As one of many first PCI Specific 5.0 solid-state drives to hit the market, the Corsair MP700 (begins at $169.99 for 1TB; $289.99 for 2TB as examined) supplies the wonderful efficiency you’d count on from a drive utilizing the most recent interface commonplace. Though its uncooked throughput trails that of the Essential T700, it held its personal in our benchmark assessments, handing over scores just like the Gigabyte Aorus 10000 and solely barely behind the Essential SSD, whereas blazing previous the quickest previous-gen PCI Specific 4.0 drives. The MP700 is able to anchor your next-gen desktop, although you may possible have to purchase a brand new PC or exchange your CPU and motherboard to take full benefit of it.
An SSD to Construct a Rig Round
Though the MP700 proved its mettle for gaming, content material creation, and different high-impact duties in our testing, the drive—just like the Essential, Aorus, or any of their PCIe 5.0 brethren—will not carry out at full velocity with out a appropriate platform. For Intel, which means a Z690 or Z790 motherboard with twelfth or thirteenth Technology Core processor; for AMD, an X670, X670E, or B650E chipset and Ryzen 7000 collection CPU. The drive ships with out a heatsink, however the one supplied together with your motherboard ought to suffice.
The Corsair MP700 is a four-lane PCI Specific 5.0 drive manufactured on an M.2 Sort-2280 (80mm) “gumstick” PCB. This two-sided inner SSD employs the NVMe 2.0 protocol over the PCI Specific 5.0 bus. The MP700 makes use of Micron’s 232-layer TLC NAND flash, in addition to Phison’s newest PS5026-E26 controller, which is optimized for PCIe 5.0 SSDs, although it is also backward-compatible with PCI Specific 4.0 and even 3.0 drives. (Examine our glossary of SSD phrases if any of this jargon is unfamiliar.)
Convey Your Personal Heatsink
With the prodigious speeds that Gen 5 SSDs generate, an efficient means of warmth dissipation is crucial. As talked about, the MP700 ships with out a heatsink, leaving the person with two choices: the motherboard’s heatsink or a commercially accessible unit. Corsair recommends the previous, though it suggests its personal XM2 water block if you happen to’re utilizing a customized water-cooled answer.
In testing, we used the air-cooled heatsink constructed into our new PCI Specific 5.0 testbed, which we describe intimately under. The drive ran with out a hitch with this association. The MP700 also needs to work with the heatsinks for PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots in different appropriate motherboards.
Whereas the Corsair and Aorus drives can be found in 1TB and 2TB capacities, the Essential T700 provides a 4TB mannequin to the combination.
Sturdiness scores for the 1TB and 2TB Corsair drives (expressed by way of lifetime write capability in complete terabytes written or TBW) match these of the Aorus 10000, in addition to the PCIe 4-based Silicon Energy XS70. The MP700 is barely extra sturdy than the Essential T700, which is rated at 600TBW and 1,200TBW for 1TB and 2TB respectively, in addition to the WD Black SN850X, a Gen 4 speedster. The Kingston KC3000, one other PCIe drive, is rated a smidge greater at 800TBW for 1TB and 1,600TBW for 2TB.
A couple of PCI Specific 4.0 drives supply considerably greater sturdiness scores; the MSI Spatium M470, for instance, is rated at 1,600TBW for 1TB and three,300TBW for 2TB. On the different excessive, the Mushkin Delta, which makes use of much less sturdy QLC reminiscence, is rated at simply 200TBW for 1TB, 400TBW for 2TB, and 800TBW for 4TB. The terabytes-written spec is a producer’s estimate of how a lot information may be written to a drive earlier than some cells start to fail and get taken out of service. Corsair warranties the MP700 Professional for 5 years or till you hit the rated TBW determine in information writes, whichever comes first.
The MP700 helps AES 256-bit hardware-based encryption, which is the gold commonplace in information encryption safety.
