Crucial P310 2280 2TB SSD Review

Crucial originally launched the P310 a few months ago as a fast M.2 2230 drive for the handheld and ultra-thin device market sectors, but now we get a 2280 version more suited for desktop PCs and laptops.

Using a combination of a Phison controller and Micron's own NAND, the 2280 version comes in three capacities; 500GB, 1TB and 2TB. The range is only available as plain drives (at the time of writing) but factory heatsink-equipped versions aren't too far behind.

At the heart of the P310 is a Phison PS5027-E27T controller. The PS5027-E27T is a 4-channel DRAM-less design built on a 12nm TSMC process with single-CPU architecture (built-in ARM 32-bit Cortex-R5). It supports up to 8TB of both TLC or QLC NAND (Toggle 5.0 and ONFi 5.0 compliant) with transfer rates of up to 3,600MT/s resulting in Sequential read/write speeds of up to 7,400MB/s and 6,700MB/s respectively. Data reliability is provided by Phison's 5th-generation LDPC ECC engine. For the P310 the controller supports a single package of Micron 232-layer N58R 3D QLC NAND running at 2,400MT/s.

Crucial rates the Sequential performance for the 2TB P301 as up to 7,100MB/s for reads and up to 6,000MB/s for writes. Using the ATTO benchmark we couldn't quite hit that maximum read figure with a test result of 6.840MB/s but for writes the tested drive managed to squeeze out a little more performance with a result figure of 6.270MB/s. Switching over to the CrystalDiskMark 8 (default) benchmark we could confirm the 7,100MB/s official read figure with a test result of 7,206MB/s (writes at 6,300MB/s).

Random performance for the drive is quoted as up to 1,000,000 IOPS for reads and up to 1,200,000 IOPS for writes. We couldn't get to those figures with our testing, The fastest figures we saw came from using the Peak Performance Profile in CrystalDiskMark 8 with a best-read result of 785,165 IOPS (default-test) with a best write figure of 633,864 IOPS (0 fill test).

While stocks last Crucial is offering a one-month complimentary Adobe Creative Cloud personal All Apps plan when you purchase and register a Crucial P301 2280. The P310 is also supported by Crucial’s Storage Executive utility. It might not have the funky GUI of some of its competitors' utilities, but what it lacks in looks it more than makes up in the support and tools that it offers.

We found the 2TB Crucial P310 2280 for £124.99 from Scan HERE.

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Pros

• Overall performance.
• 5-year warranty,

Cons

• Endurance is on the low side due to the QLC NAND.
• Write speeds in some benchmark tests.
• Lack of hardware encryption.

KitGuru says: As an M.2 2230 drive, Crucial's P310 is pretty much king of the hill, but in its 2280 form it has more competition both in terms of performance and pricing. That said, Crucial has given it every chance with a pretty competitive price tag.

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