# Corsair MP600 1TB Review — PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD (2026)

The Corsair MP600 1TB was one of the first PCIe 4.0 NVMe drives to market, pairing Phison's PS5016-E16 controller with Toshiba 96-layer BiCS4 TLC NAND behind an included aluminium heatsink.

Quick answer: Gamers and general-purpose desktop builders with an AMD X570 or B550 board who want a reliable PCIe 4.0 boot drive will find the Corsair MP600 1TB still gets the job done, even in 2026. Anyone building on a newer Intel 12th-gen or later platform, or someone chasing the highest possible sequential throughput, should skip the MP600 in favour of a Samsung 990 Pro or WD Black SN850X, both of which leverage later-generation controllers that push past 7,000 MB/s on PCIe 4.0. The MP600 was a strong first-generation Gen4 drive in 2019, and it remains competent for everyday workloads — but the PCIe 4.0 field has moved on, and newer drives deliver meaningfully better performance at similar or lower cost.

## Specifications

| Specification | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Capacity | 1 TB |
| Interface | M.2 4.0 x 4 |
| Controller | Phison PS5016-E16 |
| Memory type | Toshiba 3D TLC |
| DRAM cache | SK Hynix 1GB - 2GB DDR4 |
| Sequential read | 4950 MB/s |
| Sequential write | 4250 MB/s |
| Random read IOPS | 680000 |
| Random write IOPS | 600000 |
| Endurance | 1800 TBW |
| MTBF | 1700000 |
| Warranty | 5 years |

## Performance

Corsair rates the MP600 1TB at up to 4,950 MB/s sequential read and 4,250 MB/s sequential write, with random performance of up to 680K IOPS read and 600K IOPS write at queue depth 32. These numbers represent the practical ceiling of the PCIe 3.0 x4 interface doubled, and the drive genuinely reaches them on an AMD X570 or B550 platform with PCIe 4.0 lanes enabled.

On Intel platforms or any PCIe 3.0 slot, the MP600 caps out around 3,500 MB/s — still fast, but no different from a good PCIe 3.0 drive. Independent reviewers consistently found the MP600 meeting or slightly exceeding its rated sequential numbers in CrystalDiskMark, with real-world large-file transfers sitting in the 3.8 to 4.2 GB/s range depending on the workload. Sustained random write performance holds up reasonably well, though the E16's SLC caching strategy means that extended writes beyond roughly 100 GB can drop to native TLC speeds in the 1.5 to 2.0 GB/s range. For a boot drive or gaming workload that rarely fills the cache, this is not a practical concern.

## Endurance, TBW & Warranty

Corsair backs the MP600 1TB with a 5-year limited warranty that is tied to the drive's 1,800 TBW endurance rating — whichever limit is reached first ends the coverage. At a typical consumer write workload of 20 to 50 GB per day, the 1,800 TBW figure translates to roughly 100 years on the low end and 36 years on the high end, meaning the warranty period will expire long before the endurance ceiling is hit for the vast majority of users. Corsair quotes an MTBF of 1.7 million hours for the MP600 family. Like all MTBF figures, this is a statistical projection across a population of drives under controlled test conditions, not a guarantee that any individual unit will run for 194 years without fault. Warranty service is handled directly through Corsair's RMA portal.

## Pros and Cons

**Pros:**

- Included aluminium heatsink in the box
- 4,950 MB/s sequential reads on PCIe 4.0
- 1,800 TBW endurance on the 1TB model
- 5-year warranty with direct RMA support
- DRAM cache (1 GB SK Hynix DDR4)
- Backwards compatible with PCIe 3.0 slots
**Cons:**

- First-gen Phison E16 controller outpaced by newer drives
- Double-sided PCB may not fit some slim laptop slots
- Caps at PCIe 3.0 speeds on non-Gen4 platforms
- No hardware AES 256-bit encryption
- Heatsink adds height that can conflict with GPU backplates


