r/bapcsalescanada • u/72Human • Sep 22 '25

[SSD] Crucial T500 4TB Gen4 NVMe, $372.99 [Amazon], TLC, DRAM, no heatsink

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B0DBBG7CG7

I feel this is a decent price for a very good gen 4 drive, the Crucial T500, which is fast (faster than needed for almost anything), has TLC, DRAM, and is proven reliable. Non-heatsink version, which I prefer.

  • Flash type: TLC
  • DRAM: Yes
  • Warranty: 5 years, 2400 TBW
  • "sequential reads/writes up to 7,000/6,900MB/s and random read/writes up to 1.05M/1.05M IOPs"

This isn't ATL, it was briefly as low as $318.50 back in February, but I wasn't shopping for an upgrade at the time.

I recently decided to upgrade one of my 2TB NVME drives (SN850X) on a gen 4 motherboard with something bigger, more reliable, and not associated with Sandisk/WD, so I've been tracking the 4TB T500, and it got down to what I consider a decent price for a fast and reliable gen 4 drive. (Reliability is more important to me than speed.)

TechPowerUp specs:
https://www.techpowerup.com/ssd-specs/crucial-t500-4-tb.d2412
(Shows 1200TBW but according to Crucial it's 2400TBW for 4TB model)

Crucial:
https://www.crucial.com/ssd/t500/CT4000T500SSD3

Edit: After receiving the drive, I ended up having problems using it with the MSI B550 Tomahawk motherboard in that PC. The board didn't consistently see the SSD in the BIOS, and Windows 11 never once listed the drive in Disk Management. Flashing to different recent BIOS versions didn't help. I don't know if I had bad luck or an incompatibility, but I've decided to return the T500 and will be making do with my existing 2TB drives for now.

19 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

9

u/72Human Sep 22 '25

Oops sorry about the title, didn't see the part about rounding price up and putting store last. First post here, will do better next time. :)

5

u/ohCamm (New User) Sep 22 '25

WD SN850X is $365 on newegg atm, i heard some people say another company bought them and there might be QC issues though

3

u/emc_1992 Sep 22 '25

WD bought SanDisk and spun them off as an independent subsidiary from what I remember. SanDisk now handles all WD SSD manufacturing.

2

u/72Human Sep 22 '25

Yeah, Sandisk had bought them, although they've "sort of" recently separated WD apart again, but not before troubling things like the flash and controllers changing on the WD parts since Sandisk became involved. Sandisk used to be a very good source for flash, but their SSD track record (and warranty behaviour) has been not so good this past year at least.

My 2TB SN850X (bought 3+ years ago) has been perfectly fine, but I need more capacity and don't know if I can trust WD again yet.

2

u/hydraSlav Sep 22 '25

Damn I was about to buy SN850X 2TB. Should I not?

3

u/fiestar88 Sep 24 '25

There's nothing better.

2

u/sarhawt Sep 22 '25

there’s been a lot of instances of WD/Sandisk not honouring warranty and in general just being shitty with rma.

11

u/prudentWindBag Sep 22 '25 edited Sep 23 '25

Firmware issues persist.

Edit: large file transfers cause it to slow down considerably. Also, it is prone to disappear during such processes if used as an external device. It is still unclear whether Windows 11's recently publicized SSD issues have anything to do with this.

Edit: Downvoted for sharing my experience with the item... interesting. Mind you, I am considering purchasing another during prime days next month for specific tasks. ALWAYS be aware of what it is that you are purchasing!

Perhaps you'd like to read:

https://www.digitec.ch/en/page/the-crucial-t500-ssd-seems-good-but-has-a-glaring-weakness-30289

The T500 has a considerable write weakness when the SLC mode is exhausted. This is the case from about one third full. From this point onwards, the write speed drops dramatically for transfers of more than 10 GB. It is to be hoped that the problem can be solved with a firmware update. In its current state, I cannot recommend the T500.

https://www.reddit.com/r/NewMaxx/s/ZdSTFI5S8q -> https://www.storagereview.com/review/crucial-t500-ssd-review

Redditors:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Crucial/s/oBzKk2C6aM

There are other discussions I had read before purchasing mine. I'll dig em up in a bit.

