Crucial P2 500GB NVMe SSD Review
The Crucial P2 500 GB is a budget DRAM-less NVMe SSD that was originally competent, but a silent QLC NAND swap under the same model number means buyers may receive a drastically slower drive than reviews describe.
The P2 uses Phison's E13T DRAM-less NVMe controller (28nm, single-core at 667 MHz, four NAND channels) with Micron 96-layer TLC NAND on the original revision. It relies on NVMe's Host Memory Buffer (HMB) for flash translation layer tables. The 500 GB capacity uses four NAND packages with 512Gb dies.
The specs in this article reflect the original TLC revision. The critical buyer warning: Crucial silently swapped the TLC flash for QLC NAND in later production runs without changing the product name or part number. The QLC revision is dramatically slower -- Tom's Hardware found sustained writes at 40 MB/s (hard drive territory) and real-world read speeds roughly halved.
The 500 GB model's rated write speed of 940 MB/s on the TLC revision is actually lower than the 250 GB model's 1,150 MB/s, which is unusual. The P2 competes with the WD Blue SN550 and Kingston NV2. The SN550 is the safer choice with consistent quality across revisions.
✅ Storage Comparisons:
🚀 Performance and benchmarks
On the original TLC revision, the 500 GB P2 is rated for up to 2,300 MB/s sequential reads and 940 MB/s sequential writes over PCIe 3.0 x4, with 95,000 random read IOPS and 215,000 random write IOPS. The read IOPS are notably low -- lower than the 250 GB model's 170K -- and the write speed of 940 MB/s is below the 250 GB model's 1,150 MB/s.
Crucial P2 500 GB vs M.2 3.0 x 4 peers
Switch between sequential throughput and random IOPS to see how this drive stacks up against other M.2 3.0 x 4 SSDs in our database. The highlighted bar is the drive on this page — click any other bar to open that drive.
- ADATA SX 8800 Pro 512 GB: 3,500 MB/s read, 2,700 MB/s write
- ADATA SX 8800 Pro 1 TB: 3,500 MB/s read, 2,700 MB/s write
- ADATA XPG Spectrix S40G RGB 256 GB: 3,500 MB/s read, 3,000 MB/s write
- ADATA XPG Spectrix S40G RGB 512 GB: 3,500 MB/s read, 3,000 MB/s write
- Crucial P2 500 GB (this drive): 2,300 MB/s read, 940 MB/s write
The E13T controller's firmware prioritizes write latency over read responsiveness, which hurts performance in read-heavy workloads like game loading. The small Dynamic Write Acceleration SLC cache fills quickly on the 500 GB model, and direct-to-TLC writes are slow.
The QLC revision changes the picture entirely. Sustained writes drop to 40 MB/s, read speeds halve in real-world tests, and overall performance is four times slower than the TLC version in file transfer tests. Tom's Hardware issued a "do not recommend" verdict for the P2 after the QLC swap was discovered.
🖥️ Endurance and warranty
Crucial rates the 500 GB P2 for 300 TBW of write endurance under a five-year limited warranty. The drive includes RAID ECC and Phison fourth-generation LDPC error correction with multiple adaptation levels. Integrated power loss immunity provides some protection against data corruption during unexpected shutdowns. The endurance rating applies to both TLC and QLC revisions.
📊 Specs
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Capacity [?] | 500 GB |
| Interface [?] | M.2 3.0 x 4 |
| Controller [?] | Phison E13 |
| Memory type [?] | Micron TLC |
| DRAM [?] | HMB |
| Read speed (MB/s) [?] | 2300 |
| Write speed (MB/s) [?] | 940 |
| Read IOPS [?] | 95000 |
| Write IOPS [?] | 215000 |
| Endurance (TBW) [?] | 300 |
| MTBF (million hours) [?] | 1500000 |
| Warranty (years) [?] | 5 |
Conclusion
The Crucial P2 500 GB cannot be recommended due to the silent QLC NAND swap. Even the original TLC revision was mediocre compared to the WD Blue SN550, with lower write speeds and read responsiveness. The QLC revision is substantially worse, with hard-drive-level sustained writes. For budget NVMe storage, the WD Blue SN550 offers more consistent performance, better-documented specs, and no history of silent hardware changes.
+ Pros
- Low price for NVMe storage
- 300 TBW endurance on the TLC revision
- Single-sided M.2 2280
- Five-year warranty
- Integrated power loss immunity
- Cons
- Silent QLC NAND swap ruins performance
- QLC revision: 40 MB/s sustained writes
- Cannot distinguish TLC from QLC at purchase
- 940 MB/s writes (TLC) below the 250GB model
- Very low 95K random read IOPS
- Read latency worse than SATA SSDs in some tests
🛒 Buy this or similar SSD Storage:
✨ Video Review
Crucial P2 500GB NvMe SSD Review
