Photos and Features
The packaging for the P3 Plus is similar to past Crucial SSDs but they have dropped the single color background for a dark blue that gets lighter as it goes into the center. They have a picture of the P3 plus in the center which I always like to see and then up in the top left corner they have the Crucial by Micron branding. In the bottom right corner, the P3 Plus model name has the largest font on the box, and below that they let you know that this is a PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD in the white strip along the bottom. Then the drive capacity is in the bottom left as a sticker so they can use the same box for all of the drive capacities. Around on the back, there is a small window cut in the box which lets you see inside and confirm the drive capacity as well as scan the QR code for the serial number if needed. Beyond that, the back doesn’t have much useful information other than the drive warranty which is 5 years and has a badge next to the window.
Inside the P3 Plus comes in a clear plastic tray and inside alongside the drive itself there is a small tray with a single M.2 screw to help with the installation for anyone who is missing one or doesn’t want to dig their motherboard box out to find the one included with the motherboard. Other than that you get a folded up generic installation guide and that’s it.
Like the P5 and the P5 Plus, the P3 Plus has a black PCB and a long black sticker that covers the top of the SSD. They have the Crucial by Micron logo on the left in white and just a simple P3 Plus and below that PCIe 4.0 and the M.2 length of 2280 on the right side. Simple and not too bad looking.
The back of the drive doesn’t have any components on it and they have used this space for more stickers. There are two and both are black. The sticker on the left has the certification logos on it. The sticker on the right is larger and this is the one with the actual part number serial number, firmware version, and where the drive is manufactured (Mexico). They have the QR code for the serial number that we saw through the window before and of course, the model name and the drive size are across the top in the largest font. Our drive that I will be testing today is the 2TB model. The P3 Plus is also available in 500GB, 1TB, and a larger 4TB model as well which I think is the first 4TB option that Crucial has offered.
The front side sticker was removed and now we can get a better look at the layout. The first thing to note is that this is a DRAMless configuration, there isn’t a DRAM chip anywhere. Crucial has four NAND chips with the controller setup in the middle between them. The controller is a Phison PS5021-E2-48 which was announced last year as a PCIe 4.0 x4 controller with 3D NAND support and a 1600 MT/s interface which matches with the 5000 MB/s read speed that the P3 Plus is advertising. All four of the NAND are Micron branded no surprises there and they have 2FC2D NY161 etched on them. This is Micron 3D QLC NAND and being 4 chips it tells us that each is 512GB for the 2TB model and that they will run larger 1TB NAND for the 4TB model because there aren’t any extra pads left open.
