Corsair SSD SP510
A force to be reckoned with.
Corsair’s Force series SSD line has a strong lineage tracing back to 2010. Having gone through multiple controllers, NAND types, and recently evolving from strictly SATA to the PCIe interface with multiple form factors, Corsair’s decisions and products have been on the leading-edge year after year, getting better every step of the way.
Today, that history is what drives the company’s latest SSD, the Force MP510. With a blacked-out PCB, Phison’s E12 controller, and Toshiba’s BiCS3 TLC NAND flash, the MP510 looks good--and brings the performance to match. The drive is flat-out fast, rated up to 3,480/3,000MB/s of read/ write throughput. And to top things off, it comes with a longer warranty, greater endurance, and cheaper pricing than its predecessor.
Corsair’s Force MP510 is a refresh of the Force MP500 series that brings with it some much-welcomed improvements. Released back at the beginning of February 2017, the MP500 featured Phison’s E7 controller and Toshiba’s 15nm MLC NAND flash. Together, this rather popular combination delivered good performance, but Corsair’s premium pricing kept it out of the hands of many and left it rather uncompetitive. The company is looking to change that with the new MP510.
Continuing its relationship with Phison and Toshiba, Corsair has replaced the MP500’s components with the latest offerings from those two companies. It utilises Toshiba’s 64L 3D TLC NAND flash and Phison’s latest (and highest performance) SSD controller, the PS5012-E12. Many technologies are built into this controller, including StrongECC, SmartRefesh, and SmartFlush.
The Corsair Force MP510 features a five-year warranty, an appreciated upgrade from the previousgen MP500’s three-year warranty. The MP510 smashes even the Samsung 970 Pro’s endurance figures. But while the Corsair drive is essentially the same drive internally as the MyDigitalSSD BPX Pro, Corsair rates its endurance figures a bit higher. At 1.7PB for the 960GB model, the endurance is almost three times that of the Samsung 970 EVO and the WD Black. To put it into perspective, the MP510’s endurance rating at over eight times higher than the Intel SSD 660p!
Corsair’s Force MP510 nearly matches the BPX Pro in Crystal Disk Mark. It tied for second place in sequential reads and landed in first place in sequential writes at QD32. When backing down to QD1, it ranked third, just behind the BPX Pro and Samsung 970 EVO, but then again came in second during sequential writes.
Random performance of 50/169MB/s nearly matches the BPX Pro again, but the MP510 ranked 4th in performance overall. From QD1-8, the MP510 delivers respectable results. It has pool-leading write performance, but read performance is just average.
Corsair revitalises its Force MP500 series with an infusion of the latest components. The Force is indeed strong with this one. Utilising Phison’s new E12 controller and Toshiba’s BiCS3 64L TLC NAND flash, the Force MP510 is a much-welcomed successor that brings more value to the table and the best endurance rating from any consumer SSD we have seen yet. With over 1.7PB (yes, that’s nearly two petabytes of endurance), the MP510 is a workhorse that’s designed to keep on going and going.