Crucial P310 2280 2TB SSD Review - Full-Size Elite QLC

TweakTown's Rating: 100%

The Bottom Line

Crucial's P310 2280 2TB is our new favorite mainstream SSD because it's value priced and at the same time an elite performer.

Pros

• + Gaming performance
• + Single-sided design
• + Pricing
• + Certified TT Elite

Cons

• - None

Should you buy it?

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Buy at Amazon

Buy at Newegg

Introduction & Drive Details

Our current favorite mainstream SSD happens to be a rather unexpected form factor, and even more unexpectedly, it is arrayed with QLC flash. The SSD we speak of is Crucial's P310 2230 launched exactly 2 months ago. This amazing SSD is the only retail flash-based DRAMless SSD to ever be certified as a 15K TweakTown Elite performer. Additionally, it is the only QLC SSD ever to attain TweakTown elite status.

A 2230 QLC SSD? Elite? Yes, you read that right. So, how is this even possible? This staggering new level of QLC-powered performance is enabled almost entirely by Micron's 232-Layer 4-bit or QLC flash, also known as N58R:

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Capable of 2,400 MT/s, this is the fastest and most architecturally superior flash of its kind to adorn any retail SSD. Micron N58R QLC (4-bit) flash is so good that it's proving to be more powerful than most of the competing TLC (3-bit) flash currently in circulation. Incredible.

The only drawback to Crucial's P310 2230 SSD is that while it can, in rare cases be affixed properly onto a desktop PC, in most cases, a desktop PC is not designed to accommodate a tiny 2230 form factor SSD. Crucial's P310 2230 was designed and intended as storage expansion for popular handheld PC gaming devices such as the ASUS ROG Ally or Steam Deck along with several others.

So, what we need is a Crucial P310 2280 for the DIY PC space, where it should offer the best overall bang for the buck. Well today Crucial has granted us our wish, with the launch of its P310 in standard 2280 form factor. Outstanding. With capacities up to 2TB and read/write speeds of up to 7,100/6,000 MB/s, the P310 2280 SSD launch expands Micron's Crucial P310 portfolio to address PCs, laptops and PlayStation 5.

Additionally, because the P310 2280 is a standard form factor, it looks like it's going to be significantly easier on the wallet than the specialized 2230 version. With an opening MSRP of only $149.99 for the 2TB 2280 model, the P310 2280 2TB is an incredible overall bargain not to be overlooked. 2TB of elite performance on a single-sided masterpiece of engineering for that MSRP? Yes please.

One final note before we get into the review is that a version with a heatsink will be released in the coming months and is ideally suited for use with PlayStation 5.

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Drive Details

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As it is with most Crucial products, Crucial offers for free its excellent toolbox software - Crucial Storage Executive as well as Acronis True Image for Crucial for drive cloning, backup and imaging.

Jon's Test System Specifications

Intel Test System

• Motherboard: GIGABYTE AORUS Z790 Xtreme X
• CPU: Intel Core i9-14900KS - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Alphacool Eissturm Hurricane Copper 45 - Buy from Amazon
• RAM: Patriot Viper Xtreme 5 8000 48GB - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: MSI SUPRIM X RTX 3080 12GB - Buy from Amazon
• Case: PrimoChill's Praxis Wetbench - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit - Buy from Amazon

AMD Test System

• Motherboard: GIGABYTE X670E AORUS Master
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Alphacool Eissturm Hurricane Copper 45 - Buy from Amazon
• RAM: Sabrent Rocket DDR5 32GB - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: MSI SUPRIM X RTX 3080 12GB - Buy from Amazon
• Case: PrimoChill's Praxis Wetbench - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit - Buy from Amazon

Because we at TweakTown like to be first at everything whenever we can, we will present our storage performance results for the test subject on both 14th Gen Intel and 7000 Series AMD platforms going forward for the foreseeable future. Because Intel still delivers the best real-world storage performance, (Look Here), our running chart will continue to be Intel-based until AMD can deliver better real-world storage performance than its rival.

Crucial P310 2280 2TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 SSD (CT2000P310SSD8)

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$204.99	$204.99	$204.99	-	Buy
	-	-	$139.99	-	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 10/7/2024 at 1:35 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission from any sales.

Sony PlayStation 5 - M.2 Storage Expansion

PS5 Read Performance

With Sony's wildly popular PlayStation 5 console now enabled for M.2 NVMe SSDs to be used as fast storage expansion, we are including results for PS5 compatible SSDs we test as a part of our reviews going forward.

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For SSDs that don't have an adequately sized PS5 compatible heatsink or other SSDs where the heatsink provided doesn't fit right and can be removed, we both use and recommend Sabrent's unparalleled PS5 heatsink available HERE.

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We only chart SSDs that can deliver a minimum of 5,500 MB/s read, which is Sony's original recommendation.

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A result here of 6,296 MB/s demonstrates legit PS5 storage performance, making the P310 2280 a great choice for the console's M.2 storage expansion slot.

Synthetic Benchmarks: CDM, Anvil, ATTO

CrystalDiskMark

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We employ CDM as our standard measurement for both sequential throughput and Q1T1 random read. In terms of sequential throughput, we find our test subject fully capable of exceeding quoted up to factory throughput specifications.

