Crucial has finally launched the 4TB variant of its successful T500 PCIe Gen4 SSD. Available with or without a heatsink, the T500 is a brilliant choice for desktops, laptops, or PS5, and is already Tom's Hardware's top pick for a laptop SSD in its 1TB/2TB variants.
First released in 2023, the Crucial T500 is among the best PCIe Gen 4 drives. While some among us are firmly in the PCIe Gen 5 era, many people are still staying in the Gen 4 camp, whether it's for the DRAM cache, the reduced cooling costs (Gen 5 SSDs still run much hotter than Gen 4 on average), or simply because of the PS5 and many laptops still top out at Gen 4 speeds. PCIe Gen 4 drives are still a very active market, and the T500 beats the whole pack in our testing.
The Crucial T500 4TB runs at an advertised 7000 MB/s read and 6900 MB/s write. This is a slight downgrade in speeds from the 2TB model's 7400 / 7000 MB/s, but this is still very close and fast enough to saturate a Gen3 connection. The 4TB model may, as a result, fall behind the Samsung 990 Pro, our current best 4TB SSD, which advertises 7,450 / 6,900 MB/s at 4TB. The T500 2TB beats the 990 Pro 2TB in all of our tests, so Samsung may win an important victory in the Gen 4 4TB space.
Crucial's T500 SSD gets its special sauce from a customized Phison controller. Aiming for efficiency, it crams four channels and a DRAM cache under its hood. As a single-sided drive, the drive is tailor-made for laptops or PS5s. The T500 fits in the Crucial stable just below the Crucial T700—a pricier, faster Gen5 drive—and its predecessor, the P5 Plus.
The Crucial T500 4TB is available now from Crucial's website and other online retailers. The drive carries an MSRP of $399 without a heatsink and $449 with heatsink, though Crucial's website currently has the drive on sale for $309/$319, barely undercutting the 990 Pro's current price tag. Watch this space to see if the T500 4TB has what it takes to earn another slot in our best SSDs rankings.
