# Crucial T500 4TB: capacity and endurance without the Gen5 premium (2026)

The Crucial T500 4 TB pairs 7,000 MB/s PCIe 4.0 reads with a 2,400 TBW endurance rating and a DRAM cache, making it the capacity and durability flagship of the T500 line.

Quick answer: Buy the Crucial T500 4 TB for a large, durable PCIe 4.0 drive for a game library, video editing, or a project cache, with 2,400 TBW of endurance plus a DRAM cache and no Gen5 premium. Skip it when only a fast boot drive is needed, since the cheaper 1 TB or 2 TB is more than enough and the 4 TB's double-sided PCB may not fit thin laptops. The direct alternative is the WD Black SN850X 4 TB, which matches performance and costs similar money, while a DRAM-less Crucial P310 4 TB is the budget route for pure bulk storage. We rate the 4 TB T500 an excellent capacity-and-endurance mainstream drive for creators who actually use the space.

## Specifications

| Specification | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Capacity | 4 TB |
| Interface | M.2 4.0 x 4 |
| Controller | Phison PS5025-E25 |
| Memory type | Micron 232-L TLC |
| DRAM cache | Yes |
| Sequential read | 7000 MB/s |
| Sequential write | 6900 MB/s |
| Random read IOPS | 1050000 |
| Random write IOPS | 1350000 |
| Endurance | 2400 TBW |
| MTBF | 2000000 |
| Warranty | 5 years |

## Performance

On the 4 TB T500, Crucial rates sequential reads at 7,000 MB/s and writes at 6,900 MB/s over PCIe 4.0, with up to 1,050,000 random read IOPS and 1,350,000 random write IOPS. Peak read is about 400 MB/s below the 2 TB model, a deliberate trade that keeps thermals manageable across four terabytes of NAND and frees budget for the drive's real selling points: capacity and endurance.

For a game library the 4 TB is transformative, holding dozens of large titles on one drive, though game load times are bounded by the CPU and decompression, so the drive's 7,000 MB/s bandwidth is not the bottleneck. The payoff is in sustained creative work: 4K or 8K video editing, rendering scratch disks, and moving huge media folders all benefit from the big SLC cache, which absorbs long contiguous writes at full speed before dropping to the native TLC rate. On a drive this size that matters, because a single render or file copy can easily exceed several hundred gigabytes.

Independent reviews of the T500 family find the E25 platform delivering close to its rated numbers with well-behaved thermals. The 4 TB runs slightly warmer than the 1 and 2 TB models under heavy load simply because there is more NAND to keep in check, so a motherboard heatsink is worth fitting. Random performance stays consistent thanks to the DRAM cache, which keeps the drive responsive even when it is nearly full.

## Endurance, TBW & Warranty

Crucial backs the T500 4 TB with a five-year limited warranty, limited by its 2,400 TBW endurance rating, whichever comes first. That endurance is the largest in the T500 line, scaling from 600 TBW on the 1 TB through 1,200 TBW on the 2 TB. At a heavy 100 GB per day of writes, the 4 TB would need roughly 66 years to exhaust its NAND, so the flash will outlive the warranty in any realistic workload. Crucial lists MTBF at 2,000,000 hours, a population statistic rather than a promise about any single drive. The bare 4 TB ships without a heatsink, and given the extra NAND, motherboard M.2 cooling or the heatsink-bundled SKU is recommended for sustained use. Returns run through Crucial or the retailer.

## Pros and Cons

**Pros:**

- 4 TB capacity on a single M.2 drive
- 2,400 TBW endurance, largest in the T500 line
- Biggest SLC cache holds sustained writes longest
- Discrete 1 GB DRAM cache per TB
- Micron 232-layer TLC NAND
- Five-year limited warranty
**Cons:**

- Peak read slightly below the 2 TB model
- Double-sided PCB may not fit thin laptops
- Bare version ships without a heatsink
- Overkill for a simple boot drive


## Verdict

Buy the Crucial T500 4 TB for a large, durable PCIe 4.0 drive for a game library, video editing, or a project cache, with 2,400 TBW of endurance plus a DRAM cache and no Gen5 premium. Skip it when only a fast boot drive is needed, since the cheaper 1 TB or 2 TB is more than enough and the 4 TB's double-sided PCB may not fit thin laptops. The direct alternative is the WD Black SN850X 4 TB, which matches performance and costs similar money, while a DRAM-less Crucial P310 4 TB is the budget route for pure bulk storage. We rate the 4 TB T500 an excellent capacity-and-endurance mainstream drive for creators who actually use the space.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Is the Crucial T500 4 TB good for gaming?

