The Corsair MP600 Elite is a high speed Gen4 drive that targets buyers looking to maximise their storage performance. Offering excellent read and write speeds, alongside low thermals thanks to the excellent heatsink design, the MP600 Elite is a very capable SSD. This drive enters a highly saturated market where new SSDs need to offer a unique set of features, or come in at a very competitive price point to be worth considering versus the existing Gen4 options.
M.2 SSDs are a must-have for modern gaming PC builds due to the rise of performance demands within the latest AAA titles. But is the Corsair MP600 Elite worth considering versus the current alternatives? In this review, we’ll be doing a deep dive on the MP600 Elite, assessing the performance and thermal capability that this drive can offer.
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Specifications
The MP600 Elite is a very capable Gen4 option that offers strong performance across the board. Buyers can leverage 7000MB/s on the read speeds, along with 6500MB/s on the write capability. This makes the MP600 Elite a solid competitor on the performance front, utilising pretty much all of the available PCI-E 4.0 bandwidth.
The MP600 Elite also comes with a five year warranty which is relatively standard for most storage drives, whether its an M.2 option, SATA, or even a hard drive. Both capacities have a pretty resilient endurance rating. It would be nice to see a 4TB capacity version, but Corsair might decide to add this later down the line.
| Specification | Corsair MP600 Elite |
|---|---|
| PCI-E Generation | Gen4 |
| Capacity | 1TB, 2TB |
| Sequential Read Speed | 7000MB/s |
| Sequential Write Speed | 1TB: 6200MB/s 2TB: 6500MB/s |
| Warranty | 5 years |
| Endurance | 1TB: 600TBW 2TB: 1200TBW |
| Form Factor | M.2 2280 |
The MP600 Elite does have a non-heatsink variant that buyers can choose. While this does drop the price slightly, you are losing out on PS5 support, so if you plan on putting the MP600 Elite into your PS5 console, you’ll need the heatsink version.
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Design
The Corsair MP600 Elite is a pretty nice looking drive thanks to the unique heatsink that sits on top of the drive. The MP600 Elite is somewhat reminiscent of the Pro XT version of the MP600, due to its sleek heatsink design.
The drive is pretty much entirely covered by the heatsink, with only the M.2 interface and screw hole being the visible parts of the PCB. The heatsink itself is matte black, providing a sleek and stealthy look to your system, while also being able to blend in well with other dark components.
While Gen4 SSDs do not typically output the level of heat seen on Gen5 drives, having a dedicated thermal solution does keep a lid on temperatures. The aesthetic that this drives offers won’t be for everyone, but this SSD is definitely worth considering if you’re looking to keep your system temperatures nice and cool.
Is Gen4 Better than Gen5?
Gen5 SSDs have been saturating the market and offer tantalising performance geared towards those building a high-end system. However, the current Gen5 options have not been received particularly well due to their lacklustre thermal capabilities.
It is worth noting that while Gen5 thermals aren’t great, the strong read and write speed capability is likely to make many buyers overlook this issue. Gen5 SSDs double the theoretical bandwidth limits of Gen4 drives, so for those that need the best speeds that money can buy, temperatures might be less of an issue.
In the current market, Gen4 SSDs have become extremely popular for PC building due to their competitive pricing. You can easily pick up a 1TB Gen4 drive for less than $100, and 2TB capacities sit well below the $150 mark.
For these reasons, Gen4 drives are currently better than Gen5 alternatives. The market will shift in favour of PCI-E 5.0 SSDs once thermal issues are resolved and prices start to fall. But for the time being, Gen4 drives cater to a huge range of buyers while coming in at a price point that is pretty hard to beat.
Thermals
In terms of thermals, the MP600 Elite was pretty impressive, holding temperatures around the 41 degrees mark during our CrystalDiskMark test. Gen4 thermals don’t tend to be a problem, so adding a heatsink just improves temperatures by a fair margin keeping your drive nice and cool. Overall, I’d say the thermal capability of this drive is definitely strong.
Performance
To see how the Corsair MP600 Elite performs we fired up CrystalDiskMark. This software stress tests the drive, providing us with the the sequential read and write speeds. This gives us an indicator of how the drive will perform in a real-life setting when you’re constantly reading and writing to the drive within games or other applications.
Taking a look at read and write speeds, the Corsair MP600 Elite performs exactly as expected, if not better. On the reads we saw a speed of 7023MB/s, and the write speed was able to hit 6554MB/s, which is better than the rated speeds that Corsair provides. This goes to show how accurate the advertised speeds are for this particular drive.
While the MP600 Elite is not the strongest SSD that we’ve reviewed, it stands strong compared to some of the titans in the Gen4 space. Sitting in between the Firecuda 530 and Samsung 990 Pro is no small feat and goes to show how capable this drive is when looking at performance alone. Additionally, it’s low-profile heatsink is a great selling point for those that don’t have any form of passive cooling on their motherboard.
Conclusion
Corsair MP600 Elite
Product Name: MP600 Elite
Brand: Corsair
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Design
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Thermals
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Performance
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Value For Money
Summary
Corsair’s MP600 Elite is an excellent Gen4 drive geared to those looking for a high-end M.2 drive. This SSD hits its rated read and write speeds with no issues, while the heatsink keeps temperatures low, optimising thermal performance. The only major caveat worth considering is the current competition.
The MP600 Elite doesn’t offer anything unique that makes it stand out versus other top-end alternatives like the Seagate Firecuda 530, or Samsung 990 Pro. For this reason, buyers that need the best performance money can buy will definitely look to the competition to find the performance they need. But this aside, the MP600 Elite is still a great SSD that can easily cope with modern gaming demands.
Pros
✅ Excellent thermals
✅ High performance
✅ Sleek design
Cons
❌ Expensive
❌ Significant competitor options
❌ No 4TB version
