Corsair MP600 2TB Review — PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
The Corsair MP600 2TB is the flagship capacity of Corsair's first PCIe 4.0 lineup, pairing Phison's E16 controller with doubled endurance and 2 GB of DRAM.
Corsair introduced the MP600 family in mid-2019 as one of the first consumer PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD families, built to coincide with AMD's Ryzen 3000 and X570 platform launch. At the heart of every MP600 sits the Phison PS5016-E16 controller — an 8-channel, 28 nm chip with a dual-core ARM Cortex-R5 and a dedicated co-processor. It was the industry's inaugural PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe controller for the consumer market.
The Corsair MP600 2TB pairs the E16 with Toshiba BiCS4 96-layer 3D TLC NAND and 2 GB of SK Hynix DDR4-2400 DRAM for the Flash Translation Layer. Sequential speeds match the 1TB model at 4,950 MB/s read and 4,250 MB/s write, while endurance doubles to 3,600 TBW. The drive arrives on a double-sided M.2 2280 PCB underneath a pre-mounted aluminium heatsink that adds roughly 7 mm of height. The heatsink is effective at keeping the E16 controller from thermal throttling during sustained writes, and it can be removed if the motherboard already integrates an M.2 thermal solution.
The MP600 family also spans 500 GB and 1 TB capacities, though the 500 GB model carries lower write speeds and reduced endurance. Direct rivals from the same launch window include the Gigabyte Aorus NVMe Gen4 and the Sabrent Rocket 4.0 — both of which use the same Phison E16 reference platform with near-identical performance. Newer second-generation PCIe 4.0 drives like the Samsung 990 Pro and WD Black SN850X arrived later with faster controllers that push well past 7,000 MB/s, making the MP600 more of a legacy pick in the current market.
✅ Storage Comparisons:
🚀 Performance and benchmarks
Corsair rates the MP600 2TB at up to 4,950 MB/s sequential read and 4,250 MB/s sequential write, with random performance reaching 680K IOPS read and 600K IOPS write at queue depth 32. These figures represent the first generation of PCIe 4.0 x4 throughput, effectively doubling the PCIe 3.0 ceiling that capped previous-generation drives around 3,500 MB/s.
Corsair MP600 2 TB vs M.2 4.0 x 4 peers
Switch between sequential throughput and random IOPS to see how this drive stacks up against other M.2 4.0 x 4 SSDs in our database. The highlighted bar is the drive on this page — click any other bar to open that drive.
- Patriot Viper PV593 1 TB: 14,500 MB/s read, 14,000 MB/s write
- Patriot Viper PV593 2 TB: 14,500 MB/s read, 14,000 MB/s write
- Patriot Viper PV593 4 TB: 14,500 MB/s read, 14,000 MB/s write
- Patriot Viper PV573 2 TB: 14,000 MB/s read, 12,000 MB/s write
- Corsair MP600 2 TB (this drive): 4,950 MB/s read, 4,250 MB/s write
On an AMD X570 or B550 motherboard with PCIe 4.0 lanes active, independent reviewers consistently found the MP600 meeting or slightly exceeding its rated sequential numbers in CrystalDiskMark. Real-world large-file transfers typically landed in the 3.8 to 4.2 GB/s range. On Intel platforms or any PCIe 3.0 slot, performance drops to approximately 3,500 MB/s — indistinguishable from a high-end PCIe 3.0 drive. The E16's SLC caching strategy holds up well for typical gaming and desktop workloads, though sustained writes beyond roughly 150 GB on the 2TB model can drop to native TLC speeds in the 1.5 to 2.0 GB/s range once the SLC cache is exhausted. For a game library or content-creation scratch disk, this rarely matters in practice.
🖥️ Endurance and warranty
Corsair covers the MP600 2TB with a 5-year limited warranty, bounded by the drive's 3,600 TBW endurance rating — whichever limit is hit first terminates the warranty coverage. At a typical consumer write workload of 30 to 50 GB per day, the 3,600 TBW figure translates to approximately 197 years on the low end and 328 years on the high end, meaning the calendar warranty will expire decades before endurance becomes a practical concern for nearly any user. Corsair quotes an MTBF of 1.7 million hours across the MP600 family. As with all MTBF specifications, this is a statistical projection across a population of drives under controlled conditions, not an individual-unit lifetime guarantee. Warranty claims are processed through Corsair's direct RMA portal.
📊 Specs
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Capacity [?] | 2 TB |
| Interface [?] | M.2 4.0 x 4 |
| Controller [?] | Phison PS5016-E16 |
| Memory type [?] | Toshiba 3D TLC |
| DRAM [?] | SK Hynix 1GB - 2GB DDR4 |
| Read speed (MB/s) [?] | 4950 |
| Write speed (MB/s) [?] | 4250 |
| Read IOPS [?] | 680000 |
| Write IOPS [?] | 600000 |
| Endurance (TBW) [?] | 3600 |
| MTBF (million hours) [?] | 1700000 |
| Warranty (years) [?] | 5 |
Conclusion
Content creators and gamers with a large library who need 2 TB of fast NVMe storage on a PCIe 4.0 platform will find the Corsair MP600 2TB a serviceable choice, particularly if the drive is available at a discount relative to newer models. Anyone building a fresh system in 2026 should consider the Samsung 990 Pro 2TB or WD Black SN850X 2TB instead — both deliver substantially higher sequential throughput and improved power efficiency thanks to second-generation controllers. The MP600 was competitive at launch in 2019, but the Gen4 field has since moved well beyond the Phison E16's capabilities, and newer drives often cost no more while offering meaningfully better performance.
+ Pros
- 3,600 TBW endurance on the 2TB model
- 4,950 MB/s sequential reads on PCIe 4.0
- Included aluminium heatsink in the box
- 2 GB SK Hynix DDR4 DRAM cache
- 5-year warranty with direct RMA support
- 2 TB capacity for large game libraries and projects
- Cons
- First-gen Phison E16 controller outpaced by newer drives
- Double-sided PCB limits thin-laptop compatibility
- PCIe 3.0 speeds on non-Gen4 platforms
- No hardware AES 256-bit encryption
- Heatsink adds height incompatible with some GPU backplates
🛒 Buy this or similar SSD Storage:
✨ Video Review
Worth the Premium Price? - Corsair MP600 PRO Review
