Crucial T710 PCIe Gen5 NVMe SSD Review – Swinging for the Fences

Crucial Sets Their Sights on the Gen5 Crown – Again

Crucial has enjoyed an enviable position in the Gen5 SSD world for almost two years, holding the top spot after their initial T700 launch in 2023, and the T705 update in 2024. They maintained a commanding lead until Samsung’s 9100 PRO launched in March of this year. (There is also the WD_BLACK SN8100 to consider, but we don’t have one on hand just yet.)

With competition heating up in the Gen5 NVMe space, Crucial needed more than an iterative update to the T705. So how does this T710 differ from its predecessor? Crucial offers this list of improvements:

Compared to the T705, the T710 delivers:

• 42% higher random writes
• 28% higher random reads
• 9% higher sequential writes
• 24% reduction in average power
• 47% shorter heatsink
• Micron G9 NAND running at a blazing fast 3.6GT/s
• Firmware optimization and improvements
• Compatible with PlayStation 5 (heatsink version only)
• More bandwidth in a similar power window

Performance Testing

Placing the T710 on our AMD X870E platform (featuring a Ryzen 7 9800X3D and DDR5-6000 CL28 memory) we ran the usual benchmarks.

Impressive results from the drive in this best-case scenario (CrystalDiskMark at its Peak Performance preset, empty drive), though in this case we were just short of the claimed sequential speeds. However, Crucial’s stated 14,500 MB/s seq. read, 13,800 MB/s seq. write are at a 1MiB transfer size – and CDM defaults to a 1GiB transfer size for this test.

Now for some CDM results by queue depth (all single-thread) after conditioning the drive by filling it to approximately 50% with an assortment of large and small files.

First of all, these are the best QD1 sequential read numbers I have ever seen. Second, the QD2 sequentials are lower than QD1 (and I verified this by running the tests over again). Third, Samsung maintains their lead – except in QD1.

We move on to 4K random:

Samsung may have an edge in sequentials after QD1, but Crucial is a monster at random 4K.

Next, our “real-world” results via PCMark 10’s full drive benchmark (again, the drive was 50% full for this test):

Samsung retains their lead with the 9100 PRO in PCMark, but Crucial is nipping at their heels with a score just 57 points lower.

Final Thoughts

Two of the most important performance areas with an SSD are low queue depth, and 4K random. Sure, big sequential numbers are impressive, but real-world performance battles are won down in the trenches. Ok, this isn’t the best analogy, but my point is that Crucial has won some important battles here. The random read/write performance was outstanding, and sequential read performance at the lowest queue depth (QD1) is by far the best we have ever seen.

So what about the value proposition? Here’s a breakdown of the different models offered in the T710 family, with list pricing from Crucial:

• 1TB – CT1000T710SSD8 – $179.99 USD
• 2TB – CT2000T710SSD8 – $279.99 USD
• 4TB – CT4000T710SSD8 – $549.99 USD
• 1TB with heatsink – CT1000T710SSD5 – $199.99 USD
• 2TB with heatsink – CT2000T710SSD5 – $299.99 USD
• 4TB with heatsink – CT4000T710SSD5 – $569.99 USD

Our review sample was the 2TB, non-heatsink model, which carries a list price of $279.99 USD. This is $20 lower than the $299.99 list price of the Samsung 9100 PRO. We will see if Crucial decides to compete with the aggressive discounts we see from Samsung (currently a 20% discount, which takes the 9100 PRO down to $239.99).

Bottom line, the Crucial T710 is one of the fastest SSDs on the planet, and in some cases the fastest we have ever tested. It is a massive upgrade over the previous T705; an absolute monster at QD1, and extremely adept at random read/write operations. Depending on your needs this might be the high performance NVMe drive to buy in 2025.