Corsair MP700 PRO SE 4TB Review

Corsair's latest drive, the MP700 PRO SE, is the third member of the Gen 5 MP700 family and takes over from the MP700 PRO as the flagship drive for the range. The MP700 PRO offered speeds of up to 12,400MB/s and 11,800MB/s for read and writes, but for the SE version, Corsair has turned up the wicks so we have Sequential performance ratings of 14,000MB/s for reads and up to 12,000MB/s for writes.

It uses the same Phison E26 / Micron 232-layer combination as the PRO – but, and it's an important but, when it comes to performance, it utilises the Max14um version of the Phison S5026-E26 and faster 2,400M/T NAND with some firmware tweaks thrown in for good measure.

At launch the only standard version of the PRO SE is the 4TB drive which comes without a heatsink and then two Hydro X (with attached water blocks) models at 2TB and 4TB capacities. Scheduled for a June 24 launch are two drives (2TB and 4TB) that have active air cooling.

As well as the previously mentioned Sequential speeds, the MP700 PRO SE is rated up to 1,700,000 IOPS for reads and up to 1,600,000 IOPS for writes for 4K random performance, figures which apply to both capacities.

Using the ATTO benchmark we couldn't quite get to the maximum Sequential figures with test results of 12,970MB/s for reads and 11,810MB/s for writes. However, using the default CrystalDiskMark 8 benchmark we could confirm the official Sequential figures with test results of 14,109.49MB/s for reads and 12,605.74MB/s for writes.

As for random performance, using our four threaded tests we could get nowhere near the official maximums of 1,700,000 IOPS for reads and 1,600,000 IOPS for writes with test results of 535,355 IOPS for reads with writes at 452,066 IOPS. However, switching over to the Peak Performance profile settings in CrystalDiskMark 8 we could confirm the official read /write figures with a default read test result of 1,724,394 IOPS with writes at 1,633,197 IOPS.

The standard 4TB MP700 PRO SE doesn't have a heatsink on it (it does have a copper layer in the label, but don't just rely on that) so will need to use some form of motherboard cooling. Even under the passive chunky cooler that our test rig motherboard uses, the drive reached 64° C when pushed hard which is a bit too close to the official maximum of 70° C for comfort.

We found the 4TB MP700 PRO SE for £624.99 (inc VAT) on Corsair's website HERE.

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Pros

• Extremely fast sequential performance.
• Endurance.
• Capacity.

Cons

• Needs some form of motherboard cooling.
• A little pricey.

KitGuru says: KitGuru says: Corsair's MP700 PRO was a fast drive but now with the PRO SE, they have ramped it up even faster and it sits in the top spot on many of our results charts. The drive does need some sort of motherboard cooling as it comes without a heatsink, or you could hang on a bit until the active air-cooled models arrive.

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