Corsair MP700 PRO SE Gen5 SSD Review (4TB)

The Corsair MP700 PRO SE is a refresh of the MP700 PRO, with some tweaks that gain it significant performance increases.

Corsair took their first swing at consumer PCIe Gen5 SSDs with the MP700 Pro last year, and now they’re back with a new drive, the MP700 Pro SE. This refresh brings new NAND and likely some firmware tuning to achieve higher speeds than what was available at the time of the MP700 Pro’s release. The MP700 PRO SE uses the Phison PS5026-E26 controller again and offers the SSD in 2TB and 4TB capacities.

Corsair MP700 PRO SE Features

The MP700 Pro SE will ship in three variants, bare drive, air-cooled, and water-cooled, but we only got our hands on the bare drive this time around. The water-cooled Hydro X variant has a water block with threads to connect to a custom loop setup, just like debuted on the MP700 Pro Hydro X.  While arguably excessive, the loop is visually a stunner. The air-cooled option has a similar heatsink and fan setup to the MP700, with the only difference seeming to be the branding on top.

Under the label, we can see the Phison PS5026-E26 controller alongside the Micron NAND, and the SK Hynix DRAM. This is also a double-sided SSD, so there is more NAND and more DRAM on the opposing side. We did do some comparison behind the scenes, and found that the MP700 Pro and MP700 Pro SE do indeed use the same PCB and controller, though with different NAND onboard. There are likely some firmware changes at play to help improve speed as well.

On the rear, we can see the other DRAM and NAND mentioned before, in a similar orientation to the other side. We also see the label on this side identifying the drive, and displaying the model number, serial number, capacity, and regulatory information.

It is to note though that like most other PCIE Gen5 SSDs, you need some sort of heatsink. This is displayed directly on the SSD packaging.  The label also states that a cooler integrated into a motherboard will work, as will a dedicated M.2 cooler. Again, if purchasing a different cooler, make sure to consider the thickness of the drive.

Corsair MP700 PRO SE Options and Pricing

The MP700 Pro SE does come in at a slightly higher price than its non-SE counterpart. At the time of writing, Corsair does not have a heatsink model available for the MP700 Pro SE, but it is projected to be available in June of this year. The Hydro X option is available, coming in at only $20 more than the base drive.

Corsair MP700 PRO SE at Amazon (affiliate link)

Corsair MP700 PRO SE Specifications

There aren’t too many differences to be seen between the 2TB and 4TB models here. The biggest differences are the TBW rating and the DRAM Cache size, other than that these two drives seem pretty close on paper.

Corsair MP700 PRO SE Performance

We all know the specs on paper don’t tell the whole story, so let’s get into the performance numbers. These tests aim to simulate real-world usage, giving you an idea of what practical performance you would get under load.

In these benchmarks, we will compare the MP700 PRO SE to the following drives:

• Corsair MP700 Pro
• Crucial T705
• Gigabyte Aorus 12000
• ADATA Legend 970
• Seagate Firecuda 530

VDBench Workload Analysis

The VDBench Workload Analysis tests are a set of synthetic workloads that help give us baseline, repeatable conditions across multiple drives. These tests will fill the drive surface with data, and then partition a drive section equal to one percent of the drive capacity to simulate how the drive may respond to application workloads. This differs from full entropy tests which will utilize 100% of the drive and take them to a steady state.

There are 7 different tests here we will look at

• 4K Random Read: 100% Read, 128 threads, 0-120% iorate
• 4K Random Write: 100% Write, 64 threads, 0-120% iorate
• 64K Sequential Read: 100% Read, 16 threads, 0-120% iorate
• 64K Sequential Write: 100% Write, 8 threads, 0-120% iorate
• VDI Boot
• VDI Initial Login
• VDI Monday Login

Starting with 4K random read, the MP700 Pro SE performed very well, better than the MP700 Pro. The MP700 Pro SE topped out at just over 1.1 Million IOPS, and 114 microseconds. At the tail end of the pack, is the Gigabyte Aorus 12000, with 768k IOPS, and 165.5μs latency.

