Skip to content

ThePawn02

Gaming and Streaming Content

  • Blog
  • Editor's Picks
  • eSports
  • Guides
  • Headlines
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Uncategorized
  • Website Update
Primary Menu
  • Home
  • Watch Live
  • News
  • eSports
  • Blog
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Guild Login
    • Guild Mentality
    • The Zealots
    • Malign
  • Socials
    • Youtube Channel
    • Twitch Channel
    • Kick.com
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • Facebook
Subscribe
  • Home
  • 2022
  • October
  • Crucial P3 Plus 2TB
  • News

Crucial P3 Plus 2TB

More capacity for less cash. But at what cost?
October 17, 2022 5 min read
Crucial P3 Plus 2TB

More capacity for less cash. But at what cost?

More capacity for less cash. But at what cost? That’s the question for the new Crucial P3 Plus M.2 SSD, tested here in its 2TB configuration. It uses QLC flash memory to offer increased storage space at a conspicuously low cost, in this case around $179 (£205) for this 2TB drive at the time of this review. But is there a different price to be paid here?

In simple terms, the answer is yes. The Crucial P3 Plus uses parent company Micron’s latest 176-layer QLC NAND chips. QLC stands for quad-level cell and indicates four bits of storage per memory cell. That’s one more than the TLC or triple-level cell flash memory typically used in premium, high-performance SSDs.

Now, it’s well established that as cell-level bit densities increase, both performance and endurance take a hit. But it’s worth remembering roughly why. In simple terms, the complexity of reading and writing to a QLC cell is double that of a TLC cell. And that means it takes longer. Much longer. There’s the performance hit.

As for endurance, well, it comes down to the fact that every time a given cell is written to, it slightly wears out the oxide layer required to store the charge that in turn represents the bits—the zeroes and ones—that compose the actual data. And more bits per cell means that each cell is written to more frequently and thus wears out more rapidly. Hold all those thoughts.

Available in 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities, indications that the new Crucial P3 Plus is a value-orientated product go further than merely the choice of flash chips. In conspicuous contrast to Crucial’s more expensive SSDs, which use the brand’s own controller chips, the P3 Plus is fitted out with the Phison PS5021-E21T. 

The Phison E21T is basically a budget PCIe 4.0 controller, offering just four memory channels to the competition’s eight. It’s also a so-called DRAM-less chip and thus doesn’t support dedicated DDR cache memory. Instead, system memory performs the job of providing primary caching.

Crucial P3 Plus 2TB Specs

​​Capacity: 2TB
Controller: Phison PS5021-E21T
Protocol: NVMe
NAND: Micron 176-layer QLC
Interface: M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4
Form factor: M.2 2280
Rated seq. read: 5,000MB/s
Rated seq. write: 4,200MB/s
Warranty: 5 years
Price: $179 | £205

Speaking of cache, one of the most important elements of any QLC drive is SLC cache provisioning—or the proportion of the drive that can be allocated to run in much speedier SLC mode. In this case, it’s around 20% of the available free space on the drive. As the drive fills, then, the amount of SLC cache available will shrink. But the main point is that QLC tech tends to make sense on larger drives where SLC provisioning can be fairly generous. Even half full, this drive is large enough that you should still get a few 100 GB of high-performance SLC cache, which is decent.

Anyway, for the record Micron says its latest 176-layer QLC chips are around 25% quicker than its outgoing 128-layer QLC memory. If that sounds like a nice speed bump, Crucial says this 2TB model is good for 5,000MB/s reads and 4,200MB/s writes, which is obviously a fair chunk behind typical TLC-based drives. Crucial doesn’t even bother to quote IOPS numbers. Still, the P3 Plus does come with Crucial’s usual five-year warranty and 44TB of rated write endurance.

Symptomatic of the impact of QLC memory, that latter figure is barely better than one-third the endurance offered by a premium TLC-powered 2TB drive like the WD Black SN850. Of course, it’s absolutes and not comparisons that matter. Is 440TB enough? It adds up to 240GB each day, every day for five years. Plenty for all but the most demanding users, then.

Image 1 of 5

(Image credit: Future)

Image 2 of 5

(Image credit: Future)

Image 3 of 5

(Image credit: Future)

Image 4 of 5

(Image credit: Future)

Image 5 of 5

(Image credit: Future)

If the P3 Plus is likely to last long enough, how will it perform in the meantime? Adequately, is probably the best precis. Peak synthetic throughput measured by the likes of ATTO looks convincing enough at 6,890MB/s for reads and 5,940 for writes. But the numbers elsewhere are rather patchy. CrystalDiskMark reveals more realistic numbers, the drive achieving less than 5GB/s read speeds where premium drives clock in over 7GB/s. The P3 Plus’s 263MB/s 4K writes are actually pretty good, the 63MB/s 4K reads less so.

