Compare Crucial T705 2TB and Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB: prices, speeds, $/TB. Which to buy in July 2026? Full spec breakdown.
Both the Crucial T705 2TB and Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB sit in the Gen 5 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 T705 2TB runs on Phison's E26 silicon, which kicked off the consumer Gen 5 era and typically requires a heatsink. The Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB pairs Samsung's Piccolo controller — DRAM-less with PCIe 4.0/5.0 dual-mode support.
There's a modest pricing advantage for the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB: $184.50/TB compared with $203.00/TB. For typical gaming and productivity, this becomes the deciding factor when specs are close.
On sequential reads the Crucial T705 2TB pulls ahead by 7,250 MB/s (14,500 MB/s versus 7,250 MB/s). That matters for moving large files but rarely shows up in game loads.
Write speeds skew toward the Crucial T705 2TB: 12,700 MB/s sustained against 6,300 MB/s. Content creators feel this; gamers do not.
The Crucial T705 2TB carries a dedicated DRAM chip for FTL (Flash Translation Layer) mapping; the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB relies on HMB (Host Memory Buffer), borrowing 64 MB from system RAM. The practical gap shows up only under sustained random write loads.
If this purchase is for a PS5 storage expansion, the comparison flattens — Sony's PCIe Gen 4 controller normalizes both Crucial T705 2TB and Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB to roughly equal in-game load times. The cheaper drive is the smart pick. Video editors will gravitate toward the Crucial T705 2TB for its write headroom (12,700 MB/s sustained). Project saves and proxies move faster, which compounds across a workday. Heads-up — these are full-length 2280 drives. Steam Deck and most current handhelds require shorter 2230 modules, so check capacity-specific 2230 variants if that's your target platform.
Market context: we track 11 Gen 5 2 TB drives, and by price per terabyte the Crucial T705 2TB currently sits #8 while the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB sits #4. Neither is a value leader right now — if $/TB is your priority, check the cheaper alternatives below before committing.
As of July 27, 2026, these tracked drives undercut both the Crucial T705 2TB and Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB on $/TB:
Pick the Crucial T705 2TB if you value meaningfully faster reads (14,500 MB/s), higher sustained writes (12,700 MB/s), and a dedicated DRAM cache chip. Crucial's T-series tends to undercut Samsung and WD on price while using comparable Micron silicon — a value play hiding in a flagship form factor.
Pick the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB if you value the lower retail price ($369 vs $406), and better $/TB economics ($184.50/TB). The 990 EVO Plus uniquely supports both PCIe 4.0 x4 and PCIe 5.0 x2 modes — useful flexibility if you might upgrade motherboard generations.