Crucial T705 SSD review: fantastic speed for those who can afford it

TechRadar Verdict

One of the fastest PCIe 5.0 SSDs on the market, the Crucial T705 matches outstanding performance with a decent enough price point for a Gen 5 SSD. That’s not to say it’s not expensive, because it is, but it is definitely worth the investment for those looking for outstanding performance — just make sure to buy it with a heat sink, since this kind of performance comes with a LOT of heat.

Fantastic performance

Effective heatsink

Expensive

Still runs hot

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Crucial T705: Two-minute review

The Crucial T705 SSD is inarguably one of the fastest PCIe 5.0 drives to hit the market in recent months, making it a must-have for gamers, content creators, or anyone who needs outstanding storage performance.

Starting at $239.99/£245.99/AU$379.99 for 1TB without a heatsink, this isn’t thebest cheap SSDon the market, but you’re getting a lot for what you pay for, and given that it is a strong contender for thebest SSDyou can get in 2024, the price isn’t out of line with what you should expect to pay.

What you get for that investment is an incredibly fast SSD that reaches speeds that deliver on the promise of PCIe 5.0, including nearly 14,400MB/s sequential read speeds, so gamers especially are going to love the incredibly fast loading times you’re going to get from this drive.

Its sequential write speed topped out at 12,465 MB/s in my testing, so this drive is also going to be great as a working drive for content creators like video editors who need to save or export massive files on a regular basis.

That said, seeing as it is PCIe 5.0, this isn’t thebest PS5 SSDsince you won’t be able to take full advantage of the PCIe 5.0 lanes (the PS5 is limited to PCIe 4.0, which caps out at about 7,500MB/s), so you’re better off with aSamsung 990 Pro,PNY XLR8 CS3140, or aPatriot Viper VP4300, which will get you the absolute fastest PCIe 4.0 speeds on the market (and will probably save you some money too).

In a properly capable PC motherboard though, this SSD will absolutely fly. All this performance comes at the price of significantly higher thermals though, so you will need a heatsink for this drive, whether that’s the one on offer from Crucial or the one that comes with your motherboard.

And honestly, you’re better off with either the Crucial or a more ‘powered’ heatsink that has some form of active cooling like a fan, because the heat generated by this SSD is not for the faint of heart.

So, in the end, the question is really whether you should be buying this SSD for your next rig or workstation, and the answer is unequivocally yes, assuming you have a setup that can take advantage of the PCIe 5.0 tech built into this drive.

Right now, all thebest graphics cardsare PCIe 4.0, so you don’t have to worry about splitting any PCIe 5.0 lanes just yet, but if you’re planning to run a top-tier system in the coming years, make sure your motherboard can support both your GPU and this SSD, since it’s quite an investment and the rollout of PCIe 5.0 drives like the Crucial T705 has driven down the price of the best PCIe 4.0 drives a good bit.

If your motherboard can only support one or the other, and you’re looking to snatch up theNvidia RTX 5090when it drops in late 2024/early 2025, you’re going to get a lot more out of a PCIe 5.0 graphics card than a PCIe 5.0 SSD. If that’s your situation, you might be better off opting for the top-of-the-line PCIe 4.0 SSDs like the 990 Pro, which you can get for much cheaper than this drive. But if high-end graphics card performance is less of a concern that fast loading times for gaming and rapid exports to disk fromAdobePremiere Pro, AutoDesk, or other similar content creation apps, than the Crucial T705 SSD is a fantastic drive to get you the kind of performance you need at a reasonable price-per-terabyte.

Crucial T705: Price & availability

The Crucial T705 is available in the US, UK, and Australia, starting at $239.99/£245.99/AU$379.99 for 1TB, without a heatsink.

For those with beefy motherboards with M.2 slot heat sinks, this should be fine, but for high-performance machines and workstations, I recommend upgrading to an included heatsink for an extra $16/£20/AU$50, which does a better job of keeping the SSD cool.

The T705 is also available in 2TB ($399.99/£454.79/AU$729, without heatsink) and 4TB ($713.99/£833.99/AU$949, without heatsink), which puts it on the higher end of thebest M.2 SSDoptions out there. TheSamsung990 Pro, for example, is the best PCIe 4.0 SSD currently and retails for $169.99 / £155 / AU$265 for 1TB, and going as high as 4TB for $464.99/£284/AU$699, before including an option for a heatsink.

This puts the Crucial T705 on the high-end of SSDs, but it’s only slightly more expensive than the best PCIe 4.0 SSD going but delivers about twice the performance, so it’s hard to argue that the T705 isn’t an incredible value in the end.

Crucial T705: Specs

Should you buy the Crucial T705?

Buy the Crucial T705 if…

You want fast loading times for games and appsWith incrediblly fast sequential read speeds, this drive will load your games, apps, and even your OS in no time.

You need to write large files to disk frequentlyIf you’re a content creator, exporting a work-in-progress to disk can be time consuming, but this drive makes it much easier.

Don’t buy it if…

You’re on a budgetThis is hardly the cheapest PCIe 5.0 drive out there.

You’re looking for a PS5 SSDThis drive’s PCIe 5.0 interface makes it way more expensive than a PCIe 4.0 drive, so PS5 users are better off going with a cheaper SSD since you won’t get the full performance of this drive on a console right now.

Crucial T705: Also consider

If my Crucial T705 review has you looking for other options, here are two more M.2 SSDs to consider…

Samsung 990 ProThe Samsung 990 Pro is the best PCIe 4.0 SSD going, and for 95% of users, this drive will be more than enough for your needs at a decent enough price.

Read the fullSamsung 990 Pro review

PNY XLR8 CS3140As far as gaming SSD’s go, this is one of the best. With fast sequential read speeds, this is a very cost effective drive for cutting down on loading times, whether playing on PC or PS5.

Read the fullPNY XLR8 CS3140 review

How I tested the Crucial T705

To test the T705, I ran it through our standard benchmark suite, including CrystalDiskMark 8, PassMark, PCMark 10, 3DMark, and out proprietary 25GB file copy test.

I used this drive as my main system storage (C:) drive for over a week on our test bench, where I used it extensively for loading games for benchmarking purposes, content creation, and more.

I’ve been reviewing PC hardware for several years now, in addition to earning my Master’s Degree in Computer Science, so I know how an SSD of this caliber should perform for the price, and I leverage that knowledge to help you find the best SSD for your needs and budget, whether it’s the Crucial T705 or an alternative.

We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it’s on our radar.

TechRadar Verdict#

Crucial T705: Two-minute review#

Crucial T705: Price & availability#

Crucial T705: Specs#

Should you buy the Crucial T705?#

Buy the Crucial T705 if…#

Don’t buy it if…#

Crucial T705: Also consider#

How I tested the Crucial T705#