Moving on to the 4K random write, we see the 990 Pro with the most IOPS, and the middle line being the MP700 Pro SE. The MP700 Pro SE pulled around 338k IOPS and hit 381μs of latency. The Samsung 990 Pro reached 573k IOPS, and at peak hit 241μs of latency. And the other outlier is our line to the sky, which is the Solidigm P44 Pro, which came in at 248k IOPS and 510μs.

In the sequential read 64k test, the MP700 Pro SE hit around 8.6GB/s with 231μs latency. The Crucial T705 took the lead in this test with 9.8GB/s, and only 202μs.

On to sequential write 64K, where the MP700 Pro SE showed 1.6GB/s and 662μs, followed by the Adata Legend. We also see the Samsung 990 Pro up front again with 2.2GB/s and 436μs.

Onto the first of our VDI tests, we start with the VDI Boot test where the MP700 Pro SE takes the lead again, with 246k IOPS and 135μs. Right behind the Corsair, is the Crucial T705 with 235k IOPS, and 146μs latency.

Next is the VDI Initial Login test, where we see a bit more sporadic activity. The peak in latency is the P44 Pro again at 23k IOPS and 1456μs, with the 990 Pro in the lead at 71k IOPS and peaking at around 813μs of latency. The MP700 Pro SE brought 52K IOPS and Peaked at 724μs.

Our final portion of the VDI tests, is the VDI Monday Login. Once more, the P44 Pro sticks out with latency, at 937 IOPS. The MP700 Pro SE fell a little behind some of the other drives, but still brought 42k IOPS and peaking at 413μs. The leads here were the MP700 Pro (non-SE) and the ADATA Legend 970 with 50.5k and 51.1k IOPS respectively.

BootBench

BOOT-BENCH-1 is a workload profile adopted by OCP to profile SSDs designed for server boot duty. While this is intuitively a job for enterprise SSDs, client SSDs are often selected for their performance, capacity, and cost combination. The boot drive issue is germane not just to hyperscalers but also to server and storage system providers, as they face similar challenges.

This boot workload executes a relatively intense test plan that fills the entire drive with writes before testing a read-heavy workload sequence. For each test, it performs a 32K random read async operation alongside a 15MiB/s synchronous 128k random write and a 5MiB/s synchronous 128k random write/trim background workload. The script starts with the random-read activity at a 4-job level and scales up to 256-jobs at its peak. The final result is the read-operations performed during its peak run.

For Bootbench, the Crucial T705 and MP700 Pro SE were fairly close in performance, with a difference of 32K IOPS. The T705 did pull ahead in this test. The Aorus 12000 is listed with a DNF because its performance was too low to complete this test.

CrystalDiskMark Speed Test

On to CrystalDiskMark, the MP700 Pro SE hit read speeds of around 14.1GB/s and write speeds of 12.2 GB/s.

Comparatively, the MP700 Pro SE is the undisputed lead in write speeds, however the Crucial T705 contests it slightly on read speeds.

Blackmagic Disk Speed Test

On to our last test, which is the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, the MP700 Pro SE brings roughly 9.8GB/s Write, and 8.5GB/s Read. This drop in performance from CrystalDiskMark is due to the nature of the test. Blackmagic only utilizes a single thread for this test, whereas others use more to see closer to the maximum potential of the drive.

Comparatively, the MP700 Pro SE is yet again in the lead for write, and just barely behind in read, contested by the Crucial T705. All six of these drives stayed pretty close together on the write side of things, only really differing on the read speeds.

Conclusion

In our performance testing, the MP700 PRO SE did extremely well, usually surpassing the other drives in the areas it got to stretch its legs. That’s not to say it was completely undisputed, but it varied by workload. This is a nice progressive step for the Phison-powered drive, it’s just a shame this “better” NAND wasn’t available at the initial launch. Having so many drives, especially two Gen5 SSDs launched less than half a year from one another, can be confusing to consumers.

In the end, the MP700 PRO SE helps to highlight what Gen5 SSDs can look like for consumers. The radiator heatsink and liquid loop might be excessive, but they do add a visual panache for those who enjoy such things. Most users will be better off saving a few bucks and going with a Gen4 drive for gaming systems and PCs, but for those who want to wring every last drop of performance out of their rigs, the Corsair MP700 PRO SE does stand as a willing deputy for the task.

Corsair MP700 PRO SE at Amazon (affiliate link)

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