Both the WD Blue SN550 vs Crucial P1 are great Internal Hard Drives for people that are willing to spend around $100; it’s impossible to go wrong with either option. So, what’s the difference between them and which one should you buy? Let’s check now with memoright.com.
Crucial P1 vs WD Blue SN550 Overview
Crucial P1
The Crucial P1 is an x4 PCIe NVMe SSD that ships in the 2280 (22 mm wide, 80 mm long) form factor. Crucial’s P1 is the company’s very first NVMe SSD, but it is almost identical to the Intel SSD 660p we recently reviewed that came out around the same time. Just like the 660p, the P1 features Micron’s latest 64-layer 3D QLC flash and a Silicon Motion NVMe SSD controller.
The P1 breaks the SATA 6Gb/s barrier with its NVMe interface and delivers sequential throughput of up to 2/1.7 GB/s read/write, but we found that its real-world application performance is similar to the company’s SATA MX500 SSD. They carry a 5-year warranty and are rated for 100 TBW (TeraBytes Written) for every 500GB of capacity.
Western Digital Blue SN550
The Blue SN550 is WD’s 2020 refresh to the acclaimed line, and while its predecessor is a tough act to follow, its updated controller and NAND flash package deliver better speeds and lower temperatures at its lowest price point yet – ideal for the best cheap gaming PCs out there.
But even with all the improvements under the hood, the greatest change is that it finally comes with a range of capacities to choose from, mirroring its performance-focused WD Black SN750 with the same 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, and even 2TB options. It’s the 1TB version we’re looking at today.
The Most Popular Comparisons: WD Blue SN550 vs Crucial P1
| Crucial P1 500GB | Crucial P1 1TB | WD Blue SN550 500GB | WD Blue SN550 1TB | |
| Launch Pricing | $69.39 | $119.99 | $64.99 | $99.99 |
| Capacity (User / Raw) | 500GB / 512GB | 1000GB / 1024GB | 500GB / 512GB | 1000GB / 1024GB |
| Form Factor | M.2 2280 S3 (Single-Sided) | M.2 2280 | ||
| Interface / Protocol | PCIe 3.0 x4 / NVMe 1.3 | PCIe 3.0 x4 / NVMe 1.4 | ||
| Controller | Silicon Motion SM2263EN | Silicon Motion SM2263EN | WD Architecture | WD Architecture |
| DRAM | DDR3 – 512MB | DDR3 – 1GB | DRAMless | DRAMless |
| NAND Flash | Micron 64L 3D QLC | Micron 64L 3D QLC | SanDisk 96L TLC | SanDisk 96L TLC |
| Sequential Read | 1,900 MB/s | 2,000 MB/s | 2,400 MBps | 2,400 MBps |
| Sequential Write | 950 MB/s | 1,700 MB/s | 1,750 MBps | 1,750 MBps |
| Random Read QD1 | 90,000 IOPS | 170,000 IOPS | 300,000 IOPS | 410,000 IOPS |
| Random Write QD1 | 220,000 IOPS | 240,000 IOPS | 240,000 IOPS | 405,000 IOPS |
| Encryption | N/A | |||
| Endurance | 100 TBW | 200 TBW | 300 TB | 600 TB |
| Part Number | CT500P1SSD8 | CT1000P1SSD8 | WDS500G2B0C | WDS100T2B0C |
| Warranty | 5-Years | |||
Price Comparison
Deciding you want to upgrade your SSD is one thing, but actually forking out for new parts for your PC is another. These costs can soon start to add up, which is definitely something to consider if you’re looking to add more than one new component, for example, if you’re building your own PC. An SSD might not be the most expensive addition to your setup, but you’ll still want to get the most for your money whichever one you choose. Read more information about SSD reviews here…
Both Crucial P1 vs Western Digital WD Blue SN550 are readily available for purchase on Amazon, but keep in mind that these prices are for the 1TB versions. If you’re looking for higher storage capacity, you’ll end up paying more for the privilege.
Performance & Benchmarks
We should keep in mind that these drives are very different, created for different purposes, and have different prices for the same capacity. Comparing real-life benchmarks of the Crucial P1 vs Western Digital WD Blue SN550, the WD Blue is much faster with an effective speed advantage of 30%
Which Is The Best SSDS: Crucial P1 or WD Blue SN550?
The WD SN550 is roughly 19% faster than the Crucial P1, shaving a respectable about 37 seconds off the time it takes to transfer a 30GB file on average. Better yet, it’s only five seconds slower than the Crucial P1 while being $11 cheaper at MSRP. It’s up to you how much value you want to place on the precious time you’d save, but the price-to-performance ratio is certainly strong with the new entry-level SSD.
Built-in M.2 slots are in short supply with motherboards often boasting one or two, so it’s worth thoroughly considering a faster drive before checking out – after all, it’s not as simple as relegating it to a secondary drive when upgrading again if you don’t have the space. But if you’re juggling where to allocate your funds for a new build or upgrading multiple parts, the WD Blue SN550 has earned its place as our favorite budget drive on our list of best SSDs for gaming thanks to its balance of price, performance, capacity, and endurance.
Another thing that we noticed is that WD is not using DRAM in their SSD. Instead, they use HMA (Host Memory Allocation), basically, it means instead of having a dedicated memory (RAM) chip on the SSD itself, they use the host’s memory to store runtime cache information. Read more about it in their Technology Brief: Advancements in DRAM-less SSDs
We were impressed by WD’s greater write speed, maybe they aren’t that bad after all.
After more research, we found that WD Blue offers 300TBW endurance while Crucial only offers 100TBW! That’s 3 times more.
FAQs
Is the Western Digital Blue SN550 good?
The Blue SN550 is WD’s 2020 refresh to the acclaimed line, and while its predecessor is a tough act to follow, its updated controller and NAND flash package deliver better speeds and lower temperatures at its lowest price point yet – ideal for the best cheap gaming PCs out there
Which is Better Crucial P1 or P2?
Crucial P2 is better than Crucial P1 in capacity, performance, maximum sequential read, and maximum sequential write. In terms of MTBF reliability, and warranty coverage, the two SSDs are the same.
Does Crucial P1 have DRAM?
The Crucial P1 1TB comes in a single-sided M. 2 2280 (80mm) PCIe Gen3 x4 form factor. Beneath the product label is the Silicon Motion SM2263EN controller, two Micron NAND packages, and a DRAM cache. Since this is a single-sided drive, the back is entirely bare, with only a QR code sticker making an appearance.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this post has demonstrated the distinctions between the Crucial P1 vs Western Digital WD Blue SN550 in some cases. We think that you can easily know which SSD is better for you.
