Crucial P310: Fast 2230 SSD with 2 TByte
30 mm short M.2 SSDs are particularly interesting for handheld PCs. Crucial is entering the market with the P310 – and is launching a fast model right away.
(Image: c't / ll)
With the "P310 PCIe Gen4 NVMe 2230 M.2 SSD", Crucial is launching its first SSD with a length of 30 millimeters – for the sake of simplicity, we'll just call the model P310. With the usual 22 millimetre width, this design is known as M.2-2230. Only these mini SSDs fit into handheld PCs such as Asus' ROG Ally and Valve's Steam Deck for memory expansion, and some Surface devices from Microsoft also use this format.
Like competitor models, the P310 comes with capacities of up to 2 TByte, but achieves higher transfer speeds. Like the P310, many previous 2230 SSDs officially use PCIe 4.0, but do not even begin to utilize this interface. Crucial's model is different: The P310 is said to achieve up to 7.1 GByte/s when reading and 6 GByte/s when writing - making it the fastest 2230 SSD. We have already been able to verify the values.
Crucial uses the E27T Phison controller and a 2 TByte QLC memory chip from its own parent company Micron with 232 layers of flash. There is no DRAM chip; Phison controllers with a T at the end do not support a DRAM cache, but use the host system's memory via the NVMe driver.
Further characteristics of the SSD: 5-year warranty, 1 or 2 TByte storage space, endurance of 220 TBW per TByte.
Short test of the P310
The P310 is only equipped with chips on the top and therefore fits into even the tightest notebooks. There is no heat sink.
In the test, we were able to achieve the promised speeds - but only for more than a few seconds after we mounted the SSD under a thick metal block for cooling. We achieved just over 7.2 GByte/s when reading and 6.25 GByte/s when writing; both values are still slightly above the promises.
Crucial claims one million IOPS when reading random addresses and 1.2 million when writing. We achieved 1.03 million for reading, but only 0.994 for writing - the missing 200,000 IOPS don't play a role in practice, but we will measure again for the next SSD test.
Other SSDs with E27T
The P310 is not the first SSD with this controller; we have already tested the Corsair MP600 Elite and the Goodram IRDM Pro Nano. The 2280 Corsair SSD with Kioxia flash was once again quite a bit faster in the synthetic tests, but in the PCMark 10 load test it landed in one of the bottom places in the SSD test in issue 8 with only 856 points. The P310 with Micron flash achieved more than 2000 points in this benchmark, and PCMark 10 also certified it as suitable as a system drive with just under 3800 points, around 600 points more than the MP600 Elite.
We were unable to find out which memory the IRDM Pro Nano from the test in issue 16 is equipped with - and the manufacturer did not want to tell us. When writing with Iometer, the Nano is still a tad faster than the P310, but in all other disciplines the P310 is sometimes far ahead.
The P310 with 1 TByte of storage space has a recommended retail price of 95 euros, while Crucial is asking 170 euros for the large version with 2 TByte. Sales are due to start soon. (ll)
