Verdict
The Crucial T710 is an extremely competitive PCIe 5.0 SSD with remarkably fast speeds, as well as its solid capacity and endurance. It performs well in our testing, although as with other drives of this kind, you’ll have to watch out for its higher price.
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Extremely fast sequential speeds -
Responsive in games and file transfer tests -
Sensible capacities and endurance
Key Features
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PCie 5.0 speeds
The T710 benefits from a full PCIe 5.0 interface and the immense speeds it brings -
Up to 4TB capacity
It also has the option of larger capacities for data hoarders who need access to a lot of fast storage -
DRAM cache
The T710 also has a 2GB LPDDR4 DRAM cache to aid responsiveness.
Introduction
The Crucial T710 is Micron’s fastest PCIe 5.0 SSD yet, aiming to bring even more blazing-fast speeds to the growing sector.
We have been wowed us in the past with the T705, and we’ve also seen more beefy PCIe 5.0 drives try to steal its crown in recent times with both the WD Black SN8100 and Samsung 9100 Pro.
I look upon the T710 as being Crucial’s attempt to reassert its dominance ahead of key rivals. How successful they are with it remains to be seen. This drive is promising speeds of up to 14900 MB/s reads and 13800 MB/s writes and capacities of up to 4TB, so it all seems on paper to look quite for Micron against the competition.
Specs
The T710 sports a similar look to Crucial’s other recent drives, with a simple look that features a stickered label on the top with the Crucial and Micron logos, and the model designation, all in black.
The underside of the drive reveals more details, such as capacitiy, part and serial numbers, plus varying certifications.
The M.2 key is standard-issue and with a longer 2280 length, which means this drive will play nicely in both a modern PC with PCIe 5.0 capabilities. You can technically use it in a PS5 too, although it’ll run at Gen 4 speeds and need a compatible heatsink. Crucial is also selling this drive with a first-party heatsink for an added premium.
As with the T705, this drive sports the same 232-layer Micron TLC NAND, which is handled instead by a new Silicon Motion SM2508 controller – the same base unit as in the WD Black SN8100. They say moving to this controller over the Phison one in the T705 is a 24% reduction in power. There is also a 2GB LPDDR4 DRAM cache with this drive.
The T710 is also a single-sided drive, regardless of capacity, so it has all of those NAND flash modules on one side. This makes it easier to cool when put inside PCs and even small handhelds that support a full-size drive, as there’s only one side to take care of against other drives that have flash chips on both sides.
The sample I have is the mid-spec 2TB option, although it is also possible to get the SN8100 in either 1TB and 4TB models if you don’t need as much, or even more storage.
As with other drives, the endurance scales with capacity, with the base 1TB model having a 600TBW rating, the 2TB model has a 1200TBW rating, and the top 4TB model maxes out at 2400TBW. This matches the WD Black SN8100, and is largely in line with other Gen 5 drives of its calibre.
Full Specs
| Crucial T710 | WD Black SN8100 | Seagate FireCuda 540 | Gigabyte Aorus Gen5 12000 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Connector | M.2-2280 | M.2-2280 | M.2-2280 | M.2-2280 |
| Interface | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 4.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4 | PCIe 5.0 x4 |
| Model Variants | 1TB, 2TB, 4TB | 1TB, 2TB, 4TB | 1TB, 2TB | 1TB, 2TB |
| Read Speed | 14900 MB/s | 14900 MB/s | 10000 MB/s | 12400 MB/s |
| Release Date | 2025 | 2025 | 2023 | 2023 |
| Storage Capacity (Sample) | 2TB | 12B | 2TB | 2TB |
| USA RRP (2TB) | $279.99 | $279.99 | $269.99 | $239.99 |
| Write Speed | 13800 MB/s | 14000 MB/s | 10000 MB/s | 11800 MB/s |
Test Setup
Of course, for testing any quantity of PC components, SSDs included, I needed to make sure I had a solid PC to do so. Hence, I took the decision back in early 2024 to upgrade my ailing HP pre-built to a fully custom rig with a system that benefits from brisk gaming performance and excellent compatibility with modern and future hardware.
The full system specs can be found below:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
- Motherboard: NZXT N7 B650E
- GPU: Nvidia RTX 4080 Super Founder’s Edition
- RAM: 32GB (2x16GB) Corsair Vengeance DDR5-6000 CL36
- Cooler: Noctua NH-D15
- PSU: 1200W NZXT C1200 80+ Gold ATX 3.0
- Case: NZXT H9 Flow
The long and short of the setup is that the Crucial T710 was placed in the top PCIe 5.0 x4 slot on my B650E motherboard, and then a range of real-world and synthetic tests were run. These included the classic CrystalDiskMark 8 with its Sequential speeds at a queue depth of 8 and 1, as well as its Random 4K performance at depths of Q32 and Q1. The Sequential tests are handy in proving the actual raw speed of the drive for fast file copies and access, while the Random 4K tests are more indicative of loading a game up.