Yes, and its real gaming virtue is capacity. The T500 4 TB holds dozens of modern titles on a single drive, which is the main reason a gamer would choose it. Load times are bounded by the CPU and asset decompression once a drive clears about 3,000 MB/s, so the 7,000 MB/s rating will not visibly speed up games next to a cheaper Gen4 drive. What you get is one drive instead of two, 2,400 TBW of endurance, and DRAM-equipped performance that stays consistent as the library fills. For a high-capacity gaming build it is a strong, practical pick.

### Is the Crucial T500 4 TB compatible with the PS5?

Yes, the heatsink version of the T500 is recommended for the PS5. Sony requires an M.2 NVMe SSD with at least 5,500 MB/s reads and dimensions up to 110 by 25 by 11.25 mm including the heatsink; the T500's 7,000 MB/s rating clears the speed requirement and the integrated-heatsink SKU fits the console. The 4 TB is a generous PS5 upgrade, effectively tripling the base storage. The bare version has no heatsink and is better for a desktop, since Sony requires the cooler on a console.

### Does the Crucial T500 4 TB have a DRAM cache?

Yes. The T500 uses a discrete DRAM buffer, 1 GB of LPDDR4 per terabyte of capacity, alongside Phison's PS5025-E25 controller and Micron 232-layer TLC NAND. The DRAM holds the flash translation layer, keeping random reads and writes fast and consistent as the drive fills. On a 4 TB module this matters even more than on smaller capacities, because the mapping table scales with flash size, and a large DRAM-backed map avoids the latency hit that HMB-based DRAM-less drives can show when they borrow system memory.

### What is the TBW endurance of the Crucial T500 4 TB?

The Crucial T500 4 TB is rated for 2,400 TBW, the highest in the T500 line. That works out to roughly 66 years at a heavy 100 GB per day of writes, and centuries at a typical 20 GB per day, so the flash will outlast the five-year warranty in any realistic workload. Endurance scales with capacity across the family: 600 TBW on the 1 TB, 1,200 TBW on the 2 TB, and 2,400 TBW on the 4 TB. This makes the 4 TB the pick for write-heavy creative workloads like video render or scratch-disk use.

### Is the Crucial T500 4 TB faster than the 2 TB?

No. The 2 TB T500 is rated at 7,400 MB/s reads and 7,000 MB/s writes, while the 4 TB drops to 7,000/6,900 MB/s, so the 2 TB has the higher peak sequential speed. Random IOPS follow the same pattern, 1,180,000/1,440,000 on the 2 TB versus 1,050,000/1,350,000 on the 4 TB. What the 4 TB adds is double the capacity, 2,400 TBW versus 1,200 TBW of endurance, and a larger SLC cache that holds sustained writes at full speed longer. Choose the 4 TB for space and write headroom, not peak throughput.

### Does the Crucial T500 4 TB fit in a laptop?

It depends on the laptop. The 4 TB T500 is a double-sided M.2 2280 module in most revisions, meaning NAND packages sit on both sides of the PCB, so it needs clearance above and below the slot. Many laptops, especially ultra-thins, leave no room for components on the underside of the drive, so the 4 TB may not fit. Check your laptop's M.2 clearance before buying; for a thin machine a single-sided drive is the safer choice. In a desktop with standard M.2 room there is no issue.

### How does the Crucial T500 4 TB compare to the WD Black SN850X 4 TB?

The WD Black SN850X 4 TB is rated a little higher on peak speed, at 7,300 MB/s reads, and it also carries a 5-year warranty, but it generally costs more per gigabyte and its endurance is lower at 1,200 TBW. The Crucial T500 4 TB matches the SN850X on real-world game load times and application performance, adds a DRAM cache, and more than doubles the endurance to 2,400 TBW. For most buyers the T500 is the better value; the SN850X premium buys a modest synthetic benchmark lead and the WD brand.

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Last updated: 2026-08-17. Source: https://ssdrive.net/crucial-t500-4-tb