Crucial P1 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD [CT1000P1SSD8]

Would you trust your precious data to a stick of gum that's masquerading as a hard drive? Errr, maybe. They are a little fragile which is why I also fit a hard drive and move the users folders to the the hard drive on D: . I've not used this brand of M.2 but I did have a Western Digital drop dead in a system and that did have important data on it.The thing to realise about these is they are the same price as a SATA SSD and 5 times as FAST! That does not mean your computer boots in 6 seconds but it is more responsive. As with any SSD it's how fast it handles the 4k files that determines it's feel after it's booted. NVMe is a format that bypasses a lot of the protocols built in to SATA. SATA is simply the serial version of IDE with the ribbon cables for spinning ... MoreWould you trust your precious data to a stick of gum that's masquerading as a hard drive? Errr, maybe. They are a little fragile which is why I also fit a hard drive and move the users folders to the the hard drive on D: . I've not used this brand of M.2 but I did have a Western Digital drop dead in a system and that did have important data on it.The thing to realise about these is they are the same price as a SATA SSD and 5 times as FAST! That does not mean your computer boots in 6 seconds but it is more responsive. As with any SSD it's how fast it handles the 4k files that determines it's feel after it's booted. NVMe is a format that bypasses a lot of the protocols built in to SATA. SATA is simply the serial version of IDE with the ribbon cables for spinning drives. NVMe realises that this is a new century with new technology so it's not designed to allow for the disk to rotate.If you have the opportunity to fit one of these then you should. I chose this one as a compromise between price and performance, 2200MB/s but spend more and get 3400MB/s if you feel the need.

Believe in the NVMe difference!

Bought for the new PC I built for my daughter as she starts college. Her old PC had a Crucial BX100. So far, the new PC boots in under 10 seconds, and Overwatch also starts up in less than 10 seconds. QLC is the newest type of NAND being used for SSDs, and is somewhat slower than the TLC that it's replacing. Performance of QLC is highly dependent on the SLC caching scheme used by the SSD's controller (Silicon Motion's SM2263 in this case). So far, the P1 has been performing splendidly, but it's only been 2 months. In that time, there have already been a couple of firmware updates. We'll see how well the performance holds up over the next few years. If it degrades sharply, I will update this review.

DO NOT BUY! STICK TO SAMSUNG

After 8 months of use, programs began crashing constantly, there was a general instability, boot errors, had to run chkdsk multiple times to repair the windows file system. It would then work again for maybe a week, until new issues would continue to crop up. Oddly enough, the ssds show no SMART errors, but after testing all other hardware, it is clear that these SSDs are defective. Will be sure to avoid crucial and all other third party products in the future, as I've had my Samsung ssds for over 5 years with no problems. Very disappointed, I have no desire for any returns or warranty work when the company can't even make a product last even a year, instead, I hope someone reads this review and takes this warning seriously. Stay away.

Don't Buy unless you want trouble

I bought this as a secondary drive for my gaming laptop. When i installed it, the laptop wouldn't go past the boot screen. Took it out and the laptop booted just fine. Put it back in and again wouldn't go past the boot screen. Contacted the manufacturer and while chatting with them all i could get from them was a bunch links and them telling me to read the information and do what it said. I tried every thing they said i still had the same issue. Finally after chatting with 5 representatives i was told i had to update the bios. Updated the bios and it finally booted up, but no drive was showing. After 4 more representatives to get it to show, finally it was visible and usable. Then 2 weeks later the laptop wouldn't go past boot screen. Reps just gave me more links to ... MoreI bought this as a secondary drive for my gaming laptop. When i installed it, the laptop wouldn't go past the boot screen. Took it out and the laptop booted just fine. Put it back in and again wouldn't go past the boot screen. Contacted the manufacturer and while chatting with them all i could get from them was a bunch links and them telling me to read the information and do what it said. I tried every thing they said i still had the same issue. Finally after chatting with 5 representatives i was told i had to update the bios. Updated the bios and it finally booted up, but no drive was showing. After 4 more representatives to get it to show, finally it was visible and usable. Then 2 weeks later the laptop wouldn't go past boot screen. Reps just gave me more links to read and try, finally after another 3 reps was told to update the bios again, and it was visible again. Now today won't go past boot screen again, take the drive out and it boots fine. If i could negative stars for this i would.

Excellent drive for the price, but installing Windows 7 is a pain

The Crucial P1 does work with Windows 7, though it is a very involved process. You need to do a fresh install of Windows 7 on a separate drive, computer, or VM. Install KB3020369, KB976902, and Windows 7 Service Pack 1 update. After SP1 is completed, install KB2990941 and KB3125574. Now install all needed drivers (USB3, network, etc). Next, run sysprep and generalize the installation of Windows (do not log back into it after generalizing). Now you have to boot to Windows PE or another copy of windows on the same machine and capture an image of the now-generalized installation with DISM. After capturing an image of the clean Windows 7 installation, you will have a .wim file. Place that in the sources folder of a Windows 10 installer USB drive or DVD. (yes windows 10, ... MoreThe Crucial P1 does work with Windows 7, though it is a very involved process. You need to do a fresh install of Windows 7 on a separate drive, computer, or VM. Install KB3020369, KB976902, and Windows 7 Service Pack 1 update. After SP1 is completed, install KB2990941 and KB3125574. Now install all needed drivers (USB3, network, etc). Next, run sysprep and generalize the installation of Windows (do not log back into it after generalizing). Now you have to boot to Windows PE or another copy of windows on the same machine and capture an image of the now-generalized installation with DISM. After capturing an image of the clean Windows 7 installation, you will have a .wim file. Place that in the sources folder of a Windows 10 installer USB drive or DVD. (yes windows 10, so that it recognizes the NVMe drive while installing your Windows 7 image). You can now install Windows 7 to the NVMe and it will properly boot to the NVMe as long as you had KB2990941 installed on the image. Hope this helps! (this review typed from a Crucial P1 running Windows 7)

