Corsair MP700 2TB SSD Review - 10,000 MBs on the Cheap

TweakTown's Rating: 100%

The Bottom Line

Corsair's MP700 2TB is the best value going for speedy PCIe Gen5 goodness.

Pros

• + Throughput
• + Gaming
• + User experience

Cons

• - Not PS5 compatible

Should you buy it?

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Buy at Amazon

Buy at Newegg

Introduction & Drive Details

Corsair's MP700 2TB will be the fourth retail PCIe Gen5 10,000 MBs SSD we've tested. Our first arrival, the SSTC Tiger Shark lit up our charts, as did the second, the inland TD510 2TB the third AORUS Gen5 10000 and now Corsair's first PCIe Gen5 offering is delivering that same type next level storage performance. To date, all of these PCIe Gen5 offerings sport the same hardware configuration, being Phison E26 controlled and arrayed with a Micron 1,600MT 232-Layer TLC flash array.

As we've firmly established, this hardware configuration is currently the best performing and simultaneously the fastest consumer solid state storage money can buy. Do you want the best there is? Well, here it is. And now available as one of the most renowned enthusiast brands on the planet - Corsair. Typically, we see a premium to be paid for Corsair-branded hardware, but not for the MP700, which is a welcome change from what we have come to expect from the premium brand.

Until the MP700 came along, the lowest price of entry we've seen for a 2TB Gen5 SSD is $329.99, and at that price, no cooling solution is included. The best price we've seen for drive and heatsink to date is $339.99. A bit pricey for some, but as we see it, you are getting what you pay for, in this case, the world's best-performing flash-based consumer SSD.

With an MSRP of $289.99, Corsair's 2TB MP700 had us doing a double take, maybe even a triple take. That's $50 less than what we've seen to this point. Outstanding. Corsair quality for less than the competition? Yeah, we'll take that any day of the week.

10,000 MBs throughput is revolutionary, as is the heat generated by such massive throughput. Some motherboards are well suited for taming the heat coming off of these Gen5 powerhouses. However, many are not, so Corsair has elected to warn that the MP700 needs adequate user-supplied cooling to get complete and sustained throughput.

As demonstrated by the following:

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Phison's E26 controller is spec'd as capable of up to 14,000 MBs throughput. That is 40% more than what we've seen to this point. There are two primary reasons for 14K MBs not being attainable yet. The first is the speed of the flash. Currently, 1,600 MT 232L Micron is what's for dinner. 1,600MT flash limits sequential throughput to exactly what we have here 10,000 MBs.

2,000 MT 232L flash is coming sometime down the road, and then we will see E26-controlled SSDs delivering around 12,000 MBs throughput. Now at that point, a different issue comes into play. Power. At this time, M.2 slots supply roughly 11 watts which is currently not enough to power 14,000 MBs via Phison's E26. Phison will get there eventually, but not anytime soon.

Drive Details

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In addition to what is spec'd above and worthy of mention here is the fact that all E26 controlled SSDs come with Phison's exclusive I/O+ DirectStorage optimized technology baked right in. Gamers take note because this matters if you are into future proofing.

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Jon's Test System Specifications

Intel Test System

• Motherboard: GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS Tachyon
• CPU: Intel Core i9-13900KS - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Alphacool Eissturm Hurricane Copper 45 - Buy from Amazon
• RAM: Sabrent Rocket DDR5 32GB - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: MSI SUPRIM X RTX 3080 12GB - Buy from Amazon
• Case: PrimoChill's Praxis Wetbench - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit - Buy from Amazon

AMD Test System

• Motherboard: GIGABYTE B650E AORUS Tachyon
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X - Buy from Amazon
• Cooler: Alphacool Eissturm Hurricane Copper 45 - Buy from Amazon
• RAM: Sabrent Rocket DDR5 32GB - Buy from Amazon
• Graphics Card: MSI SUPRIM X RTX 3080 12GB - Buy from Amazon
• Case: PrimoChill's Praxis Wetbench - Buy from Amazon
• Power Supply: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 12 1200W - Buy from Amazon
• OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro 64-bit - Buy from Amazon

Because we at TweakTown like to be first at everything whenever we can, we will present our storage performance results for the test subject on both 13th Gen Intel and 7000 Series AMD platforms going forward for the foreseeable future. Because Intel still delivers the best real-world storage performance, (Look Here), our running chart will continue to be Intel-based until AMD can deliver better real-world storage performance than its rival.

Corsair MP600 PRO LPX 2TB M.2 NVMe PCIe x4 Gen4 SSD

	Today	Yesterday	7 days ago	30 days ago
	$129.99	$129.99	$129.99	$129.99	Buy
	$129.99	$129.99	$129.99	-	Buy
* Prices last scanned on 6/29/2023 at 10:40 am CDT - prices may not be accurate, click links above for the latest price. We may earn an affiliate commission.