For the usefulness of a quantifiable ranking, I’ve also included the Quick System Drive and Data Drive benchmarks from the PCMark 10 suite.
Performance
- Very fast performance
- Matches claimed speeds
In my testing, I found the Crucial T710 to be an immensely fast drive that trades blows with its key rivals from Western Digital, Gigabyte and Samsung.
The quoted top line speeds of 14900MB/s reads and 13800MB/s writes are only slightly off in the CrystalDiskMark 8 Sequential Q8 reads and writes, with the T710 managing 14280.17 MB/s and 13270.99 MB/s respectively. The WD Black SN8100 and Samsung 9100 Pro are marginally faster.
| Crucial T710 | WD Black SN8100 | Samsung 9100 Pro | |
| CrystalDiskMark 8 Sequential Q8 Reads | 14280.17 MB/s | 14832.75 MB/s | 14583.98 MB/s |
| CrystalDiskMark 8 Sequential Q8 Writes | 13270.99 MB/s | 14012.17 MB/s | 13482.92 MB/s |
| CrystalDiskMark 8 Sequential Q1 Reads | 8890.31 MB/s | 8764.88 MB/s | 9377.82 MB/s |
| CrystalDiskMark 8 Sequential Q1 Writes | 10520.94 MB/s | 10144.22 MB/s | 9792.91 MB/s |
| CrystalDiskMark 8 Random 4K Q32 Reads | 563.12 MB/s | 766.21 MB/s | 601.71 MB/s |
| CrystalDiskMark 8 Random 4K Q32 Writes | 371.41 MB/s | 366.69 MB/s | 375.79 MB/s |
| CrystalDiskMark 8 Random 4K Q1 Reads | 95.36 MB/s | 97.91 MB/s | 84.79 MB/s |
| CrystalDiskMark 8 Random 4K Q1 Writes | 236.38 MB/s | 228.75 MB/s | 225.22 MB/s |
| FFXIV Endwalker Benchmark Loadtime | 7.35 seconds | 7.39 seconds | 7.67 seconds |
| PCMark 10 QSD Benchmark | 3858 | 3713 | 3504 |
| PCMark 10 Data Drive Benchmark | 5556 | 5323 | 5008 |
| 120GB Real World File Copy Test | 34.81 seconds | 34.32 seconds | 34.41 seconds |
The T710 is also largely competitive against the WD Black SN8100 and Samsung 9100 Pro in the Q1-level tests, beating both of them with a slight margin. 4K performance swings results back in favour of WD and Samsung, though.
The Final Fantasy Endwalker test produced some very competitive results, actually making the T710 marginally fastest against WD and Samsung, while it also pulls ahead in the PCMark 10 tests. All drives are also separated by fractions of a second in the 120GB file copy test, although T710 was the slowest one very slightly – it still had an average transfer rate of 3.4GB/s, which makes it rather quick.
Should you buy it?
You want a competitive PCIe 5.0 SSD
The T710 is an immensely competitive drive against its rivals, with fantastic speeds, and sensible capacities and endurance that make it a tough call in some tests.
You want the absolute fastest drive
As brisk as it is though, the T710’s top-end speeds are bettered by options from WD and Samsung, meaning you will be looking elsewhere for the absolute fastest option.
Final Thoughts
The Crucial T710 is an extremely competitive PCIe 5.0 SSD with remarkably fast speeds, as well as its solid capacity and endurance. It performs well in our testing, although as with other drives of this kind, you’ll have to watch out for its higher price.
In some instances, all that separates the T710 from both the WD Black SN8100 and Samsung 9100 Pro is the margin of error in our testing, and the drives trade blows remarkably across the suite of tests. All of them are fast and capacious and competitively priced against one another, but the T710 isn’t the absolute fastest. That honour still goes to the WD Black SN8100.
How We Test
Each SSD we test utilises a mix of both synthetic and real-world benchmark tests. On top of that, we also use a number of price-to-performance metrics, and monitor temperature and power-draw to determine the long-term stability and cost-effectiveness of the drive.
- We install and test each and every SSD rigorously.
- All testing is performed under strict conditions with power, heat and performance measured.
FAQs
Yes, all PCIe 5.0 drives are backwards compatible in any M.2 PCIe slot. You will get reduced bandwidth and speeds however.
It depends on the model you purchase, as Crucial offers this drive either with or without one.
Test Data
Full Specs
| Crucial T710 Review | |
|---|---|
| UK RRP | £247.99 |
| USA RRP | $279.99 |
| Manufacturer | Crucial |
| Storage Capacity | 1TB, 2TB, 4TB |
| Size (Dimensions) | 22 x 76 x 2.3 MM |
| Weight | 33 G |
| Release Date | 2025 |
| First Reviewed Date | 03/07/2025 |
| Storage Type | SSD |
| Read Speed | 14900 MB/s |
| Write Speed | 13800 MB/s |
| Interface | PCIe 5.0 x4 |
| Connector | M.2 |
| Heatset included? | Yes |
