Crucial’s new T705 SSD certainly looks impressive on paper – it claims to be 25x faster than SATA and almost 2x faster than Crucial’s fastest Gen4 SSD, with sequential read/write speeds of up to 14,500/12,700 MB/s.
The drive, which is available in capacities up to 4TB, is designed with Micron’s 232-layer TLC NAND3 and compatible with Intel Core 13th-14th generation desktop CPUs and AMD Ryzen 7000 series CPUs. Additional features include an aluminum and copper heatsink, adaptive thermal protection, and hardware encryption for storage security.
If you’ve been keeping an eye on the SSD since it was announced, the good news is that the first reviews are in, and it’s just as impressive as you’d hope, but with some important caveats.
Fast, but expensive
ServeTheHome‘S review reveals the Crucial T705’s exceptional performance, stating that it is “right at the limits of what a PCIe Gen 5 x4 link can support.” The review notes that the SSD’s performance during testing was “the best sequential read and write performance” the reviewer has ever seen, despite a slight dip in sequential write speed on the larger CrystalDiskMark test. The review ends by saying that the T705 is “quite in a class of its own” and is a “serious contender” for anyone who wants the fastest SSD available.
computer world expressed the same opinion, stating that the T705 is “making progress” in terms of performance. It highlighted that while the drive posted “some flashy numbers in benchmarks, these don’t always translate to the real world. A lot depends on your system and CPU”, although it raved about the “glorious sequential results” of the synthetic benchmark tests . summarized his review with “If you want the absolute best performance out of your PCIe 5.0 system, then the T705 is indeed the best there is.”
Tom’s hardware had more reservations, stating that while the T705 is “the fastest SSD in the world”, it “comes with a high price tag”. It also highlighted that the “T705 could certainly be a suitable upgrade from a SATA or PCIe 3.0 SSD, but at this point PCIe 4.0 SSDs make more sense for most users.” If you’re still considering buying it, the site warns: “Even with rising SSD and NAND flash prices, the low gigabytes per dollar factor here is quite disappointing. You will have to pay dearly for advanced SSD performance.”
HotHardwareThe review found the following: “Overall, the Crucial T705 is the best-performing consumer-grade SSD we’ve ever tested.” Like the other reviews, it agrees that the Crucial T705’s “only real downsides are its price and the requirement for adequate cooling,” although it points out that the latter shouldn’t be an issue “in any well-configured enthusiast class. system, where the T705 belongs.” It ends on a very positive note: “If you’re ultimately building a top-of-the-line system and want the fastest M.2 SSD money can buy, the Crucial T705 is the solution right now.”
TweakTown was also very impressed, stating that the “T705 is the ultimate enthusiast storage platform, delivering the most where it matters most.” Backing up this claim with its test scores, the site said: “We rank SSDs in terms of overall user experience as expressed by PCMark 10 storage and 3DMark gaming storage tests. We consider a user experience score of 15K or more to verify an SSD as a TweakTown Elite performer. Crucial’s 2TB T705 is the first flash-based SSD of any kind, retail or ES, to exceed the 22,900 plateau. Epic.”
If you would like to purchase the Crucial T705 SSD, you can pick it up here. The 1TB model costs $259.99 with heatsink, or $239.99 without. The price increases to $439.99 (with) or $399.99 (without) for the 2TB model, then jumps to $729.99 (with) or $713.99 (without) for the 4TB model.