Crucial SSD Buyers Guide
Accelerate your computer’s performance with fast, reliable storage. Crucial NVMe SSDs deliver award-winning, real-world performance. Often engineered with NVMe technology and backed by thousands of validation hours and dozens of qualification tests, Crucial SSD drives offer the speed and reliability you’ve come to expect from a leading manufacturer.
The key things to look out for when choosing an SSD are the interface type and the data throughput speeds. The interface - either SATA or NVMe - and read / write speeds combined will determine the performance of the drive.
The Crucial SSD Hierarchy
With prices ranging from £150, there’s a Crucial SSD for most budgets. To make the selection process a little easier to discern, we’ve also divided all the SSDs into three main categories in descending performance - high-end, mid-range and entry-level.
The Crucial SSD Range
Crucial P5 Plus SSD
The Crucial P5 Plus M.2 (2280) SSD delivers remarkable speed and data protection with sequential reads up to 6,600MB/s and writes of up to 5,000MB/s for transformative computing. Using the latest PCIe 4.0 NVMe bus, the Crucial P5 Plus includes advanced features such as full hardware-based encryption, dynamic write acceleration and adaptive thermal protection to keep your data safe while enhancing system reliability. It is available in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities.
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FORM FACTOR & BUS M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 NVMe
Crucial P5 SSD
The Crucial P5 M.2 (2280) SSD redefines what's possible with innovations that transform the computing experience, delivering impressive speed and fierce data protection with sequential write up to 3,000MB/s and reads up to 3,400MB/s. Using the PCIe 3.0 NVMe bus, the P5 includes advanced features such as dynamic write acceleration, full hardware-based encryption, and adaptive thermal protection to keep your data safe while enhancing system reliability. It is available in 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities.
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FORM FACTOR & BUS M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 NVMe
Crucial P3 Plus SSD
The Crucial P3 Plus M.2 (2280) NVMe SSD delivers impressive speed with sequential reads up to 5,000MB/s and writes up to 4,200MB/s, while providing data protection for optimal security. Engineered with the latest PCIe 4.0 NVMe bus, the Crucial P3 Plus comes in capacities of 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB.
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FORM FACTOR & BUS M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 NVMe
Crucial P3 SSD
The Crucial P3 M.2 (2280) NVMe SSD delivers impressive speed with sequential reads up to 3,500MB/s and writes up to 3,000MB/s, while providing data protection for optimal security. Designed with PCie Gen 3.0 NVMe technology, the Crucial P3 comes in generous capacities of 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB.
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FORM FACTOR & BUS M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 NVMe
Crucial P2 SSD
The Crucial P2 M.2 (2280) NVMe SSD delivers impressive speed with sequential reads up to 2,400MB/s and writes up to 1,900MB/s, while providing data protection for optimal security. Designed with PCIe 3.0 NVMe technology, the Crucial P2 comes in capacities of 250GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB.
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FORM FACTOR & BUS M.2 2280 PCIe 3.0 NVMe
Crucial MX500 SSD
The Crucial MX500 2.5in SATA SSD delivers sequential reads up to 560MB/s and writes up to 540MB/s, while providing data protection for optimal security. Designed with the upgrade of HDDs in mind, the Crucial MX500 comes in capacities of 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB.
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FORM FACTOR & BUS 2.5in SATA 6Gb/s
Crucial BX500 SSD
The Crucial BX500 2.5in SATA SSD delivers sequential reads up to 540MB/s and writes up to 500MB/s, while providing data protection for optimal security. Designed with the upgrade of HDDs in mind, the Crucial BX500 comes in generous capacities of 240GB, 480GB, 500GB, 1TB and 2TB.
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FORM FACTOR & BUS 2.5in SATA 6Gb/s
Crucial X8 External Portable SSD
The Crucial X8 Portable USB SSD enables you to back up important photos, videos and documents or expand storage on your PC, PlayStation, Xbox, iPad Pro or Android device with speeds up to 10Gb/s over USB 3.2 Gen 2. The Crucial X8 runs up to 7.5x faster than portable HDDs and comes in capacities of 1TB, 2TB and 4TB.
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FORM FACTOR & BUS External USB 3.2 Gen-2 (10Gb/s)
Crucial X6 External Portable SSD
Crucial X6 Portable USB SSD enables you to back up important photos, videos and documents or expand storage on your PC, PlayStation, Xbox, iPad Pro or Android device with speeds up to 10Gb/s over USB 3.2 Gen 2. The Crucial X6 runs up to 5x faster than portable HDDs and comes in capacities of 1TB, 2TB and 4TB.
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FORM FACTOR & BUS External USB 3.2 Gen-2 (10Gb/s)
Summary
Still not sure which Crucial SSDs is right for you?
The below table summarises the key features and performance speeds of the various models.
| P5 PLUS | P5 | P3 PLUS | P3 | P2 | MX500 | BX500 | X8 | X6 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FORM FACTOR | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 | M.2 2280 | 2.5in | 2.5in | External | External |
| INTERFACE | PCIe 4.0 NVMe | PCIe 4.0 NVMe | PCIe 4.0 NVMe | PCIe 3.0 NVMe | PCIe 3.0 NVMe | SATA 6Gb/s | SATA 6Gb/s | USB 3.2 Gen-2 | USB 3.2 Gen-2 |
| READ SPEED | 6,600 MB/s | 3,400 MB/s | 5,400 MB/s | 3,500 MB/s | 2,400 MB/s | 560 MB/s | 540 MB/s | 1,050 MB/s | 800 MB/s |
| WRITE SPEED | 5,000 MB/s | 3,000 MB/s | 4,200 MB/s | 3,000 MB/s | 1,900 MB/s | 500 MB/s | 500 MB/s | 1,050 MB/s | 800 MB/s |
| MAXIMUM CAPACITY | 2TB | 2TB | 4TB | 4TB | 2TB | 4TB | 2TB | 4TB | 4TB |
| WARRANTY | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years | 5 years | 3 years | 3 years | 3 years |
There you have it, everything you need to know when choosing a new Crucial SSD for your PC, laptop or workstation. We hope you've found this guide helpful, but don't hesitate to get in touch for more advice if you still have questions on how to select the perfect Crucial SSD.
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