Testing the Corsair MP700: The Proper Stuff for 4K Write Pace
For testing the MP700, we used our new testbed, designed particularly for benchmarking PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs. It consists of an ASRock X670E Taichi motherboard with an AMD X670 chipset, 32GB (two Essential 16GB DIMMs) of DDR5 reminiscence, one PCI Specific 5.0 x4 M.2 slot (with lanes which have direct entry to the CPU), and three PCI Specific 4.0 slots. It sports activities an AMD Ryzen 9 7900 CPU utilizing an AMD inventory cooler; a GeForce RTX 2070 Tremendous graphics card with 8GB of GDDR6 SDRAM; and a Thermaltake Toughpower GF1 Snow 750-watt energy provide. The boot drive is an ADATA Legend 850 PCIe 4.0 SSD. All that is housed in a Praxis Wetbench open-frame case.
We put the MP700 via our common inner solid-state drive benchmarks, comprising Crystal DiskMark 6.0, PCMark 10 Storage, and UL’s 3DMark Storage Benchmark, which measures a drive’s efficiency in various gaming-related duties.
Crystal DiskMark’s sequential velocity assessments present a standard measure of drive throughput, simulating best-case, straight-line transfers of huge information.
The MP700’s sequential learn velocity fell just a little under 10,000MBps, whereas its sequential write velocity surpassed that mark. That successfully matches Corsair’s rated speeds, and is inside half a p.c of the Aorus 10000. That stated, the Essential T700’s sequential learn and write speeds had been about 23% and 15% quicker respectively than the Corsair SSD’s. Not surprisingly, all three of the Gen 5 drives we have now examined simply topped the PCI Specific 4.0 drives we have reviewed, with the MP700’s learn scores greater than 30% greater and its write scores greater than 45% greater than the quickest of that lot.
In Crystal DiskMark’s 4K velocity testing, the MP700’s examined learn velocity was in keeping with the Aorus 10000 in addition to our PCIe 4.0 comparability drives and simply 2% in need of the Essential T700. The Corsair set a brand new excessive rating in 4K write velocity, edging each the Aorus and Essential SSDs, with solely the WD Black SN850X coming in any respect shut on the PCI Specific 4.0 facet. Good 4K write efficiency is particularly necessary for an SSD used as a boot drive, although we take a look at them as secondary drives.
The PCMark 10 Total Storage take a look at measures a drive’s velocity in performing a wide range of routine duties similar to launching Home windows, loading video games and inventive apps, and copying each small and enormous information. The MP700 fell barely behind the Essential T700 whereas edging the Aorus 10000.
As for PCMark 10’s subtests or particular person traces, the Corsair MP700, like the opposite two Gen 5 SSDs, produced middling outcomes in contrast with our PCIe 4.0 drives. (Its scores intently matched these of the Aorus whereas barely lagging the Essential’s.) The place the PCI Specific 5.0 SSDs actually shone, and what cinched their wins within the PCMark 10 Total outcomes, was the copy take a look at traces. Like its friends, the MP700 posted scores greater than 20% greater than the perfect PCIe 4.0 drive within the ISO (large-file) copy hint and practically 60% greater within the hint for smaller information.
Lastly, the 3DMark Storage take a look at assesses an SSD’s aptitude in a set of gaming-related duties. Right here the MP700 trailed the opposite two Gen 5 drives by slightly below 2%, in addition to the PCIe 4.0 class champion WD Black.
Verdict: Corsair’s Quickest SSD But
The MP700, the most recent in an extended line of high-performance SSDs to hold the Corsair model, guarantees the groundbreaking speeds of PCI Specific 5.0 for customers prepared to pay for the {hardware} wanted to harness this newest commonplace. Its benchmark scores buried these of PCIe 4.0 SSDs in all however just a few particulars. Though the MP700 lacks the uncooked throughput velocity of the Essential T700, our first Editors’ Alternative award winner amongst Gen 5 SSDs, it practically matched that unit in most different benchmarks whereas delivering a brand new excessive rating in 4K writes. In case you’re prepared to present your gaming or content material creation a serious increase, the Corsair MP700 is able to help.