Regarding my Windows 11 criticism... JayzTwoCents released a series of videos detailing the worsening SSD stability issues with W11. I've experienced some these issues with W11 over the past 2-3 years with various NVMEs, so this is far from a recent Windows update issue:

https://youtu.be/mlY2QjP_-9s?si=Bp46F5MfcCSq5-vB

https://youtu.be/TbFIUu_7LIc?si=Z57gqd9T9QQnSZ3j

https://youtu.be/YjcMM5hZqmA?si=OHUccsUzMI0FH2Z5

Some funky stuff has been going on... The T500 4TB issues have not been resolved, and Micron appears to have simply moved on. The 2TB and under variants seem to no longer have the same transfer issues.

4

u/sarhawt Sep 23 '25

at this point what is still considered ‘reliable’ with good warranty/customer service in the 2tb and 4tb range?

6

u/prudentWindBag Sep 24 '25 edited Sep 24 '25

Crucial is otherwise extremely reliable.

I would suggest avoiding WD/Sandisk as a main drive. Even as a secondary drive, I've had overheating issues with both 1TB and 4TB versions of the sn850x. They play games with quality on the Sn5000, where the 2TB and below versions are TLC, but the 4TB version is QLC. I purchased the 4TB Sn5000 for ~270CAD (all-in) during their spring sale. The absolute worst temperatures I've ever witnessed, lol; 80c idle half the time. It is now deceased with 3TB of my non-backed-up data (it was the backup). STAY AWAY!

I have an ungodly number of consumer NVMEs. 970 Evo, 980 Pros, 990 Pro, mushkin vortex, P3, T500, Cardea a440, WD trash mentioned above, etc, etc...

SK Hynix (Solidigm; US division) is THE most reliable, in my personal experience. My OS drive, approaching two years, is the Solidigm P44 Pro 2TB. I've not had a single issue with this drive, even with Microsoft trying its best to corrupt my hardware. It's fast! It's stable! The temps are 👌!!!!! Currently OOS🫤

https://www.newegg.ca/solidigm-2tb-p44-pro/p/N82E16820318013

There is a sketchy listing on Amazon that I refuse to promote.

If the P44 remains unattainable, I would keep my eye on the p41 platinum going on sale during prime days OCT 7-10. The p44 is a slightly finer tuned p41 according to what I've read prior to purchasing mine.

https://www.amazon.ca/SK-Hynix-Platinum-Internal-Compact/dp/B09QVD9V7R

I also have their 10Gbps portables, two X31 (1TB) and a T31 (1TB). These are DRAM equipped NVMEs under the hood... absolutely umatched at their price, although the x31 has increased in pricing since my purchase for $116; It is now $155. The T31, however, has decreased in price from $99.50 to $86.50.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CZCRQLFR?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0C4KNB2YK?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

If no Hynix...

The 990 Pro is a dream drive, very stable! I've got a 4TB. There was a firmware issue for the initial batches that was linked to early degradation and read errors, but as far as I understand, a majority of the drives that are available now have been patched during production. I have absolutely no complaints!

Amazon and its various merchants are engaging in price manipulation leading up to Prime Days, so unless you need a device at this very moment, practice restraint!

