Essential T700 2TB Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSD – As much as 12,400 MB/s – DirectStorage Enabled – CT2000T700SSD3 – Gaming, Images, Video Modifying & Design – Inside Strong State Drive

Buy naked version – not this heatsink version
You might think (as I did) that you’re doing better by getting this OEM heatsink version – paying about $30 extra. I learned the lesson in a hard way that; exactly the opposite holds true. Crucial periodically runs deals; selling heatsink version even cheaper than naked drive. Don’t fall for that and simply buy the naked drive, whatever the price. Otherwise (if you buy heatsink version); you’ll either have to do below surgery (which is not for the faint-hearted) or your drive will fail earlier (because of heat) and Crucial will blame you running it that way (and very likely not honor your warranty – more on that later).This Gen.5 T705 is an extremely fast M2 drive. I’m very happy with its unbelievable performance. I use it on my new Asrock Taichi Lite Z890 motherboard. After I assembled my PC, I noticed that the hottest temperature on my system is this M2 drive. Not CPU, not GPU, not RAM modules and not my Gen.4 Samsung 990 Pro M2. While PC is completely idle (not running anything); that Crucial M2 displayed 61C temperature. I stress-tested my GPU (which is milimeters away from this Crucial) and that 61C quickly rose close to 80C (mind you; I’m not even stressing that drive itself). I immediately decided to replace that tiny OEM heatsink, as it’s completely not up to par for a decent cooling job.I’ll number my attached pics – so you can relate to my text here.I use HWiNFO64 freeware to check all my system characteristics. When you look at its reporting for this Crucial drive (pic-1); you’ll see that the drive keeps (in it) record of how long you used it at above 87C (warning) and 89C (critical). So if you (without even being aware) barbecue your drive and send it in for warranty replacement (when it fails); you can guess who Crucial will put the blame on?Now all new MBs put both that Gen.5 M2 slot and Gen.5 GPU slot right next to CPU (distance has to be short). You can see from (pic-2) that; this M2 drive is literally sandwitched between towering wall of GPU (no heat escape that direction) and my humongous Noctua NH-D15 G2 CPU cooler (airflow is there, towards rear suction fan). But it’s absolutely clear that; this OEM Crucial heatsink is just too small to provide adequate cooling. I even didn’t try Asrock MB’s original heatsink for that slot (as it’s even smaller). So it’s not even a matter of preference; you simply got to replace that OEM heatsink. That’s why it’s much easier to buy a naked drive to begin with; so you can avoid below pain of surgery.Another point; those Gen.5 M2 drives are just going thru initial growing pains (in fact, Crucial is still the only company to offer such speed-demon drive). Why is it putting out that much heat?; that is the first question (even more heat than Z890 chipset itself – which works fine with about same size heatsink). You’ll see on one of my attached pics (when I took out the naked drive); there is metal body Phison controller there (where actual two RAM chips have plastic body). Probably that much heat is coming from that Phison controller – not the RAM chips. If those Gen.5 M2 drives are all to put out so much heat; then industry will probably evolve to a different casing – so they can be cooled like CPUs. Time will tell.After searching many M2 heatsinks (active and passive); I decided on this passive Thermalright HR-09 2280 PRO (pic-3). There are ones with active fan cooling. But such small fans always fail in short time and they are noisy. So I went with this largest passive heatsink I could find. I hope that Noctua also starts making large M2 heatsinks. My Phanteks full-tower case can even house twice the height. Width-wise (as you are seeing in pic-3) it’s literally 1 milimeter from CPU cooler. Even if it touches there; no problem, as nothing moving (it might even get better cooling that way). When I run my PC with this new heatsink; Crucial M2 fall back to 47C. Still the hottest component on that motherboard; but much better than previous 61C with OEM heatsink on it. My other Gen.4 Samsung 990 Pro M2 runs at 42C anyway (under Asrock’s large metal surface heatsink). If I ever see my usage pushing it to above 80C; I’ll simply tweak my BIOS fan curve, to run my case fans faster / earlier. So