The arguably more real-world assessment that is PCMark 10 Storage likewise returns a pretty major shortfall versus TLC-based drives. Scoring under 2,500 points where top drives can hit 3,500 and likewise registering 68ms of latency against something in the mid-40s compared to a performance drive are clear consequences of that low-cost, high-capacity QLC memory and the budget controller chip. 

There’s better news when it comes to sustained performance. The P3 Plus shows no signs of thermal throttling, maintaining peak performance in our pre-test fill routine until the SLC cache is fully exhausted after 500GB of writes and topping out at 56 degrees. That said, once you do get through the SLC cache, performance absolutely falls off a cliff, dropping to just 90MB/s write speed.

Image 1 of 4

(Image credit: Future)

Image 2 of 4

(Image credit: Future)

Image 3 of 4

(Image credit: Future)

Image 4 of 4

(Image credit: Future)

Overall, the Crucial P3 Plus performs largely as you would expect for a large-capacity QLC drive. While the SLC cache isn’t exhausted it’s arguably plenty quick enough for most needs. And we’re not worried about long-term endurance either. 

The main issue is what happens when that SLC cache runs out. The whole point of a big, cheap drive like this is surely to fill it with loads of data. At which point you will expose the underlying performance of the QLC memory and run into performance issues in some scenarios. In that context, it’s worth noting that just $30 more buys you Crucial’s own P5 Plus TLC drive, neatly sidestepping all of the QLC-related downsides. In the end, that’s where our money would go. The savings from this QLC drive just aren’t enough.

About Post Author

See author's posts

Continue Reading

Previous: We asked a professional miniatures painter to try his hand at Moonbreaker
Next: A Plague Tale: Requiem Review

Related News

Five new Steam games you probably missed (June 23, 2025)
3 min read
  • News

Five new Steam games you probably missed (June 23, 2025)

ThePawn.com June 22, 2025
Magic: The Gathering’s science-fantasy set adds spacecraft, and a rules change for the Commander format
2 min read
  • News

Magic: The Gathering’s science-fantasy set adds spacecraft, and a rules change for the Commander format

ThePawn.com June 22, 2025
Sega just accidentally leaked its own sales numbers, and somehow Sonic Frontiers sold more than the last two mainline Yakuzas combined, but Persona 5’s putting the rest of the stable to shame
2 min read
  • News

Sega just accidentally leaked its own sales numbers, and somehow Sonic Frontiers sold more than the last two mainline Yakuzas combined, but Persona 5’s putting the rest of the stable to shame

ThePawn.com June 22, 2025

Latest YouTube Video

Check out these awesome streamers

ThePawn02 on twitch

From Gamewatcher

  • When Is the Next GOG Sale 2025 - Summer Sale 2025
  • Chrono Odyssey Preview
  • Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine Review
  • Dune: Awakening Review
  • RoadCraft Review

From IGN

  • Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Reveals Nickelodeon Collaboration That Adds SpongeBob SquarePants, Avatar, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Guest Characters
  • The Best Deals Today: Street Fighter 6, Monster Hunter Wilds, and More
  • A Magic: The Gathering Beginner's Guide for Newcomers
  • The Best Deals Today: Donkey Kong Bananza, LEGO Animal Crossing, Super Mario Party Jamboree, and More
  • Splitgate 2 Dev 1047 Games Hit by Layoffs Amid Turbulent Launch, Co-Founders Say They Won’t Take Salaries ‘As We Lock in to Deliver the Next Phase of the Project’

From Kotaku

  • Must-Play Cyberpunk 2077 Side-Quests, Mario Kart World Pointers And More Of The Week's Top Tips
  • Marathon Gets Delayed, Donkey Kong Bananza Gets A Smashing Showing, And More Top Stories
  • Kotaku’s Weekend Guide: 3 Delightful Games We’re Swinging Into Summer With
  • Mario Kart World's Mirror Mode Is A Little Too Confusing To Activate
  • Six Things I Wish I Knew Before Setting Up My Switch 2

.

You may have missed

Five new Steam games you probably missed (June 23, 2025)
3 min read
  • News

Five new Steam games you probably missed (June 23, 2025)

ThePawn.com June 22, 2025
Magic: The Gathering’s science-fantasy set adds spacecraft, and a rules change for the Commander format
2 min read
  • News

Magic: The Gathering’s science-fantasy set adds spacecraft, and a rules change for the Commander format

ThePawn.com June 22, 2025
Wordle hint and answer today #1465 (June 23 2025)
1 min read
  • Guides

Wordle hint and answer today #1465 (June 23 2025)

ThePawn.com June 22, 2025
NYT Connections hint (Mon, 23 Jun)
1 min read
  • Guides

NYT Connections hint (Mon, 23 Jun)

ThePawn.com June 22, 2025
Privacy Policy
  • Home
  • Watch Live
  • News
  • eSports
  • Blog
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Guild Login
  • Socials
  • Twitch
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Kick.com
Copyright © All rights reserved. | MoreNews by AF themes.