Compare Crucial T500 2TB and Crucial P310 2TB: prices, speeds, $/TB. Which to buy in May 2026? Full spec breakdown.
Both the Crucial T500 2TB and Crucial P310 2TB sit in the Gen 4 category at 2 TB, so the matchup turns on controller efficiency, cache topology, and current pricing rather than raw class differences.
Hardware-wise, the Crucial T500 2TB runs on the Phison E25 — a refined Gen 4 controller widely used in mid-range NVMe drives. The Crucial P310 2TB pairs Phison's E27T — a four-channel Gen 4 controller for HMB designs.
There's a modest pricing advantage for the Crucial P310 2TB: $77.50/TB compared with $94.50/TB. For typical gaming and productivity, this becomes the deciding factor when specs are close.
The Crucial T500 2TB carries a dedicated DRAM chip for FTL (Flash Translation Layer) mapping; the Crucial P310 2TB relies on HMB (Host Memory Buffer), borrowing 64 MB from system RAM. The practical gap shows up only under sustained random write loads.
On warranty endurance the Crucial T500 2TB carries 1,200 TBW against Crucial P310 2TB's 880 TBW. Both will outlast typical use, but the gap matters if you're doing professional content work.
Heading to a PlayStation 5? Both drives drop into the console's M.2 bay and report identical real-world benchmarks since the PS5 caps storage at PCIe 4.0 speeds. The Crucial P310 2TB wins this matchup on $/TB. Heavy write workloads — video editing, RAW photo libraries, backup operations — favor the Crucial T500 2TB's 7,000 MB/s sustained write speed. Both drives use the 2280 form factor, which is too long for Steam Deck or ROG Ally — you'd need a 2230 variant if either manufacturer offers one, or a dedicated handheld-format drive instead.
Pick the Crucial T500 2TB if you value a higher TBW endurance rating (1,200 TBW), and a dedicated DRAM cache chip. Crucial drives benefit from being a direct Micron product — the same NAND that powers competitors' drives, but at lower margins.
Pick the Crucial P310 2TB if you value the lower retail price ($155 vs $189), and better $/TB economics ($77.50/TB).