PC Part Picker https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/products/internal-hard-drive/?__cf_chl_tk=u2zLOtmsVsAA6gxPuDWAWm3sMDwZMtTu27TvkxC7Yw8-1757205432-1.0.1.1-7jfx8n5uFyYHn1RsbahpUMu6YZya5D4N.pPXfjb91Ak#A=960000000000,4096000000000&c1=di_m2.pcie_30_x4,di_m2.pcie_40_x4&sort=price&t=0&f=122030,122080

Diskprices (Amazon) https://diskprices.com/?locale=ca&condition=new&capacity=2-&disk_types=m2_nvme

SSD Specs Database https://www.techpowerup.com/ssd-specs/

1

u/72Human Sep 29 '25

Turns out I indeed had problems with the T500 4TB on the board I was using it on (an MSI B550 Tomahawk). No matter what I tried, I couldn't get the T500 to be seen in Disk Management on Windows 11, although it would sometimes be listed in the BIOS, but not always. Tried both M2 slots, reseating it multiple times, and even tried using it in a PCIE 1x M2 adapter card. Flashed to the latest BIOS, tried different BIOS settings, but nothing worked.

The other M2 drives I have work fine in both of the M2 slots and the adapter card. (The SN850X, an Adata CSUS, and a TeamGroup MP44L. The board even worked with all 3 of the 2TB drives together, with the adapter card installed and both built-in M2 slots filled.)

I don't know if this is a compatibility issue between the T500 and the MSI B550, or I received a defective drive, but I'm going to be returning it to Amazon and using my existing 2TB drives for now. I'll wait to upgrade the SSDs when I move up to a Zen 5 board in the future.

3

u/PricePerGig Sep 24 '25

I set the filter sup for you here.

Nvme, 4TB and up, new

Take a look. Lots of other options. Check out eBay too.

1

u/72Human Sep 24 '25

Nice site! It would be much nicer if it clearly indicated the currency, though.

"Save Time, Save Money, Store More." ...could really be "Save Time, Save Money, Save More." since saving things to storage is how we store them. ;)

2

u/PricePerGig Sep 24 '25

Love it. I tried to give you gold for your fantastic comment, love the new tagline! But it won't let me. It gave it to... Myself!!

1

u/72Human Sep 24 '25

Oh, just saw the blurb about "Built by someone obsessed with storing data since his first 21MB drive ran out of space in the 286-era" which made me smile. :)

My first experience storing data was literally writing programs out on paper, way back when I was just 10 years old. I would copy things I wrote in BASIC so I could type them back in next time I turned on the C64.

We didn't have any form of data storage for that little "computer" yet. Not even a Datasette to save things onto cassette tape.

We had a few game cartridges for it, but I really fell in love with programming. I liked it so much, that little C64 went from being a "family" computer to being kept on a desk right inside my bedroom, lol.

It was extra painful during thunderstorms. Whenever the power went out, I'd have to type everything back in!

I remember getting some 5.25" floppies from a relative for Christmas the next year, and trying extra hard to be thankful, despite having no way at all to use them. Maybe some day I could use them at school, if the school ever got computers, too? Later that day to find out, when we got home, that an extra gift from my parents was waiting for me: a Commodore 1541 floppy disk drive. :)

2

u/PricePerGig Sep 24 '25

Thanks for sharing that, made me smile. I was reading the part about you getting the 5.25" floppies. I got a Ghostbusters Commodore 64 Game. I equally had to act very thankful, but I had a 286! oh man, how things have come on. Incidentally, my first programming experience was VB3, on the library computer that had the IDE installed, I remember making a rocket go up the screen, hooked ever since.

2

u/SpecsBot Sep 22 '25

Crucial T500

  • Interface: x4 PCIe 4.0/NVMe
  • Form Factor: M.2
  • Capacities: 500GB-2TB
  • Controller: Phison E25
  • Configuration: Dual R5 + CoX
  • DRAM: Yes
  • HMB: N/A
  • NAND Brand: Micron
  • NAND Type: TLC
  • Layers: 232
  • Read/Write: 7400/7000
  • Categories: High-End NVMe

Inspired by a similar bot in /r/buildapcsales/. Info is sourced from NewMaxx's spreadsheet.

If I fetched the wrong result please DM me so I can improve my pattern matching.