Conclusion
In this review, we took a look at the new CORSAIR MP700 PRO 2TB with Air Cooler PCIe Gen5 x4 NVMe 2.0 M.2 SSD which offers PCIe Gen5 performance at 12,400MB/s read and 11,800MB/s write and endurance up to 1,400 TBW. With an active cooling solution, the MP700 PRO provides top-notch performance and quiet cooling that works well. The MP700 PRO comes with a DRAM cache on board, and SLC caching for the best performance possible and the latest features with NVMe 2.0 in a very cool-looking package. The 2TB capacity with Air Cooler we reviewed today will MSRP of $339.99 but can vary with online retailers., and is typically cheaper. You can also pick up the 1TB capacity model with Air Cooler for $199.99, with pricing under MSRP.
Cooling
The CORSAIR MP700 PRO 2TB PCIe Gen5 SSD we have reviewed today uses an active Air Cooler pre-installed from CORSAIR. This cooling mechanism works really well. The temperatures on the CORSAIR MP700 PRO 2TB PCIe Gen5 SSD are very good for a PCIe Gen5 SSD at 63c in this stress test, while all other SSDs run warmer. We verified these temperatures in HWiNFO64, CORSAIR SSD Toolbox, AIDA64, Windows Storage Properties, and CrystalDiskInfo. At idle, the SSD sits at 36c.
Compared to the coolest running Gen4 SSD, the CORSAIR MP700 PRO 2TB PCIe Gen5 SSD is right at the passively cooled Gen4 SSDs, which are much slower. Keep in mind this is comparing an active fan solution to a passive one, and a slow Gen4 SSD to a really fast Gen5 SSD. It is actually 5 degrees cooler than the ADATA LEGEND 970 which also has an active fan, but a slimmer heatsink that doesn’t have the thickness of the MP700 PRO either, and that SSD screams loudly with its fan noise. The CORSAIR MP700 Pro Air Cooler keeps this SSD both cooler in temperature, and quieter in noise level. Compared to the CORSAIR Force MP600 the CORSAIR MP700 PRO 2TB PCIe Gen5 SSD runs 6 degrees cooler, and the MP600 had a very good passive heatsink for that generation of Gen4 SSD.
We also experienced a quiet fan noise operation on the CORSAIR MP700 PRO 2TB PCIe Gen5 SSD. It achieves these exceptional temperatures with little noise, meaning this active fan solution is quiet even though it is a tiny little fan with tiny little fan blades. Whether it is at idle, or churning large amounts of data, it doesn’t make any annoying noise, which is great for your sanity. You CAN actually have a Gen5 SSD that isn’t huge and doesn’t scream at you.
CORSAIR SSD Toolbox
CORSAIR offers an SSD Toolbox, which allows you to view drive details and perform some minor functions. You can check the firmware version for updates, which is important, and we are glad to see this feature. The Toolbox also shows the drive temperature, if you need to monitor that. It also lets you do a Secure Wipe which is important to have, and you get a free disk cloning ability which is handy. You can also check the life and drive health of the SSD in the Toolbox by following these directions here. The software could use a UI upgrade, but it seems to offer all the important features.
Final Points
CORSAIR has come out swinging with its latest PCIe Gen5 NVMe 2.0 SSD. The CORSAIR MP700 PRO hands down offers the highest Gen5 SSD performance to date. It took quite a while for Gen4 SSDs to step up in performance over a few generations of its evolution. However, we’ve seen Gen5 SSDs rise to that occasion much faster in its evolution of controllers, NAND flash, and firmware abilities.
The CORSAIR MP700 PRO offers sequential read speeds of up to 12,400MB/s sequential write speeds of up to 11,800MB/s and a high endurance of 1,400 TBW which is great. Our data has shown that CORSAIR is right on the money with its claimed performance, as our CORSAIR MP700 PRO 2TB with Air Cooler PCIe Gen5 x4 NVMe 2.0 M.2 SSD performed exactly at that level, or slightly better. Random read and write performance was also strong on this SSD, providing the fastest random read time we’ve seen beating Gen4 SSDs by 44% in this area. In smaller workload throughput it also had strong random write performance.
We saw excellent performance when it came to bandwidth and access time according to 3DMark and PCMark performance. It was at the top of its game compared to the competition. We were very impressed by the game load time performance and disk copy performance. In-game load times DirectStorage worked great, and we had incredible Forspoken load times. We also saw the best load times in Final Fantasy. Even just copying data across the drive was the fastest we’ve seen. The SSD was also proven in professional workloads. Gamers are going to like this SSD for its performance moving through games that demand more and more performance for asset streaming these days.
CORSAIR put a lot of effort and time into the development of the cooling solution for the MP700 PRO with the Air Cooler. CORSAIR wanted to make sure it got the cooling solution right, and thus development took an extra bit of time to release, but that time spent was well worth it. Our testing shows that the custom cooling solution you can get with the MP700 PRO adds to the value. This is a cooling solution that is not enormous, does not take up a ton of space, but still keeps the SSD cool and importantly with no annoying noise. There is nothing worse than a small tiny fan that screams like a banshee, but you won’t find that here.
CORSAIR offers the MP700 PRO with an active Air Cooler, and also as a bare drive for a little less money. However, you will need to use your own robust heatsink with it. For just a little more the Air Cooler version offers a worry-free, pre-installed, cool, and quiet solution that you know won’t thermal throttle, and gives you that peace of mind that you can just install it and go, easily. There are 1TB and 2TB versions of the MP700 PRO, and combined with the high endurance, the 2TB MP700 PRO with Air Cooler really is a great overall package and value for any enthusiast in search of extreme PCIe Gen5 SSD performance.
