The launch of Corsair’s first PCIe 5.0 SSD was long overdue, with concerns that the company’s initial move to Gen 5 drives would prove prohibitively expensive. But fortunately, Corsair seems to have avoided costly pitfalls. In fact, this new drive may well be the best SSD right now.
As reported by PC worldThe MP700 is now available in full-sized M.2 2280 form factor. Previously claimed by Corsair that PCIe 5.0 can achieve read and write speeds of 10 GB/s in a 2 TB drive, while its smaller drive has read and write speeds of 9.5 GB/s and 8.5 GB/s respectively. What’s more, both versions are backwards compatible with M.2 Gen 4 and Gen 3 slots, in case your PC isn’t yet up to speed.
The best part though is the price with Corsair MP700 PCIe 5.0 SSD (opens in a new tab) 2TB for $290 and 1TB for $170. Corsair has ditched the heatsinks on its drives, which partly explains the much lower price. Currently, both models ship within one business day, so if you need a new PCIe card quickly, Corsair will deliver it just as quickly.
The fast and cheap PCIe 5.0 SSD from Corsair is impressive
There were plenty of them legitimate concerns and reservations about the next generation of PCIe drives, including the fact that since the introduction of PCIe 4.0, we still haven’t seen its widespread adoption. It mainly comes down to the fact that the average person who uses their SSD to transfer photos and documents just doesn’t need the ridiculously high speeds of Gen 5 drives.
The other issue was the size of the heatsink that was going to be paired with the new PCIe 5.0 SSD. Corsair got around this problem by not including one with its own drives, which most likely means your system’s cooling system will be doing the heavy lifting. But that can also be a problem, as Gigabyte acknowledged on the product page overheating may cause data loss.
Next-gen PCIe drives were expected to be much more expensive than the previous generation, and Gigabyte seemed to deliver on that promise when its own drive was spotted as much as $679.89. But the Corsair is only $290 and $170, proving that a technological leap can be more than affordable – hopefully without compromising on speed or quality.
The last issue is another that Corsair has addressed: compatibility. As mentioned earlier, both versions of the MP700 PCIe 5.0 SSD will be backwards compatible with M.2 Gen 4 and Gen 3 slots, which is great news for those looking to upgrade without worrying about buying a new motherboard at the same time.
Let’s hope other manufacturers follow suit and release Gen 5 drives that are just as fast and cheap – because the last thing we need are even more expensive PC components. To look at you, RTX4090.