurance rating.
Should you by the Crucial P310?
As previously mentioned, a lot comes down to price here and the fact the Crucial P310 wasn’t much faster than Crucial’s own T500 PCIe 4 SSD, which is available for a little less if you shop around, means that it could be a better bet, especially as it has a much higher endurance rating and better performance in some tests.
The Crucial P310 did seem to run cooler overall and performing as it did with no DRAM cache was impressive too, making it a slightly better choice if you have a laptop or motherboard with a meagre heatsink. The launch pricing will likely come down too, which means it will only become a more attractive option when that happens.
