I’ll be honest, when I first heard about the Crucial T500, I found it hard to get excited about. For all intents and purposes, it seemed like an almost identical replacement to the now-discontinued Crucial P5 Plus, which was always one of my go-to recommendations. The P5 Plus was one of the first SSDs I got to test with Sony’s console, and for the last few years of its life, it was a legendary mainstay of the discount aisle, making it easy to recommend.
The T500 does sport quicker speeds and an updated design though, and a bundle that’s currently available in the UK is making me properly excited about it for the first time. Over at eBuyer, you can grab a 1TB or 2TB drive for as little as £87.99 and receive a £35 PSN voucher at no extra cost.
There isn’t an awful lot that separates today’s best SSDs for PS5 - for the most part, you’re talking about a couple of split seconds of loading times or an aesthetically pleasing heatsink here and there. In this deal, not only do you get a solid SSD for gaming, but you can claim money back in the form of a PSN wallet top-up. £35 is no joke either, for that money, you could grab Elden Ring, Jedi Survivor, or Avatar Frontiers of Pandora since they’re all on offer for under that amount in the PSN summer sale.
Now, to be clear, while both 1TB and 2TB models are included in this deal, you will need to grab a heatsink separately if you go for one of the cheaper versions. These are easily found, and the best PS5 heatsinks usually don’t ask for much more than £20 from you.
Fair warning though, the brief I received for this deal just said that the offer will last until stocks run out, which is a great way of saying you shouldn’t wait around to see if prices come down any further. There’s no real way of knowing how eBuyer’s stock levels are doing, so it might be worth jumping on this deal ASAP if it appeals to you.
Should you buy the Crucial T500?
It’s hard for me to give you a final verdict on the T500 at the moment since I’m still running it through our testing process. What I can say for now is that Crucial is a very reliable storage brand. I’ve tested many of their drives in both internal NVMe and external USB form, and they’ve never let me down. The brand has laid claim to the fastest SSD I’ve tested (which I use in my personal gaming PC) because the Crucial T700 Pro is an absolutely laughable drive that’s arguably too quick. I also use the Crucial X10 Pro to transfer screenshots and gameplay footage from my PS5 to my PC, because it’s one of the best external hard drives for gaming out there.
If you’re thinking about upgrading from the Crucial P5 Plus, I’m not sure it’s all too necessary since the PS5 can’t really make use of the fastest Gen 4 drives. If you're in need of more space and want to opt for a 2TB drive, go for it, but don’t expect massive loading time disparities.
If you’re worried 2TB might not be enough, there are 4 and 8TB drives out there that will work with the PS5, although to be completely honest as someone who reviews storage devices for a living, I don’t know who on earth needs more than 2TB of space in their PS5. 1TB extra is usually enough to be getting on with but is a manageable amount. 2TB is a very safe bet where, unless you’re recording every gaming session and constantly downloading new games, you won’t run out of space. 4TB is honestly gargantuan, and almost never worth the extra money you’ll pay over a 2TB model.
Without stepping on the toes of my T500 review, I’m impressed with it so far, and the added PSN voucher is some lovely icing on the cake in this bundle.
For more storage devices, check out the best PS5 external hard drives, the best PS4 external hard drives, and the best PS4 SSDs.
