Which is better, Crucial T710 2TB or Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB? July 2026 side-by-side with prices, specs, and verdict.
A like-for-like comparison: both drives target the same buyer segment at the same Gen 5 2 TB class. The interesting question becomes which manufacturer's implementation aged better.
Hardware-wise, the Crucial T710 2TB runs on the SMI SM2508 — a 6nm Gen 5 controller running notably cooler than first-gen Phison E26 designs. The Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB pairs the dual-mode Samsung Piccolo silicon that uniquely runs PCIe 5.0 x2 or PCIe 4.0 x4.
Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB's $184.50/TB pricing edges out Crucial T710 2TB's $217.50/TB by about 15%. Not transformative, but a real difference at 2-4 TB capacities where it adds up.
Read speeds favor the Crucial T710 2TB: 14,500 MB/s versus 7,250 MB/s for the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB, a 50% advantage. Sequential-heavy workloads notice; transactional workloads don't.
The Crucial T710 2TB writes about 55% faster (14,000 MB/s vs 6,300 MB/s). Whether that matters depends entirely on what you write to the drive — gameplay capture and large project saves benefit, browsing and gaming do not.
Crucial T710 2TB bundles a DRAM cache chip; Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB is DRAM-less. This sounds like a big deal but reviewers have been arguing for years about whether it actually matters in consumer use. For most workloads, no.
For PlayStation 5 builds, the console's internal M.2 slot tops out around 5,500 MB/s sustained, so both Crucial T710 2TB and Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB hit the same wall — pick whichever is cheaper at the moment you buy. Heavy write workloads — video editing, RAW photo libraries, backup operations — favor the Crucial T710 2TB's 14,000 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.
How do these two fit the wider Gen 5 2 TB field? Out of 11 tracked drives, the Crucial T710 2TB is #10 on $/TB and the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB is #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 T710 2TB and Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB on $/TB:
Lean toward the Crucial T710 2TB when meaningfully faster reads (14,500 MB/s), higher sustained writes (14,000 MB/s), and a dedicated DRAM cache chip top your priority list. Crucial drives benefit from being a direct Micron product — the same NAND that powers competitors' drives, but at lower margins.
Lean toward the Samsung 990 EVO Plus 2TB when the lower retail price ($369 vs $435), and better $/TB economics ($184.50/TB) top your priority list. Among Samsung's lineup, the 990 EVO Plus is the only consumer drive that physically supports dual-generation PCIe — same hardware, different bus speed depending on platform.