Synthetic Benchmarks: CDM, Anvil, ATTO

CrystalDiskMark

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We employ CDM as our standard measurement for sequential throughput and Q1T1 random read. And there you have it, 10,000/10,000 MBs or 38/44% more throughput than the best Gen4 can deliver. You've got to love that. Additionally, QD1 random read is exceptional at 103 MBs.

Anvil's Storage Utilities

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A score of 12K is what we are looking for from this hardware configuration, and the MP700 does not disappoint. Excellent.

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We employ Anvil's random read test as our standard for measuring max random read IOPS. This test is very accurate as it at its core is Iometer skinned over. We test at QD128. 1.29 million IOPS here, even if it falls a little short of factory up to specs, is more than satisfactory considering our more demanding user state of system disk with 150GB of data onboard.

ATTO

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ATTO gives us a clear picture of what transfer sizes a particular SSD favors in terms of sequential throughput. We chart 128K transfers. Our test subject favors sequential transfers of 4MB or larger when serving data to the host (reading) and 64K or larger when programming (writing) data. This is quite different than what we've come to expect from Phison-controlled SSDs, where they've traditionally hit full stride at 128K when reading data.

Real-World Testing: Transfers, 3DMark SSD Gaming Test, PCM10 Storage

Transfer Rates

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Our 100GB data transfer test is not your ordinary 100GB of data. Ours is a crushing mix composed of more than 62K files. Write performance random or sequential, is an infrequent operation, and as such, we do not consider it to be an important performance metric in the consumer space. An example being how many times is a game installed vs. how many times it's played. Intel has the advantage when writing large blocks of data.

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Unlike programming (writing) data, serving data to the host (reading) data is always an important performance metric as it relates to the consumer space. AMD has the advantage here because the transfer is relatively sequential in nature.

3DMark SSD Gaming Test

UL's newest 3DMark SSD Gaming Test is the most comprehensive SSD gaming test ever devised. We consider it superior to testing against games themselves because, as a trace, it is much more consistent than variations that will occur between runs on the actual game itself. This test is in fact the same as running the actual game, just without the inconsistencies inherent to application testing.

In short, we believe that this is the world's best way to test an SSDs gaming prowess and accurately compare it against competing SSDs. The 3DMark SSD Gaming Test measures and scores the following:

• Loading Battlefield V from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Call of Duty Black Ops 4 from launch to the main menu.
• Loading Overwatch from launch to the main menu.
• Recording a 1080p gameplay video at 60 FPS with OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) while playing Overwatch.
• Installing The Outer Worlds from the Epic Games Launcher.
• Saving game progress in The Outer Worlds.
• Copying the Steam folder for Counter-Strike Global Offensive from an external SSD to the system drive.

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Gaming is a performance metric that matters to the majority of DIY consumers, especially to the enthusiast crowd that TweakTown caters to. Corsairs MP700 shows itself to be among the best choices that can be made if you are an avid gamer in possession of a motherboard with a Gen5 M.2 slot.

PCM10 Storage Tests

PCMark 10 Storage Test is the most advanced and most accurate real-world consumer storage test ever made. There are four different tests you can choose from; we run two of them.

The Full System Drive Benchmark and the Quick System Drive Benchmark. The Full System Drive Benchmark writes 204 GB of data over the duration of the test. The Quick System Drive Benchmark writes 23 GB of data over the duration of the test. These tests directly correlate with mainstream user experience.

PCMark 10 Full System Drive Benchmark

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This particular test writes 204GB data and covers a broad range of common consumer tasks, including booting Windows 10, file transfers, Adobe and Office applications, and startup times for games, including Battlefield V, COD Black Ops 4, and Overwatch. Unlike synthetic numbers, this is comprehensive real-world data which is why we use it to rank SSDs in terms of user experience.

The MP700 cranks out yet another best-ever for a flash-based SSD running in our user state. That's impressive.

PCMark 10 Quick System Drive Benchmark

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For $289.99, you receive at minimum 6% more muscle than the very best Gen4 can muster. At maximum, a mind-blowing 285% better than the lowest spot on our chart. Wow. This is performance that matters, and if you are looking for an edge, this SSD could be just what the doctor ordered.

Final Thoughts

As it relates to performance, we knew exactly what to expect from Corsair's MP700 as it is, for all intents and purposes, identical to the previous three SSDs we reviewed. What caught us off guard is the price point being a full $50 less at launch than any similar Phison E26-controlled SSD we've come across to date. A premium Corsair product for the lowest price in its class? We're not used to that one, but we love it.

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We rank SSDs in terms of overall user experience (performance where it matters most) as expressed by PCMark 10 storage and 3DMark gaming storage tests. We consider a user experience score of 13K or more to verify an SSD as a TweakTown Elite performer. The MP700 comes through with another lab best for a retail flash-based SSD, where it matters most. Outstanding.

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10,000 MBs on the cheap, coupled with the highest User Experience ranking we've achieved with a retail offering to date, have earned Corsair's MP700 2TB PCIe Gen5 SSD a well-deserved Editor's Choice award.