Corsair MP400 4TB | Review
The new addition to the company's offering uses a PCIe 3.0 x4 interface and the classic M.2-2280 format. The memory is manufactured by Micron and is a classic 96-layer QLC 3D NAND, managed by a Phison PS5012-E12S controller and flanked by a DDR3-1600MHz DRAM cache manufactured by Nanya. The Corsair MP400 we tested has a capacity of 4TB and provides 1GB total of DRAM (two 4Gb chips each) and eight QLC memory modules, each with a capacity of 1Tb.
The Corsair MP400 is available in 1TB, 2TB, 4TB and 8TB denominations. It is therefore one of the very few SSDs currently on the market with this capacity, together with the Sabrent Rocket Q and the Samsung 870 QVO. The price starts from 145 euros for the 1TB version, up to 1500 euros for the 8TB model.
There is also no shortage of technologies for data protection such as SmartECC, end to end data protection and SmartRefresh, which updates periodically blocks to improve data retention. The Corsair MP400 also supports Trim, Secure Erase and SMART, but lacks AES 256-bit hardware encryption.
Performance
We decided to compare the Corsair MP400 with two other PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSDs. , the MP34 Teamgroup and the Viper VPN100. Below we leave you a table with the test configuration on which we have installed the SSDs to carry out the various tests.AMD Ryzen 9 3900X processor (available here) Corsair H100i Elite Capellix heatsink (available here) Asus motherboard ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Hero (available here) RAM Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB 16 GB 3600 MHz (available here) Storage PCIe 4.0 Corsair MP600 2TB SSD (available here) Asus ROG Thor 850M power supply (available here) Asus ROG Strix RTX 2080 Ti video card (available here) Windows 10 version 2004 operating system (available here)
CrystalDiskMark
With CrystalDiskMark we performed tests to obtain a nominal value of the performance of the drive, this regarding the values in read / write. In the graphs we have included as random values those related to the QD1 datum. When we refer to the Queue Depth or the "queue depth", we mean how many I / O operations (IOPS) the operating system is able to send to a particular device, before waiting for a response (to any of these operations) from it.For the daily use of the vast majority of users, the QD1 value represents the most interesting to determine whether or not to purchase, as most of the operations we perform concern this value.
In the sequential performance test the Corsair MP400 recorded 3428 MB / s in reading and 3052.88 MB / s in writing, results in line with what the company stated. The read performance here is slightly lower than the MP34 Teamgroup, while the write performance is vastly higher.
The random performance recorded by CrystalDiskMark shows how the MP34 Teamgroup is better than the Corsair MP400 in writing, however the situation is reversed in reading. The values obtained by the MP400 still guarantee excellent system responsiveness in any situation.
DiskBench
With DiskBench we try to obtain a value that we can use to indicate a typical "real" use , and then test the copy and read speeds of the storage drive using data chosen by the user, to obtain a performance data as faithful as possible.We have chosen for the test copy a folder of 30 GB, to simulate as much as possible a real load we have inserted files of different types and sizes such as images, videos and various documents in the folder. The Corsair MP400 scores an average speed of around 1460 MB / s, which is great for copying large amounts of data quickly and well above that of the MP34 Teamgroup but around 80 MB / s lower than that of the Viper VPN100.
In the read test we use a single 6GB file instead. Here the Corsair MP400 records a speed of 2205 MB / s, again being slightly slower than the Viper VPN100 but definitely faster than the MP34 Teamgroup.
Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood
Last as as usual, the benchmark on Final Fantasy XIV Stormblood. The test integrated in this title allows us to obtain a value regarding the possible loading times of scenarios within real games.The Corsair MP400 records a time of 10 , 4 seconds, slightly worse than the MP34 Teamgroup and the Viper VPN100. However, this is an excellent loading time, in line with that of the best SSDs on the market today.
Temperature
To assess the temperature we relied on the readings of the HWInfo program. The idle value was measured after the system was started, while the maximum temperature refers to that detected by the software during the DiskBench copy test.Despite not having a dedicated heatsink, the Corsair MP400 does record quite low temperatures, equal to 27 degrees at idle and 44 degrees under load. In this latter situation the Viper VPN100 is slightly better, but it is an SSD equipped with a heatsink.
The recorded values show that you will never have to worry about performance drops related to thermal throttling, also taking advantage of the M heatsinks. .2 present in practically all modern motherboards you can maintain even lower temperatures.
Conclusions
Most PC gamers today use an SSD, a storage unit significantly faster than the classics Hard Disk and that allows you to greatly reduce the loading times of games. However, these users are increasingly faced with a problem: lack of space. Modern titles take up more and more GB (just think of CoD: Modern Warfare and its 230GB) and, consequently, the need for more capacious SSDs is getting bigger.From this perspective, we greatly appreciate the will Corsair and other companies, such as Sabrent, to introduce 4TB and 8TB SSDs to the market, solutions that offer the space you need to install all your favorite games and more. These units are obviously not only suitable for gamers, but also for content creators and all those who need a lot of space to store their data, but cannot (or do not want to) be limited by the slowness of a Hard Disk.
For this type of user, the Corsair MP400 is an excellent option: the 4TB variant we tested is available for 649 euros, lower than what competing models can be purchased. The 8TB model can be purchased for 1500 euros, the same price as the Sabrent Rocket Q, but these are the only two NVMe SSDs on the market with this memory cut.
The lower capacities are also worth mentioning, undoubtedly the most interesting for most users: the 1TB model can be purchased for 145 euros, while the 2TB one for 290 euros. In our opinion, these are good prices, in line with those of the market.
In conclusion, the Corsair MP400 is an SSD that offers good performance and is able to satisfy the needs of a good number of users: who wants simply a new NVMe SSD and has no interest in the PCIe 4.0 standard can buy the 1TB and 2TB models at a fair price, while those who need a lot of space can opt for the 4TB and 8TB models, among the very few on the market with this capacity .
