Introduction

Corsair is a US-based peripherals and hardware company founded in 1994. It is now one of the leading manufacturers for gaming gear, with a portfolio spanning nearly every component you need: DRAM memory modules, flash SSDs, keyboards, mice, cases, cooling, and much more.



Today we'll be reviewing the Corsair MP600 GS in the 2 TB variant. Internally the MP600 GS uses the Phison E21 controller, a fairly new 4-channel value-oriented controller that was announced last year. The flash chips are Micron's latest and greatest B47R 176-layer 3D TLC flash. A DRAM cache chip is not included for cost reasons. Given the 12 nm controller design and the fact that we're working with a 4-channel controller here, it seems reasonable that Corsair isn't including a preinstalled heatsink, because heat output should be low, we'll put that to test of course in our review.

The Corsair MP600 GS comes in capacities of 500 GB ($65), 1 TB ($95) and 2 TB ($180). Endurance for these models is set to 300 TBW, 600 TBW, and 1200 TBW, respectively. Corsair includes a five-year warranty with the MP600 GS SSD.

Packaging

The Drive

The drive uses the M.2 2280 form factor, making it 22 mm wide and 80 mm long.


While most other M.2 NVMe SSDs transfer data over the PCI-Express 3.0 x4 interface, the Corsair MP600 GS connects to the host system using PCI-Express 4.0 x4, doubling the theoretical bandwidth.


On the PCB you'll find the controller and four flash chips, a DRAM cache chip is not present.

Chip Component Analysis

The Phison PS5021-E21 is Phison's newest PCI-Express 4.0 controller. It's a cost-optimized model, with four flash channels and support for TLC and QLC NAND. Phison has designed the E21 for DRAM-less operation, and it supports the NVMe 1.4 protocol. The controller itself is fabricated using a 12 nanometer process at TSMC Taiwan.


The four flash chips are Micron 176-layer 3D TLC NAND. Each chip has a capacity of 512 GB.

Test Setup