In early 2023, we got our first taste of the latest PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSDs , offering up to 10,000 MB/s read and write capabilities. These drives were fast, but we knew that faster drives would enter the market sooner or later as the technology matured. Furthermore, these Gen5 drives became more accessible to a wider range of audiences with the introduction of mainstream AMD & Intel boards.

While offering 10 GB/s speeds as a start, SSD manufacturers have quickly started rolling out faster drives by optimizing thermal designs and utilizing enhanced NAND solutions. Crucial has been at the top of the SSD game with their Gen5 series. Their T700 and T705 are some of the fastest drives on the market, and with the P510, the company is bringing the same Gen5 goodness to mainstream audiences.

For today's review, we will be taking a look at the , which comes equipped with a Phison E31 controller and is aimed at the mainstream storage segment with an MSRP set around $120 US.

Crucial P510 1 TB PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD

The Crucial P510 is the latest addition to the Crucial SSD portfolio, powered by Micron. We have tested loads of Crucial SSDs, including their high-end Gen5 and Gen4 products. For the P510, the company offers a high-speed storage solution based on Gen5 architecture. The Crucial P510 SSDs are based on the NVMe SSD form factor and feature TLC-based 3D NAND flash, offering up to 2 TB of capacity, better performance, and slightly lower power input.

The SSDs are based on the Phison E31 "PS5031-E31-61" controller, which is PCIe 5.0 compliant. The chip is based on TSMC's 7nm process node and features a single-core Cortex R5 CPU. Being a cheaper alternative to faster Gen4 drives, the SSD comes without a DRAM cache & only features an onboard HMB (Host Memory Buffer), but does support Phison's latest LDPEC, ECC & RAID ECC. The controller has a maximum power draw of 5W and supports both 3D TLC & QLC NAND with 4 channels and flash rates of up to 3600 MT/s. The SSD also features Micron 276-layer G9 3D TLC NAND Flash.

As for the performance aspects, the Micron P510 2 TB SSD is rated at 11,000 MB/s read, 9500 MB/s write, and an endurance of 600 TBW.

The Crucial P510 1 TB SSD comes in the same standard package. The package is colored white/blue, and it features a picture of the SSD. The front lists the 1 TB capacity & the 5-year warranty.

The back of the package lists some specifications of the SSD and some performance figures, which we will get to in a bit.

Our test platform for this review consisted of an Intel Core i9-13900K processor, which ran at stock clocks on the MSI Z790 ACE motherboard. The platform was coupled with 32 GB of DDR5 memory from G.Skill (Trident Z5/ 16 GB x 2) and the MSI MEG Ai1300P PSU. For graphics, I used the MSI GeForce RTX 4090 SUPRIM X. This rounds up as a high-end platform for tests with modern-day SSDs. The MSI Z790 ACE specifically houses a single Gen 5.0 x4 NVMe slot that sources its lanes from the Raptor Lake CPU.

Wccftech SSD Test Setup For Gen5:

Crucial P510 1 TB Gen5 NVMe SSD Performance Benchmarks

First up, we have the official performance stats for these drives as listed by their manufacturers. You can compare these stats with the rest of the drives I tested in the following chart:

AS SSD Benchmark

AS SSD Benchmark download is a Windows 10 utility software program that tests the performance of solid-state drives. With its help, you can find out the speed of all installed SSDs and take care of any issues that the tests may reveal. The free app performs three separate tests to provide you with conclusive evidence of your driver's general behavior while it copies, reads, and writes data.  The app determines the access time of an SSD, along with its speed and performance capabilities

ATTO 3.05 Disk Benchmark

As the industry’s leading provider of high-performance storage & network connectivity products, ATTO has created a widely accepted Disk Benchmark freeware software to help measure storage system performance. As one of the top tools utilized in the industry, Disk Benchmark identifies performance in hard drives, solid-state drives, RAID arrays, as well as the host connection to attached storage. Top drive manufacturers, like Hitachi, build and test every drive using the ATTO Disk Benchmark.

The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturer's RAID controllers, storage controllers, host bus adapters (HBAs), hard drives, and SSD drives, and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.

Crystal Disk Mark 7.0.0 x64

CrystalDiskMark is a disk benchmark software. It measures sequential reads/writes speed, random 512KB, 4KB, 4KB (Queue Depth=32) reads/writes speed, selects test data (Random, 0Fill, 1Fill),

File Transfer Speeds (100 GB File Size)

To test the maximum average transfer speeds of the drives, I used a 100 GB file to test the limits.

PCMark 10 Storage Benchmark

The PCMark 10 Storage benchmark is designed to test the performance of SSDs, HDDs, and hybrid drives with traces recorded from Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, and a selection of popular games. You can test the system drive or any other recognized storage device, including local external drives. Unlike synthetic storage tests, the PCMark 10 Storage benchmark highlights real-world performance differences between storage devices.

Forspoken DirectStorage Benchmark

Conclusion - Gen5 Becomes More Affordable & Cooler

Last year, when Gen5 SSDs were still a very new technology for PC consumers, we saw their prices hovering around the $350-$400 US mark, and that too for the 12-12.4 GB/s speeds. Now, the tech has matured to the point that 14 GB/s+ is a very common ground. They are still a premium tech, but the prices have seen a lot of improvement over the past couple of months as more solutions are popping up.

While companies continue to push into new horizons with Gen5 products, there's still a large mainstream audience that wants to upgrade to the latest standards on new platforms from AMD and Intel. This opens the market for more cost-effective solutions based on entry-tier Gen5 SSD controllers such as Phison's E31, and that's where the P510 SSD comes in.

In terms of performance, the Crucial P510 SSD brings good performance for an entry-tier Gen5 product while running cooler and costing much less than the higher-end solutions. The Phison E31T is a DRAM-less design, which does reduce costs and also dials back the performance by a bit, but it's nothing to worry about since you're still staying way ahead of the fastest Gen4 SSDs. At $119, the Crucial P510 is a fantastic entry into the Gen5 segment, which is much faster than Gen4 SSDs and runs cooler, even, making it a great and fast storage fit for mainstream PCs.