Today (April 20th, 2020), Crucial announced the release of the Crucial P5 and P2 NVMe SSDs — expanding their P-series NVMe SSD line, which promises to offer next-level performance. This is Crucials push to match those at varying ranges in the gaming pc space. That is, those who want to enter at the budget level of their current Crucial P1, all the way to the Crucial P2 and Crucial P5.
The additions to the P-series line of NVMe SSDs promise to offer exceptional speeds with large capacities and durable data protection.
| New Crucial P5 and P2 NVMe SSD Line | Size | Price | Read | Write |
| Crucial P5 SSD | 250GB | Coming soon | 3400MB/s | 1400MB/s |
| Crucial P5 SSD | 500GB | Coming soon | 3400MB/s | 3000MB/s |
| Crucial P5 SSD | 1TB | Coming Soon | 3400MB/s | 3000MB/s |
| Crucial P5 SSD | 2TB | Coming Soon | 3400MB/s | 3000MB/s |
| Crucial P2 SSD (Purchase Link) | 250GB | $54.99 | 2100MB/s | 1150MB/s |
| Crucial P2 SSD (Purchase Link) | 500GB | $64.99 | 2300MB/s | 940MB/s |
What we know about the Crucial P5
Is their official press release, Micron’s Teresa Kelley, Vice President of Mircon Consumer Products Group claimed ““The Crucial P5 is our fastest and most innovative SSD product to date, pushing the capabilities of NVMe Gen 3 to meet the demands of a rapidly growing market,” and “PC and gaming enthusiasts will find that the P5 was built to answer their call for high performance and processing power.”
This is what sounds exciting to me because Crucial has always positioned itself as the “budget” enthusiast storage solution that offered a budget-friendly option with pretty good performance, albeit not the top.
They are gearing the P5 for those who are running top of the line gaming PCs and high-end creative professionals.
This makes sense to me since they are estimating the performance of the Crucial P5 to have read/write speeds of 3400/3000MB/s.
That is – 1400/1300MB/s higher reported performance than the current Curical P1 NVMe SSD. I would say if those numbers are near what they claim, more than double the performance sounds really exciting to me. And without knowing the market price at the moment, I can’t comment on the price per dollar yet.
In addition, Micron claims that the Crucial P5 will have dynamic write acceleration and error correction algorithms and adaptive thermal connection in order to optimize performance and durability. I’m currently wondering how that could be bench-marked, but none the less sounds awesome. Although, the P5 is quoted at having an MTTF greater than two million hours for extended longevity — that’s currently 200,000 more hours quotes for Crucials current P1.
The Crucial P5 is currently reported as:
- Engineered for gamers and professionals who demand high-performance computing
- Read/write speeds up to 3400/3000MB/s in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities
- Widespread compatibility
What we Know About the Crucial P2
Well, the P2 is currently quoted as being built for “value-conscious customers looking for a fast, affordable SSD…” according to Micron.
What I’m curious about is, what does that mean in relation to Crucials current Curical P1 NVMe SSD — since I’m fairly certain that is the P1’s current position in the overall market.
The Crucial P2 is being estimated at performing read/write speeds up to 2300MB/s and 1150MB/s (whereas the Crucial P1 is estimated at read-write speeds of up to 2000MB/s and 1700MB/s) – that is a 300MB/s bump in read speeds and a significant 550MB/s less in write speeds in the Crucial P2 versus Crucial P1.
Now, the discrepancy in a slight higher read time may bode ok for gamers, since you may be more concerned with your read times anyhow when loading software and game assets – and the Crucial P2 is launching at a very attractive price of $64.99 for 500GB versus the Crucial P1 500GB at $59.99.
Now too quote Kelly again:
“Whether people are upgrading an existing system or planning a new build, the Crucial P2 gives them power and dependability,” said Kelley. “We are one of the few SSD manufacturers that designs and manufacture our own NAND. Engineered with Micron expertise and rigorously tested at every stage of development, the P2 is built on a 40-year legacy of innovation and high-quality products.”
Dependability I like! However, I’m not one to typically ruin my storage, and most typical gamers may be in the same boat, this is always good to know.
The Crucial P2 is currently reported as:
- Designed for people looking to boost speed and dependability at an affordable price
- Capacities from 250GB up to 1TB
Thoughts so far on the Crucial P5 and P2
I’m super pumped to see the expansion of the Crucial line of NVMe SSDs – as this could place them a step above their current budget only status. I say budget only status respectfully of course, as their P1 does perform exceptionally for exactly what it is – a very affordable NVMe SSD.
These storage solutions in the gaming space may have been in the PC realm for a while now, however SATA SSDs are still widely used and *cough, in some instances individuals are still sporting HDDs in their builds.
So some healthy NVMe competition is welcome and I welcome Microns entry into the gaming space as they have done exceptionally well in their memory space.
The fact that Crucial now has a storage solution that could potentially get Read/write speeds up to 3400/3000MB/ is amazing, considering the fact that if you had an HDD your maybe getting 80-160MBs and a very high performing SATA SSD getting maybe 600MB/s – this is where we may bridge the gap of knowing whether you are getting a performance boost, to actually knowing you’re getting a performance boost with zippity load speed sin games, software and large media files.
Stay tuned, as we will test these drives out once we get our hands on them!
And the ultimate question – why the random P5 and P2 NVME SSD designations? I mean they have the P1, P2 seems to be a slight step up, but the P5 isn’t necessarily 5X the performance? Can’t wait to test these!
About Crucial:
Crucial is a global brand of Micron Technology, Inc. Crucial solid-state drives (SSDs) and memory (DRAM) upgrades are compatible with over 100,000 new and old desktops, laptops, workstations and servers. Crucial Ballistix gaming memory delivers a performance edge to gamers and enthusiasts and enhances the overall PC gaming experience. Available worldwide at leading retail and e-tail stores, commercial resellers and system integrators, Crucial products enhance system performance and user productivity. Learn more at www.crucial.com.
About Micron Technology, Inc.:
We are an industry leader in innovative memory and storage solutions. Through our global brands — Micron® and Crucial® — our broad portfolio of high-performance memory and storage technologies, including DRAM, NAND, 3D XPoint™ memory and NOR, is transforming how the world uses the information to enrich life. Backed by 40 years of technology leadership, our memory and storage solutions enable disruptive trends, including artificial intelligence, 5G, machine learning, and autonomous vehicles, in key market segments like mobile, data center, client, consumer, industrial, graphics, automotive and networking. Our common stock is traded on the Nasdaq under the MU symbol. To learn more about Micron Technology, Inc., visit micron.com.
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