My self-built PC is getting on a bit now. When I built it, it had components that were at the top end of what was available, and still easily outruns most shop-bought machines today. But that doesn't mean it's as quick as I need it to be. I do a lot of photo and video editing, often involving very large file sizes. Although my CPU and graphics card are both still very capable, as file sizes get bigger, just being able to move them to and from the hard drive has proved to be a very frustrating bottleneck where overall speed is concerned.
The smart advice, to speed up any computer, was always to add more memory, but even that only gets you so far. Mechanical hard disk drives have a limit to how quickly they can read and write data, and it is this that is now the primary reason for many PCs being slow. As a result, I'd spent some time looking at SSD drives, and how they could benefit me
In the end, I settled on the Crucial P5 Plus. Partly because it gave me 1TB of storage, and partly because it is PCIe4 compatible. My current motherboard is only PCIe3, but my plan is to upgrade it sooner rather than later, so the P5 Plus gives me some future proofing built in.
Installation was simple, even after fitting a 3rd party heatsink to reduce the heat under stress. Check your motherboard compatibility first, for a couple of reasons. The P5 Plus is a PCIe device, and some SSD cards are SATA. Your motherboard may accept either type, but many don't, so make sure you have the right one. Also, not all motherboards have the fixing screw and spacer needed to secure the device in place, and Crucial don't supply them either. Assuming yours does, or you bought it separately, installation is as simple as can be. Simply insert the P5 Plus carefully into the M2 socket, and secure with the screw. The screw needs only to be just tight enough. Over tightening can damage both the SSD and your motherboard.
Once I had migrated my OS to the P5 Plus, it became the time to test how quick it was. I'd done some testing with the existing hard drive, which took over 3 minutes to boot from cold, and just over 2 minutes from sleep, before the PC was fully usable.
With the P5 Plus, the difference is eye watering. Now, from a cold boot, the PC is fully booted and usable in about 35 seconds. From sleep, it takes less than 10 seconds. Starting programmes is now almost instant, and reading/writing even the largest files takes no time at all.
It is no exaggeration to say the P5 Plus has revolutionised the way I work. Had I known it would be this good, I would have upgraded years ago. SSD cards are getting cheaper every day, but you'll be pushed to find one that offers the same level of value for money that you get with the Crucial P5 Plus. It's well worth the investment and will make your PC feel like a new machine, for surprisingly little money.
I have a spare PCIe slot on my motherboard, and I plan to add a second P5 Plus to that slot in time. It won't be as fast as the M2 card, as it will need to share the available bandwidth with the graphics card but, as a non-OS drive, I'm okay with that.
If you are a serious computer user, you need one of these.
| Brand | Crucial |
|---|---|
| Product Dimensions | 8 x 2.18 x 0.23 cm; 9.92 g |
| Item model number | CT1000T500SSD8 |
| Manufacturer | Crucial |
| Series | Crucial T500 1TB Gen4 Internal Gaming SSD |
| Colour | Titanium |
| Form Factor | M 2 |
| Standing screen display size | 16 Inches |
| Processor Count | 1 |
| Computer Memory Type | DIMM |
| Hard Drive Size | 1 TB |
| Hard Disk Description | Solid State Drive |
| Hard Drive Interface | NVMe |
| Wattage | 10 |
| Are Batteries Included | No |
| Item Weight | 9.9 g |
| Guaranteed software updates until | unknown |