Anvil's Storage Utilities

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Scoring here is not impressive, but it is still well above average for a DRAMless SSD.

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We employ Anvil's random read test as our standard for measuring max random read IOPS. This test is very accurate as it at its core is Iometer skinned over. We test at QD128. At up to 933K IOPS, we are falling just short of the 2TB drives' quoted up to 1,000K IOPS. Good enough considering our more demanding user state.

ATTO

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ATTO gives us a clear picture of what transfer sizes a particular SSD favors in terms of QD4 sequential throughput. We chart 128K transfers. At a queue depth of four, the P310 2280 2TB favors sequential transfers of 64KB or larger when serving data to the host (reading) and 64KB or larger when programming (writing) data. This is outstanding small file performance, which is exactly what we are looking for from any SSD.

Real-World Testing: Transfers, 3DMark SSD Gaming Test, PCM10 Storage

Transfer Rates

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Our 100GB data transfer test is not your ordinary 100GB of data. Ours is a crushing mix composed of more than 62K files. Write performance, random or sequential, is an infrequent operation, and as such, we do not consider it to be an important performance metric in the consumer space. An example is how many times a game is installed vs. how many times it's played. A transfer rate of 1,899 MB/s is the highest write transfer rate we've seen from any QLC arrayed SSD. Not only that, but it is also, in fact, the second-best ever for any flash-based PCIe Gen4 SSD. Amazing.

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Unlike programming (writing) data, serving data to the host (reading) is typically an important performance metric as it relates to the consumer space. Very impressive for a 4-channel QLC arrayed SSD.

3DMark SSD Gaming Test

UL's newest 3DMark SSD Gaming Test is the most comprehensive SSD gaming test ever devised. We consider it superior to testing against games themselves because, as a trace, it is much more consistent than variations that will occur between runs on the actual game itself. This test is the same as running the actual game, just without the inconsistencies inherent to application testing. In short, we believe that this is the world's best way to test an SSDs gaming prowess and accurately compare it against competing SSDs. The 3DMark SSD Gaming Test measures and scores the following:

• Loading Battlefield V from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Call of Duty Black Ops 4 from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Overwatch from launch to the main menu.
• Recording a 1080p gameplay video at 60 FPS with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) while playing Overwatch.
• Installing The Outer Worlds from the Epic Games Launcher.
• Saving game progress in The Outer Worlds.
• Copying the Steam folder for Counter-Strike Global Offensive from an external SSD to the system drive.

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Gaming is a performance metric that matters to most DIY consumers, especially for the enthusiast crowd that TweakTown caters to. Now we've reached the point where results start to matter as they are a direct reflection of user experience.

Here, we find our contender delivering about as good as it gets for a QLC arrayed SSD. Excellent.

PCM10 Storage Tests

PCMark 10 Storage Test is the most advanced and most accurate real-world consumer storage test ever made. There are four different tests you can choose from; we run two of them. The Full System Drive Benchmark and the Quick System Drive Benchmark. The Full System Drive Benchmark writes 204 GB of data over the duration of the test. These tests directly correlate with mainstream user experience.

PCMark 10 Full System Drive Benchmark

This test writes 204GB data and covers a broad range of common consumer tasks, including booting Windows 10, file transfers, Adobe and Office applications, and startup times for games including Battlefield V, COD Black Ops 4, and Overwatch. Unlike synthetic numbers, this is comprehensive real-world data which is why we use it to rank SSDs in terms of user experience.

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Like its direct predecessor, our QLC-arrayed contender can deliver a user experience exceeding that of most TLC-arrayed SSDs with onboard DRAM. That is why we love this value SSD so much.

PCMark 10 Quick System Drive Benchmark

The Quick System Drive Benchmark writes 23 GB of data over the duration of the test.

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Of all the benchmarks we run, it can be argued that this one offers the best reflection of a typical consumer use case scenario. More than any other benchmark, here is where we want to see excellent numbers and that's exactly what we are getting from our micro-sized contender.

This is the best we've ever recorded for a QLC SSD and further testament as to why Crucial's P310 series is currently our overall favorite value-priced mainstream SSD.

Final Thoughts

Having already reviewed the P310 2230 2TB, we knew the full-sized version would no doubt be the pinnacle of its kind. We anticipated that its performance could be even better than its tiny predecessor due to 2230 size and application constraints, but the performance turned out to be nearly identical. However, we do find a nice difference when it comes to MSRP, with the 2280 model entering retail channels at a whopping $65 less than its more specialized predecessor. Excellent.

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We rank SSDs in terms of overall user experience (performance where it matters most) as expressed by PCMark 10 storage and 3DMark gaming storage tests. Currently, we consider a user experience score of 15K or more to verify an SSD as a TweakTown Elite performer. Yep, it's certified TT Elite.

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Due to its opening MSRP being lower than the 2230 version, Crucial's P310 2280 2TB is our new favorite mainstream SSD, and if it's our favorite, you know it's earned our highest award. Editor's Choice.