Corsair's original MP600 Mini drive only came in a 1TB capacity, based around a Phison PS5021-E21T 4-channel DRAM-less controller, it uses 176-layer 3D TLC NAND.
Now the MP600 Mini has a new flagship drive in the shape of a 2TB model. But it's not only the capacity that has been upgraded, the new drive uses one of Phison's latest DRAM-less designs, the PS5027-E27. Like the PS5021-E21T, the E27 is a 4-channel IC but with a much faster NAND interface running at 3600MT/s rather than the 1600MT/s of the E21. The 2TB drive uses a single NAND package of Toshiba BiCS6 162-Layer 3D TLC NAND. The combination of controller and NAND makes the 2TB MP600 Mini, Corsair's fastest M.2 2230 to date with Sequential performance figures of up to 7,000MB/s for reads and up to 6,200MB/s for writes.
When tested with the ATTO benchmark we couldn't quite hit those official maximums with a best read result of 6,860MB/s with writes at 5,010MB/s. Switching over to CrystalDiskMark 8 default tests we could confirm the official figures with best results of 7,376MB/s and 6,270MB/s for reads and writes, respectively.
Random 4K performance is quoted as up to 750,000 IOPS reads and an impressive up to 1,000,000 IOPS for writes for the 2TB Mini. Using the default Peak Performance profile in CrystalDiskMark 8 which displays the IOPS result for the test run we could confirm the official read ratings. The best read test result was 756,351.56 IOPS, however, we couldn't get close to the write maximum as the best write result we saw was 619,363 IOPS, so way off the official maximum.
Endurance for the 2TB MP600 Mini is quoted at 1200TBW and Corsair backs the drive with a 5-year warranty.
We found the 2TB Corsair MP600 Mini on Amazon for £234.98 (inc VAT) HERE.
Pros
- Overall performance.
- 5-year warranty.
- Endurance.
Cons
- We couldn’t match the official maximum 4K random write figures in our testing.
- DRAM-less design.
- Pricey.
KitGuru says: Corsair are keeping up the development of their M.2 2230 drive line and the latest offering, the 2TB MP600 Mini, uses the latest Phison DRAM-less controller design and is their fastest 2230 drive to date, rated officially at 7,000MB/s and 6,200MB/s for Sequential reads and writes respectively, but it doesn't come cheap.