Introduction

Corsair is a US-based peripherals and hardware company founded in 1994. It is now one of the leading manufacturers for gaming gear, with a portfolio spanning nearly every component you need: DRAM memory modules, flash SSDs, keyboards, mice, cases, cooling, and much more.

Corsair was one of the first vendors to launch a PCI-Express 5.0 SSD, we reviewed the drive in May and it had some shortcomings, most importantly, the lack of a dedicated heatsink and the fact that the drive would crash when overheating (instead of throttling). Today, the Corsair MP700 Pro launches, which addresses all these aspects and more. While the original MP700 was rated for 10 GB/s, the new MP700 Pro reaches 12 GB/s, which means it achieves parity with the fastest Gen 5 SSDs from other vendors. Under the hood, not much has changed. You’re still getting a Phison E26 controller, which at this time is the only PCIe 5.0 controller in mass production. As expected the E26 is paired with new firmware. While the NAND flash chips are still Micron’s newest B58R 3D TLC NAND with 232-layers, they are now running at a speed of 2000 MT/s instead of 1600 MT/s, which is the mechanism behind the increased transfer rates. As expected for a high-end drive, a DRAM cache chip is included, too.

The Corsair MP700 Pro (with heatsink) is available in capacities of 1 TB ($190), 2 TB ($325). There’s also a model without heatsink for $180 / $300, and the water-cooling-ready Hydro X 2 TB variant costs $325, too. Endurance for these models is set to 700 TBW and 1400 TBW, respectively. Corsair includes a five-year warranty with the MP700 Pro SSD.