Corsair MP700 Pro review

The Corsair MP700 Pro provides a few upgrades versus the vanilla MP700, namely increases to sequential read and write speeds, as well as the inclusion of an optional heatsink. Both of these changes place the SSD among the speediest you can buy today, but it only really flexes its muscles during large file transfers rather than gaming.

In terms of raw speed, the MP700 Pro is one of two drives that can lay claim to the title of best SSD, with the Crucial T700 serving as the only other option to provide the same specs. However, the MP700 Pro aims to maximize its performance through the application of an active cooling solution, giving it an edge if you don’t mind an additional cable and a small amount of extra noise in your PC.

Pros:

• Packs the fastest read and write speeds on the market
• Doesn’t thermal throttle with heatsink and active cooling solution
• Five-year warranty

Cons:

• Doesn’t tangibly improve games
• No 4TB or Hydro X model available yet
• Fan curve can’t be configured

Corsair MP700 Pro specs

Comparing the 1TB and 2TB versions, there are a few key differences when it comes to the Corsair MP700 Pro specs list. Naturally, the larger capacity model carries a higher price, but you’re not just paying for more storage with this increased cost.

While there’s just 700MB (0.7GB/s) between the two versions of the MP700 Pro in terms of sequential read speed, the gap widens to 2,200MB/s (2.2GB/s) for sequential write. Given that the 2TB model offers double the capacity, it naturally boasts double the amount of DRAM cache and endurance rating.

Corsair MP700 Pro benchmarks

To test the capabilities of the MP700 Pro, data has been collected from across a variety of synthetic applications, including 3DMark, CrystalDiskMark, and more, in addition to real-world benchmarks, namely Forspoken and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. Each test was run three times to produce an average result.

The Corsair MP700 Pro was benchmarked in the following system:

• SSD: Corsair MP700 Pro 2TB (with air cooler)
• OS: Windows 11 Pro 23H2 (22631.21715)
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D
• Motherboard: Asus TUF Gaming X670E-Plus (BIOS version 1636)
• RAM: Corsair Vengeance 32GB (2 x 16GB) DDR5 6,000MHz
• PSU: Corsair RMx SHIFT Series 1000W
• Case: Corsair 5000D RGB Airflow
• GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090
• Driver: GeForce Game Ready version 546.17

1/4

When it comes to games, the MP700 Pro performs almost identically to the WD Black SN850X, which is widely considered to be one of the top-performing PCIe Gen 4 SSDs. Even the slower Corsair MP600 manages to largely keep pace, only trailing behind the other two drives by a whopping 0.08-0.09ms when loading a saved game in Forspoken.

These observations are less indicative of each drive’s capabilities and are more revealing of the demands of the best PC games of today, or lack thereof. Neither Forspoken nor Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart request more than 1,100MB/s (1.1GB/s) from an SSD, making even fairly slow PCIe Gen 3 options more than enough.

Where the MP700 Pro does pull ahead of the competition, however, is in its ability to manage its temperature. The active cooling solution keeps the SSD at a nice and cozy maximum of 51°C, and it’ll only begin to thermal throttle at 76°C. With this in mind, the amount of headroom here begs the question of why Corsair didn’t make the fan speed configurable or just slower to start with. Instead, it’s always on, even if the drive is inactive.

Thankfully, it’s never noticeably noisy except in the quietest of circumstances. Still, the ability to amend the fan curve based on temperature via iCue or through a fan controller would’ve been appreciated.

1/6

As expected, the MP700 Pro largely wipes the floor with PCIe Gen 4 drives. Each of the SSDs is able to hit their reported sequential and write speeds, but random writes and reads cloud the waters to a small degree. Even so, the numbers the MP 700 Pro achieves speak for themselves.

Comparisons to the Crucial T700 will be forthcoming once the drive arrives for testing. After which, this review will be updated.

Corsair MP700 Pro price

The Corsair MP700 Pro price varies greatly depending on which capacity you opt for, with the 1TB model commanding a cost of $179.99, jumping to $189.99 with a heatsink, while the 2TB version sets you back $299.99, or $324.99 with the heatsink.

Right now, the only other SSD on the market that’s capable of providing the same speeds as the MP700 Pro is the Crucial T700. However, this competitor is generally more expensive and runs much hotter than Corsair’s offering due to its lack of active cooling. This makes the MP700  Pro the clear better value choice of the two.

All this said, the MP700 Pro is less valuable to gamers than it is to those that regularly deal with large file sizes or use applications that can leverage its speed. This may change in the future as more games use DirectStorage, but right now there’s no reason to pick up a PCIe Gen 5 SSD for gaming.

Should you buy the Corsair MP700 Pro?

Across the board, the MP700 Pro impresses in scenarios where its blisteringly fast read and write speeds can be put to use. Its active cooling solution may be large, but it does an excellent job of keeping the drive cool under load, allaying any worries of thermal throttling. However, it’s a shame that Corsair was unable to ship the SSD with a 4-pin connector, rather than SATA, to allow for more granular control of the fan rather than it being always active.

Corsair says that it plans to release Hydro X and 4TB versions of the MP700 Pro in the future, but they’re not available right now. All the same, once the latter does finally arrive on the market, we imagine it’ll perform similarly (if not identically) to the 2TB model.

The biggest hurdle that the MP700 Pro faces is one shared by all PCIe Gen 5 SSDs, in that they simply don’t provide a noticeable improvement to gaming experiences. Still, if you’re someone that has a use for its speeds, then Corsair’s drive is the one to get above all others.

Corsair MP700 Pro alternatives

If the Corsair MP700 Pro isn’t the right fit for your system, check out these alternatives:

WD Black SN850X

The WD Black SN850X is plenty speedy for gaming and then some. It’s also much cheaper than the MP700 Pro and available in larger capacities, making it a generally better buy unless you’re able to make use of the higher read and write speeds of Corsair’s SSD.

Crucial T700

The Crucial T700 is the only proper competitor to the Corsair MP700 Pro, but it is slightly more expensive overall. You can pick up the SSD without a heatsink for the same price, but it’s otherwise more costly. That said, it is available with 4TB of storage should you need more space.