far, 14C saving is good enough for me.Now on to surgery : how to remove naked Crucial drive from it’s OEM heatsink.I repeat: this process needs only two special tools (that you have to use), but more importantly very precise hand control (I happened to make my living as field service engineer – so it’s all easy for me). If you slip your hand once; you can instantly ruin your expensive drive. If you are not sure; don’t even try, I’d humbly suggest.You’ll need an anti-static mat (see wrist connection on pic-4) and blade opener tool (pic-5). No, you can not use a knife or flat-blade screwdriver instead. You were warned.On the side of the drive, you’ll notice two dimple dots on the edges and one flat line (blue arrows on pic-6). Insert your tool firmly but very slowly till you only pass that middle-line (if you push it all the way in; you’ll instantly damage the board/components of your drive; you can throw it away at that point). Once you merely pass that middle-line apply sideways leverage to rock it out of its grasp. Also do the same on both dimple dots. You’ll feel that the bottom casing cover slightly moved (pic-7). Now switch to other side with your tool and do the same there. As you slowly and patiently repeat that left & right few times; the bottom cover will start to come out (pic-8). Attention to the blue sticker indicated by arrow on that pic. As slowly pulling out that bottom metal cover; you’ll be peeling that sticker. No hasty movements there, as you don’t want to damage anything. Now that cover completely comes out (pics 9, 10).Now you remain with your naked drive sticking to actual heatsink, by blue-stickers on the other side (pic-11). This is the step needing utmost precision: you insert your tool between that blue-sticker and heatsink (and NOT between blue-sticker and the chip!). See detail on pic-12. You very slowly push your tool deeper towards other side (so; sideways, not length-wise). You are separating that blue-tape from the heatsink. Don’t you dare to yank the board by pulling length-wise; It’s a very thin board and you’ll simply snap it in two. Just be patient and do above described on those 3 blue-stickers from side to side.After enough loosening of stickers; finally lift your naked drive sideways (never pull length-wise). Pic-13.Now you have to clean all remnants of blue-stickers from both side of your naked drive. You’ll use your fingers and nails doing that (do not use any tool, as you can damage those microscopic components on board.Now your drive is finally ready to be mounted on to new heatsink (pic-14). Follow the simple instructions which come with heatsink. Just pay attention to orientation before you stick on to it; so you don’t put upside down. You’ll also need to align screw-hole of your drive and heatsink. After you place the bottom metal cover; you first firmly push it towards heatsink (firm, but not crushing hard) > then you tighten 4 side screws. So it gets good thermal conductivity thru new stickers on both sides.The hole of that new heatsink lines up with “screw-hole” of your drive. My Asrock motherboard has such “tool-less” rotating notch for that hole. So I was able to slide that notch between heatsink and M2 board. Pay attention how your motherboard mounting is (actually even before starting all this adventure). Because if you need to use an actual screw to mount your M2 drive to your MB; now you’ll need much longer version of this very tiny mounting screw. If your MB also has such “tool-less” thingy, I hope that it’ll also slide in as described above.If you are reading this before you actually bought your drive; I presume that at this point you decided to buy the naked version and avoid that Crucial heatsink nightmare at all cost, correct?!

4TB SSD performs flawlessly, I’ve had it over one year.
I built a new gaming PC last year and installed this 4TB SSD. It has performed flawlessly with superior performance. It is the sole storage device in my system. Other system components are an Asrock Thaichi X670E motherboard, AMD Ryzen 7 7800x3d CPU, AMD Radeon 7900XTX GPU, 32 GB G.Skill 6000 RAM, Window 11 OS, HYTE Y60 Case.

As advertised, this NVME is really fast.

The Crucial T700 has completely transformed my workflow. Boot times are incredibly fast, applications load instantly, and even rendering large video files is noticeably quicker. Gaming performance has also improved dramatically – load screens are a thing of the past. This SSD is a game-changer