Corsair MP600 Pro LPX

Corsair is targeting PS5 users with its MP600 Pro LPX SSD series. These high-end PCIe 4 models are topped with a fairly thin heatsink that allows it to fit inside Sony's console and thus expand its storage capacity.

 

Presentation

The MP600 Pro LPX SSDs are to be seen as an alternative to the MP600 Pro XT from which they take over the essential technical characteristics. We find M.2 2280 modules operating on a PCIe 4 interface and absolutely identical components.

This LPX version differs from the XTs in the heat sink used. The imposing black metal heatsink is replaced here by a much thinner part, but with a still very good finish. The small 11 mm thickness of these SSDs allows them to fit into the latest Sony console, the PS5. Corsair has developed the MP600 Pro LPX specifically for this use case, thus solving the main problem of the other MP600 SSD representatives of the brand.

Underneath the heatsink is the Phison PS5018-E18 and Micron 3D NAND TLC 176 layer pair. The controller is a high-end chip with three Cortex-R5 cores etched in 12 nm (TSMC). It is accompanied by 2 GB of cache memory on this 2 TB version. The memory chips are also high-end, similar to those found on the Seagate FireCuda 530, another series of SSDs perfectly suited for use on PS5.

The Corsair MP600 Pro LPX 2TB comes with a five-year warranty or 1400TB of written data, whichever comes first. The write endurance is huge and corresponds to 767GB of daily data for five years. It is therefore safe to say that this endurance will never be put to the test by the user, except in the case of server use - an area for which this SSD is not necessarily intended. Versions of 500GB, 1TB and 4TB are also offered by Corsair, with a higher or lower endurance depending on the capacity.

Corsair as always makes its SSD Toolbox utility available to owners of its SSDs. The current version of this software (v1.2) takes us back 15 to 20 years in terms of presentation. All the expected features for such a software are there: health status management, secure erasing, "over-provisioning" management or SSD cloning. The problem lies mainly in the lack of care given to the interface, which is worthy of a 3rd grade technology class project. For example, it is necessary to click on the small green and white line at the bottom right of the software (see picture above) to launch the verification and, if necessary, the installation of a new firmware. This little line can be more explicit, but you have to enlarge the window to see the whole button. Astonishing!

 

SLC cache management

As is often the case with Phison E18 controllers, the manufacturer has opted for a dynamic SLC cache system. This means that write jobs are accelerated to one third of the free space. It's a system that allows you to copy large amounts of data before falling out of this comfort zone. Outside of the cache, though, throughput remains very high, averaging 1 GB/s.

 

 

Thermal Management

The small heat sink does its job by keeping the SSD at a comfortable operating temperature. In normal use, this SSD runs at around 50°C when housed in a closed computer, without direct ventilation and near a graphics card. At peak, after intensive testing sessions, we found 65°C. That's 7°C higher than the MP600 Pro XT, but still very good, especially since the safety mode threshold is set at 84°C - the temperature at which the throughput is reduced to prevent overheating.

 

Performances

As with the MP600 Pro XT 2TB, the Corsair MP600 Pro LPX 2TB is given for a sequential read throughput of 7.1GB/s and 6.8GB/s for writes. These are theoretical maximum speeds that border on the limits of the memory controller and PCIe 4 interface. Under benchmark, the results are very close to those observed on the XT version. We measure an average of 7.4 GB/s in reading and 6.9 GB/s in writing; results very close to those of the Seagate FireCuda 530.

Random accesses are given at 1.2 MIOPS read and 1 MIOPS write. Our benchmark tests show much lower values (880 KIOPS for reading and 766 KIOPS for writing). However, this allows the MP600 Pro LPX to outperform its competitor by a small margin.

Finally, the manual copy delivers equally good results, with the SSD achieving 2.1 GB/s read and 1.7 GB/s write. That's simply excellent.

 

Conclusion

The Corsair MP600 Pro LPX 2TB SSD is a perfect model to expand the storage capacity of a Sony PS5 console. The throughput is very high, stable and the heat release is perfectly controlled by the small heat sink. This model is also perfectly suited for use on a PC. It also benefits from a nice warranty, both on duration and endurance.