Crucial P310 NVMe SSD Review | Best for Steam Deck Upgrades

Crucial P310 NVMe SSD Review | Best for Steam Deck Upgrades
ⓒ ITWorld

There are many devices that can use NVMe SSDs. However, the Steam Deck and Lenovo’s latest handheld gaming PC cannot use the full-length 2280 (22mm width, 80mm length) type NVMe SSDs used in regular PCs.

In this case, you’ll need a 2230 (30mm long) SSD like the Crucial P310, or a 2242 type like the Corsair MP600 Micro used in the aforementioned Lenovo device. You can also use an adapter to fit a 2230 drive like the P310 into the Lenovo 2242 slot, provided it’s as fast as the P310.

ⓒ PCWorld

What are the features of the Crucial P310?

The Crucial P310 is a 2230 form factor (22mm wide, 30mm long) PCIe 4.0 x4, NVMe SSD designed for use in small devices such as steam decks. The controller is a Phison PS5027-E2 and the NAND is 232-layer QLC.

Product box and P310 ⓒ PCWorld

Now for the bad news. The P310 has a very low TBW (terabytes written to the drive over its warranty period) rating of 220TBW per TB of capacity. That’s about the same as a QLC SSD, but well below the 600TBW rating of your average TLC SSD.

However, 220TBW is still a lot, and is likely more than you can write over the five-year warranty period.

How much does the Crucial P310 cost?

The P310 is available for $115 for 1TB of storage, or $215 for the 2TB model we tested. That’s not cheap, but it’s reasonable considering its impressive performance and small form factor.

How fast is the Crucial P310?

The short answer is very fast, provided you aren’t processing a ton of data. The P310 passed both the CrystalDiskMark 8 and AS SSD synthetic benchmarks with flying colors, as well as our 48GB transfer test.

It easily outpaced the competition across all three tests, but the lack of secondary cache slowed speeds by a factor of 10 on the 450GB write, from over 3GBps to 350MBps.

As the chart below shows, the P310 crushed its competition in CrystalDiskMark 8’s sequential transfer tests.

As you can see from the chart, the P310 crushed its competition in CrystalDiskMark 8’s sequential transfer tests. The longer the bar, the better the performance. ⓒ PCWorld

The P310 didn’t excel in our random task tests, but it was still fairly fast.

The P310 wasn’t the best in our random task tests, but it was still pretty fast. Longer bars indicate better performance. ⓒ PCWorld

The P310 once again comes out on top in our 48GB transfer tests.

The P310 again tops our 48GB transfer test. Shorter bars indicate better performance. ⓒ PCWorld

The P310 performed well up to 85% of the 450GB write, but dropped to 350MBps when the secondary cache ran out, ranking last in the test.

The P310 showed similar speeds up to about 85% of the 450GB write, then dropped to 350MBps when the secondary cache ran out. Shorter bars indicate better performance. ⓒ PCWorld

Here’s what happens when you try to write too much data to the P310. Keep in mind that my test unit is a 2TB model, the 1TB one will slow down much faster and take much longer.

If you try to write too much data to the P310, you may see this screen. Note that the unit tested is a 2TB model. The 1TB will show the same behavior much faster than the 2TB, and it will take longer. ⓒ PCWorld

In conclusion, the P310 is a very fast performer, and was the fastest by a fairly large margin for everyday tasks. If you’re not processing a lot of data, it should be fine.

Crucial P310, should I buy it?

The P310 is a bit more expensive, but it’s the fastest 2230 (or 2242) NVMe SSD for everyday sequential transfers, and it’s no slouch for random tasks either, making it a top choice in its size and form factor.
editor@itworld.co.kr

Source: www.itworld.co.kr