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Crucial just forayed into the low-cost SSD market head-on, creating drives like the Crucial BX500 that are designed to draw users based only on price.. The Crucial P1 ($99.99 for the 1TB version we tested) is the company’s first PCI Express NVMe SSD, making Crucial a relative latecomer to this industry.

However, that has only been on the front of Serial ATA. The P1 meets the criteria for a low-cost SSD thanks to the usage of 3D QLC NAND flash memory. (One of the first drives to employ this novel sort of memory module was the Samsung SSD 860 QVO, which utilizes the SATA interface.) However, the P1, especially in the capacity tested here, falls far short of the average speed of PCI Express M.2 SSDs in doing so.

Although “PCI Express” and “NVMe” are listed in the specifications, the P1 is more of a pricing play than a speed play. This isn’t a deal-breaker for all buyers, but be aware of it.

Crucial P1 3D NVMe PCIe M.2 1TB specifications

The P1 series from Crucial offers sequential read/write throughput up to 2/1.75GB/s and random read/write IOPS up to 250,000/250,000. Performance varies according to the drive’s capacity, as mentioned above.

The P1 makes use of Crucial’s Hybrid-Dynamic Write Acceleration technology to reach these speeds. Although the P1’s firmware is exclusive to Micron, the features it offers are strikingly similar to those of Intel’s SSD 660p, which also happens to use the identical parts.

The P1 has an SLC buffer that ingests incoming data to improve performance, like the majority of contemporary SSDs. The implementation of buffering in Crucial works in two steps. The 500GB and 1TB models of the disk have fixed SLC buffer capacities of 5GB and 12GB, respectively. In addition to the fixed buffer, the drive also features a dynamic buffer that changes in size depending on how much data is being stored inside. Anywhere in the NAND array could have this buffer, which can use up to 14% of the available space. Thus, the 1TB model extends to 150GB, while the 500GB model should have a maximum buffer capacity of about 75GB.

The 2TB model won’t be available until November, although the 500GB and 1000GB (1TB) drives are. The MSRPs for the 500GB and 1TB models from Crucial are more than those of the Intel SSD 660p and the majority of SATA SSDs, but they are lower than those of the majority of other NVMe SSDs.

The P1 has a hefty five-year warranty, but endurance isn’t up to par for a QLC SSD standards. For every 500GB of SSD storage, the P1 can handle 100TB of data writes, translating to 200TBW for the 1TB variant. That is the same endurance rating as the 660p powered by Intel’s QLC. However, the opposition has raised the bar. Numerous NVMe SSDs in the 1TB class have durability ratings as high as 600TBW. Some SSDs, like the brand-new Corsair MP510, provide better endurance than the P1 by more than eight times. The MX500 from Crucial alone delivers nearly twice the endurance.

The NVMe low power modes are supported by the P1, therefore active power consumption is rated at just 100mW and rises to a maximum of 8W. It also boasts a remarkable 80mW rating for idle power usage. The P1 also incorporates a multi-step data integrity mechanism that guards against data loss and power loss prevention for data that is at rest.

The components are shielded from overheating by Crucial’s Adaptive Thermal Protection, and an additional layer of security is offered by the RAIN (Redundant Array of Independent NAND) technology, which offers device-level data redundancy.

The Crucial P1 does not support AES 256-bit hardware encryption, unlike many modern SSDs, such as the Crucial MX500 and Intel SSD 660p.

Crucial P1 3D NVMe PCIe M.2 1TB essential information

Capacity	1 TB
Form Factor	Single-sided M.2 2280
Interface	NVMe 1.3 PCIe 3.0 x4
Controller	Silicon Motion SM2263
NAND Flash	Micron 64L 3D QLC NAND
DRAM	1GB DDR3
Sequential Read	2000 MB/s
Sequential Write	1700 MB/s
Random Read	170k IOPS
Random Write	240k IOPS
SLC Write Cache (approximate)	12GB min 100GB max
Power Max	8W
Power Idle	2mW (PS4), 80mW (PS3)
Warranty	5 years
Write Endurance	200 TB
MSRP	$219.99

Crucial P1 3D NVMe PCIe M.2 1TB Performance & Tests

We didn’t expect the Crucial P1 to break any records because it is a member of the budget SSD club, and Crucial’s stated speeds for this drive created reasonable expectations. But in comparison to other recent PCI Express solutions, we would have wanted to see it perform a little bit better than it did across the majority of our benchmarks. Despite this, it is still quite quick in comparison to a SATA SSD. The Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus serves as an example of mainstream PCI Express performance among the SSDs charted below, which are all PCI Express NVMe M.2 drives. The WD Blue SN500 is a PCI Express 3.0 x2, rather than x4, drive that uses less PCI Express lanes and is currently being assessed.

The Storage test in PCMark 8 is the first up, simulating typical disk accesses during operations like photo editing and online browsing. There aren’t many differences to note here…

The Crucial P1 performed comparably to the majority of the other drives we evaluated in this area. Nevertheless, no matter which drive is being scrutinized, it’s uncommon to observe significant variation in the PCMark 8 Storage test between PCI Express M.2 drives. SATA SSDs often function at one level, PCI Express drives as a whole at another, and so forth.

The Sequential Q32T1 trial of the Crystal DiskMark test is where things started to change.

Crucial P1 3D NVMe PCIe M.2 1TB performed significantly worse than the top PCI Express drives recently tested, with rates of just 1,932MBps read and 907MBps write. The Crystal Sequential tests model the best-case, straight-line transfers of huge data, and in this situation the drive performed poorly. The write scores were the lowest of our PCIe comparison group, even though these speeds far surpass those of common Serial ATA drives and the read results were not the worst PC Labs has observed among PCI Express drives. Despite this, they are not unexpected; at 1,900MBps for sequential reads and 950MBps for writes, they are in line with Crucial’s stated maximums for the drive at the 500GB capacity. (The 1TB version of this drive has a substantially higher estimated write-speed ceiling.)

The AS-SSD transfer-test results showed more of the same average, but generally acceptable, outcomes.

In this test, the drive copies a large ISO file, two sizable folders (typical game and program folders), and two sizable files (typical game and program folders) from one point on the drive to another. Similar priced competitors like the Mushkin Pilot just outperform the P1 in this instance when it comes to transferring ISO files, however it holds up well while transferring software files and game folders.

Final Thoughts on Crucial P1 3D NVMe PCIe M.2 1TB

Cost will come down. The P1 is the first inexpensive SSD that allows you to overlook the occasional really sluggish write by saving you enough money. Spend at least an additional $80 on WD’s Black SN750 NVMe if you want fast sustained throughput when copying more than 50GB of data (or perhaps 25GB with the 500GB version). Your decision.