Corsair MP600 Mini 1TB (E27T) SSD Review: The best M.2 2230 drive you can buy

Corsair was one of the first retail companies to address the need for higher performance M.2 2230 form factor SSDs with its original MP600 Mini, following in the footsteps of Sabrent and Inland. This new wave of drives powered by Phison's E21T controller offered good performance and power efficiency in comparison to previous generation 2230 drives, making for some of the best Steam Deck SSDs, but there were still complaints.

Most models only offered up to 1TB for TLC-based drives, and PCIe 4.0 host devices like the Asus ROG Ally weren't reaching their full potential. Single-sided drives were required, and that made the OEM WD SN740 quite popular — until the retail WD Black SN770M arrived. However, WD’s drives were less efficient, more power-hungry, and ran hotter.

The best way to address these shortcomings was to use a newer PCIe 4.0 controller that could use the full benefits of the interface, combined with denser TLC flash aimed at 1TB and up. Lower capacities were okay when Valve’s Steam Deck first arrived, as the 64GB stock model needed all the help it could get, but stock capacity options have gotten larger with the release of the Steam Deck OLED, Lenovo Legion Go, and other portable systems.

With Phison's new E27T controller promising higher performance, more capacity, and excellent power efficiency, Corsair’s second revision of the MP600 Mini might just be as good as it sounds. Let's find out.

Corsair MP600 Mini (2024 / E27T / V2 variant) Specifications

Right from the start, we have one major issue with this new drive. It's called the Corsair MP600 Mini — the exact same name as the previous drive, which will presumably be phased out now, though it remains readily available for purchase. Given the variety of MP600 names Corsair has for its larger M.2 2280 form factor drives, it should have been a simple matter to come up with a new name. There's an MP600 Core Mini already, which has the same E21T controller as the non-Core drive but uses QLC NAND. MP600 Mini Elite, MP600 Mini V2, or any number of potential names come to mind, but Corsair opted to change the controller and NAND while keeping the same name. The part numbers are different — F1000GBMP600MNR2 for the new drive, compared to F1000GBMP600MN for the original drive — but even knowing that it's not particularly easy to guarantee you're getting the new version right now.

Given the name collusion, we'll call the new model the MP600 Mini E27T for this review, or alternatively MP600 Mini (2024). This new version is available in 1TB and 2TB capacities, so if you're after the 2TB drive (which didn't exist with the prior controller), at least you'll know you're getting the updated hardware. The old MP600 Mini was only available at 1TB, a decent option for many people. 2TB will be better for gamers as well as performance, and most existing 2TB M.2 2230 drives are QLC-based (excepting the WD SN740 / Black SN770M that are less efficient).

One of the first issues we encounter with the MP600 Mini 2024 version is that we don’t have Corsair’s pricing yet, and the 2TB SKU will likely lag behind the 1TB in terms of availability. This makes it difficult to fully judge the drive, as price will be a major factor for most potential buyers.

The performance specifications, for their part, are very similar to Corsair’s MP600 Elite, a good M.2 2280 drive with the same hardware as the new MP600 Mini. This means up to 7,000 / 6,5000 MB/s for sequential reads and writes, and up to 1,000K / 1,200K random IOPS. That's a high level of performance packed into the 2230 form factor. The new MP600 Mini also has a standard SSD warranty of five years with up to 600GB of writes per TB capacity.

Corsair MP600 Mini Software and Accessories

Corsair provides its own SSD toolbox application, the Corsair SSD Toolbox. This all-in-one application displays drive information, including S.M.A.R.T. status, and offers access to basic SSD features. These features include cloning, TRIM optimization, a secure wipe, and in some cases the ability to alter overprovisioning. The software also supports firmware updates, should any become available. While it’s nice to have this software, it’s not strictly necessary and it’s designed specifically for Windows, which may limit its usefulness for M.2 2230 handhelds like the Steam Deck.

Corsair MP600 Mini: A Closer Look

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The MP600 Mini arrives protected in packaging that looks like it can accommodate an M.2 2280 drive in the perpendicular position. No M.2 screw is provided, although this is not needed for most 2230 host devices.

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Like most other 2230 drives, the MP600 Mini comes as a single-sided design — that maximizes compatibility with 2230 host devices. It's rated for over 8W of peak power draw, though in practice it should not draw this much power. The 1TB we're testing comes rated for peak power of around 5.5W. The MP600 Mini has a similar layout to other M.2 2230 SSDs that we’ve tested, with a controller, a NAND flash package, and no DRAM. The new hardware however offers more performance than most other 2230 drives.

As noted already, the biggest change with the new MP600 Mini comes via the updated controller. Corsair is the first to offer an M.2 2230 drive using the Phison E27T, which we've tested elsewhere in the previously mentioned MP600 Elite, the recently reviewed Sabrent Rocket 4, and the Inland TN470. This controller has higher performance than the older E21T, which has been the most popular M.2 2230 controller so far.

The E27T also has the ability to use a higher bus speed with corresponding flash memory. That flash, in this case, is Kioxia’s BiCS6, which has proven to be power-efficient and relatively fast. More importantly, this is TLC and not QLC flash on the MP600 Mini, which makes the drive more attractive for those that want the very best performance.

For Steam Deck use, QLC should generally prove sufficient, but TLC should deliver superior performance once a drive begins to fill up. We've personally encountered plenty of laptop drives that start to feel horribly sluggish once they're nearly full, and with larger game installation sizes, that's a real concern.

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