## Verdict

Gamers and general-purpose desktop builders with an AMD X570 or B550 board who want a reliable PCIe 4.0 boot drive will find the Corsair MP600 1TB still gets the job done, even in 2026. Anyone building on a newer Intel 12th-gen or later platform, or someone chasing the highest possible sequential throughput, should skip the MP600 in favour of a Samsung 990 Pro or WD Black SN850X, both of which leverage later-generation controllers that push past 7,000 MB/s on PCIe 4.0. The MP600 was a strong first-generation Gen4 drive in 2019, and it remains competent for everyday workloads — but the PCIe 4.0 field has moved on, and newer drives deliver meaningfully better performance at similar or lower cost.

## Frequently Asked Questions

### Is the Corsair MP600 1TB good for gaming?

Yes, the Corsair MP600 1TB performs well for gaming on a PCIe 4.0 platform. Game load times are within a second of faster second-generation Gen4 drives like the Samsung 980 Pro, and the 680K random read IOPS handle the small-file workloads typical of game engines without issue. On a PCIe 3.0-only system, the advantage shrinks to parity with any decent PCIe 3.0 NVMe drive.

### Is the Corsair MP600 1TB compatible with the PS5?

Sony requires an M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD with a recommended read speed of 5,500 MB/s or higher, and the overall dimensions including heatsink must not exceed 110 x 25 x 11.25 mm. The MP600 1TB meets the PCIe 4.0 NVMe requirement but falls short of Sony's 5,500 MB/s recommended read threshold at 4,950 MB/s. Additionally, the pre-mounted Corsair heatsink is roughly 15 mm tall, which exceeds the PS5's 11.25 mm clearance. It may work with the heatsink removed, but Sony does not officially list the MP600 as a compatible drive.

### Does the Corsair MP600 have a DRAM cache?

Yes. The Corsair MP600 1TB uses 1 GB of SK Hynix DDR4-2400 DRAM as a Flash Translation Layer cache. This DRAM stores the mapping table between logical block addresses and physical NAND locations, which improves random read and write latency compared to DRAM-less designs that rely on the host system's memory via HMB.

### What is the TBW endurance of the Corsair MP600 1TB?

The Corsair MP600 1TB is rated at 1,800 TBW (Terabytes Written). This means Corsair guarantees the drive for up to 1,800 terabytes of total data written over its lifetime under the JEDEC JESD218 client workload definition. At a typical consumer write volume of 30 GB per day, the endurance would last approximately 164 years before theoretically being exhausted.

### Does the Corsair MP600 1TB need a heatsink?

Corsair includes a pre-mounted aluminium heatsink with the MP600, so no additional cooling purchase is necessary. The Phison E16 controller can thermal-throttle under sustained heavy writes without adequate cooling, and the bundled heatsink keeps temperatures manageable in most desktop cases. On motherboards with integrated M.2 heatsinks, the Corsair heatsink can be removed by peeling back the thermal pad, but running bare is not recommended for extended heavy workloads.

### How does the Corsair MP600 1TB compare to the Sabrent Rocket 4.0?

Both drives use the same Phison PS5016-E16 controller and Toshiba BiCS4 96-layer TLC NAND, so performance is nearly identical. The main differences come down to bundled accessories and warranty terms: the Corsair ships with a heatsink included, while the Sabrent Rocket 4.0 does not include one at the base price. Endurance ratings are the same at 1,800 TBW for the 1TB capacity, and both carry 5-year warranties.

### Is the Corsair MP600 1TB slower than the 2TB model?

No. Corsair rates both the 1TB and 2TB MP600 variants at the same 4,950 MB/s sequential read and 4,250 MB/s sequential write speeds, with identical 680K/600K IOPS random figures. The 500 GB model does have lower write performance. Where the 2TB differs is endurance: 3,600 TBW versus 1,800 TBW on the 1TB, and the 2TB model uses 2 GB of DRAM instead of 1 GB.

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Last updated: 2026-05-17. Source: https://ssdrive.net/corsair-mp600-1-tb