INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   As we've pointed out quite a few times in the past although SATA III 2.5" and M.2 SSDs (Solid State Drives) are leading the mainstream market in terms of sales thanks to their impressive read and write performance numbers M.2 NVMe SSDs have taken over (with relatively ease for that matter) the high and ultra-high end segments of the market. Solely from a performance standpoint this of course is well justified since there are currently quite a few M.2 NVMe models can surpass 2500MB/s whereas SATA III 2.5" and M.2 models are limited to around 550-600MB/s (and in many cases performance is quite lower than that). Some M.2 NVMe SSD's however are raising the bar even higher by surpassing the 3000MB/s mark and the just now released Force Series MP510 model by CORSAIR is among them.

    Founded in 1994, CORSAIR supplies high-performance products purchased primarily by PC gaming enthusiasts who build their own PCs or buy pre-assembled customized systems. The company's award-winning products include DDR3 and DDR4 memory upgrades, computer cases, PC cooling products, gaming headsets, gaming keyboards, gaming mice, power supply units, USB flash drives, solid-state drives and system monitoring and control devices.

    For the brand new Force Series MP510 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (available in 240/480/960/1920GB capacities - however the 960GB model was launched first) CORSAIR has paired the latest high performance controller by Phison (PS5012-E12 / Gen3x4 NVMe 1.3 interface) with Toshiba 64-layer BiCS3 3D TLC NAND flash and 1GB DDR4 SDRAM by SKhynix (this combination offers performance of up to 3480MB/s read and 3000MB/s write). The Phison PS5012-E12 controller features a total of eight NAND channels with 32 CE targets, supports up to 8TB of NAND and packs several interesting features aimed at both high performance and reliability including as StrongECC (reconstructs defective/faulty pages when regular ECC fails), SmartRefresh (monitors block ECC health status and refreshes blocks periodically to improve data retention), SmartFlush (minimizes time data spends in cache to ensure data retention in the event of power loss), end-to-end data protection, thermal monitoring, AES-256 encryption and TCG Pyrite/OPAL support (however support for Windows Bitlocker/eDrive is not yet implemented). CORSAIR covers the entire Force MP510 line with a 5-year limited warranty and reports endurance numbers of 400TBW for the 240GB model, 800TBW for the 480GB model, 1700TBW for the 960GB model and 3120TBW for the 1920GB model.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CORSAIR ships the latest Force Series MP510 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD inside a small black box that has a product picture at the front along with the advertised read and write performance numbers.

 

 

A quick product description is printed at the rear in 6 languages.

 

Just a warranty paper (for Australian customers) is placed in the bundle along with the drive itself.

 

 

THE FORCE SERIES MP510 960GB

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although the Force Series MP510 follows the standard M.2 2280 form factor it's a double sided model meaning it has NAND modules on both sides of the PCB.

 

 

On the top side we find two Toshiba 64-layer BiCS3 3D TLC NAND flash modules (256GB in size each), the Phison PS5012-E12 controller and 512MB of DDR4 SDRAM by SKhynix.

 

 

Two more Toshiba 64-layer BiCS3 3D TLC NAND flash modules and another 512MB DDR4 SDRAM module by SKhynix are placed on the bottom side of the PCB.

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

   After almost 10 years of testing solid state drives we've concluded that it's almost impossible for any single benchmark suite to accurately measure their performance and that's why in certain benchmark suites we see amazing read/write performance numbers with some drives while in others things are quite different. The reason behind this is that some benchmarking suites are configured to read and write random chunks of data while others read and write constant (sequential) ones. So that's why i always use a very wide selection of benchmarking suites including AIDA64, HD Tach RW, HD Tune Pro, Crystal Disk Mark, Sisoftware Sandra Pro, AS SSD, IOmeter and ATTO. To get the most accurate results each test gets repeated a total of 6 times with the average performance numbers recorded into our charts. Also as of February 25th 2015 our results will also include the Storage Networking Industry Association’s (SNIA) IOMeter tests. These tests include a 12 Hour write test used to “simulate” performance degradation over time and a mixed workload test which basically shows what you can expect when using an SSD continuously for roughly two hours. Unfortunately due to the time required for these tests we repeat them a total of 3 times and not 6 as the above.

   Many people have made inquiries about our charts in the past so once again please do keep in mind that the Charts have the average performance numbers of each drive recorded and not the peak (highest) ones. Also although every single one of these programs can help potential buyers choose the right drive for their needs you should also remember that from any kind of benchmark up to real world usage the gap is not small (and usually most differences will go unnoticed by most people). All tests were performed in a fresh Windows 10 Pro x64 installation with every update installed up to October 13th 2018.

 

 

TEST RESULTS - AIDA64 / ATTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - HD TACH RW / HD TUNE PRO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS - SISOFTWARE SANDRA PRO / CRYSTAL DISK MARK X64

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – AS SSD / IOMETER

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEST RESULTS – IOMETER SNIA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   One thing’s crystal clear after testing the Force Series MP510 960GB NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD by CORSAIR and that’s that it’s the fastest SSD to ever make it to our lab by a large margin. Of course the MP510 may not be the fastest NVMe model in the market today but with performance numbers hitting and surpassing 3000MB/s in both reads and writes there’s nothing to be gained by going even higher, at least not for the vast majority of its potential target audience. Once again however thermal throttling is quite evident in our SNIA IOMeter charts and since this is neither expensive nor hard to resolve (just grab an high quality M.2 heatsink from our friends at EKWB – or any manufacturer for that matter) that’s also why to date we can’t figure out why that’s not something done directly from SSD manufacturers. Finally the 5 year warranty coupled with the impressive endurance numbers reported by CORSAIR are two extra significant reasons behind the why you choose the Force Series MP510 over competing products.

   Price is the 4^th reason you should grab yourself a Force Series MP510 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD (after performance, endurance and warranty) since according to CORSAIR the 240GB model will retail for USD69.99/74.99Euros, 480GB model for USD129.99/139Euros, 960GB model for USD249.99/259.99Euros and finally the 1920GB model for USD499.99/519.99Euros. Of course we expect the competition to drop prices in order to compete with the MP510 (besides the margins are not that large to begin with) but there’s still endurance, warranty and of course performance. Bottom line you simply can’t go wrong with the brand new Force Series MP510 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD by CORSAIR and since it ticks every single box we hoped it would (minus the thermal throttling issue which stands true for every NVMe drive out there) it deserves our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Top Of The Charts Performance (Up To 3480MB/s Read & 3000MB/s Write)
- Sustained Performance Levels (SNIA Tests)
- Endurance Numbers (1700TBW For The 960GB Model)
- CORSAIR SSD Toolbox Software (Available Settings)
- 5 Years Warranty
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Thermal Throttling