Good, but not for gaming/intensive use

I built my son a new gaming PC from parts. Went together well, then it stuttered playing graphic intensive games. Through testing and google searches, we learned the cache is too small on this NVMe SSD to really use it's high read/write speed, except for short bursts. After two days of testing, It seems to work well for an Operating System (OS) and general use, but it lags/can't keep up when playing graphic intensive games (ex. Monster Hunter World is almost unplayable, 10 fps even at the lowest settings). When we moved the game files to a much slower HDD, things suddenly worked well, and the frame rates jumped up to 30-60 fps again. This is not what I expected from a Crucial brand product. I've used their SSD's for a few years with no problems like this. So, hence ... MoreI built my son a new gaming PC from parts. Went together well, then it stuttered playing graphic intensive games. Through testing and google searches, we learned the cache is too small on this NVMe SSD to really use it's high read/write speed, except for short bursts. After two days of testing, It seems to work well for an Operating System (OS) and general use, but it lags/can't keep up when playing graphic intensive games (ex. Monster Hunter World is almost unplayable, 10 fps even at the lowest settings). When we moved the game files to a much slower HDD, things suddenly worked well, and the frame rates jumped up to 30-60 fps again. This is not what I expected from a Crucial brand product. I've used their SSD's for a few years with no problems like this. So, hence 3 stars. The price is right and it works, but doesn't live up to my expectations, or the competition.

Great Drive, Good Price

For VERY large file transfers, you will hit the limit of the SLC cache. It is very unlikely you will ever thermal throttle this drive assuming good circulation (mine is right next to the CPU fan so it was getting a nice blast of cool air, it would get hotter if I had high CPU load though) Update: Nothing at all to add to my original review. Drive is still working fine.

Great burst speed but that's it. Less than a USB 1.0 transfer rate.

Overall I would not give this a good rating. Now I am not talking just about the crucial brand, I am talking about every brand because this is how every one of them is set up. It's fine if you're going to transfer under one gig files and it does load the computer very quickly as well as the programs. But if you need to transfer something, be prepared for a long wait. This is something that they do not tell you about these drives because they wouldn't make any money on them if they did because no one would buy them. If you're going to buy one buy a 256 and put your operating system and programs on it. Then just use a SATA mechanical hard drive for storage. Anything over 256 gigs is a total waste of money. Yes the one terabyte and two terabyte have great burst speeds ... MoreOverall I would not give this a good rating. Now I am not talking just about the crucial brand, I am talking about every brand because this is how every one of them is set up. It's fine if you're going to transfer under one gig files and it does load the computer very quickly as well as the programs. But if you need to transfer something, be prepared for a long wait. This is something that they do not tell you about these drives because they wouldn't make any money on them if they did because no one would buy them. If you're going to buy one buy a 256 and put your operating system and programs on it. Then just use a SATA mechanical hard drive for storage. Anything over 256 gigs is a total waste of money. Yes the one terabyte and two terabyte have great burst speeds but that's all they are is burst speeds after that they fall flat on its back. So there's no need of wasting your money. I had to learn this the hard way and I have had mine going on two years now.

Lightning Fast media, Highly Recommend This!

I highly recommend this SDD to anyone able to afford it and if your motherboard supports it. You won't regret it one bit. Games like Grand Theft Auto 5 has really long load times, mainly getting into the game. This cut the load time from about 70 seconds down to 20 seconds at times. It's night and day different in load times. Windows starts up in the blink of an eye as well as almost all programs. Adobe Photoshop is another program that can take awhile to load up but with this it's cut load times in less than half the time. I most definitely will be buying another one of these to double my HD space to 2TB. My motherboard supports to M.2 devices so this wont be a problem. If you're buying I'd suggest making sure how many your motherboard supports if it even does ... MoreI highly recommend this SDD to anyone able to afford it and if your motherboard supports it. You won't regret it one bit. Games like Grand Theft Auto 5 has really long load times, mainly getting into the game. This cut the load time from about 70 seconds down to 20 seconds at times. It's night and day different in load times. Windows starts up in the blink of an eye as well as almost all programs. Adobe Photoshop is another program that can take awhile to load up but with this it's cut load times in less than half the time. I most definitely will be buying another one of these to double my HD space to 2TB. My motherboard supports to M.2 devices so this wont be a problem. If you're buying I'd suggest making sure how many your motherboard supports if it even does before buying. And making sure you order enough space the first time. The only thing I'd change about this is the price. As with any new technology it's expensive at first. But as time goes on, processes become more mainstream and all the price will drop even more than it already has.

Worked well while it lasted

Bought this m.2 drive in this in March 2020 worked well for several months but in September 2020 I had my first issue come up. First symptoms were game save files becoming corrupt. Next issues got worse as some windows files had become corrupt and would no longer boot. I had to format the drive and re instal windows. The drive appeared to work well after the reinstall until july 2021 when windows once again became corrupt. However this time it afrer the fresh windows install it crashes on first launch and become corrupt again.