The Corsair Force MP510 SSD (960GB) Review: A High-End Contender

Conclusion

The Corsair Force Series MP510 is not the fastest drive we've tested, but it offers competitive high-end performance on almost every test in our suite, and sets a few records of its own. The MP510 returns top notch scores across all of our ATSB tests that replicate real-world I/O patterns, and the comparative weaknesses where the MP510 doesn't impress is mostly in the synthetic tests that are least relevant to everyday real world use. The closest the MP510 comes to mediocrity on a performance test is its random read scores, but even here it scores very well on the short burst QD1 test and only falls below par on the longer sustained random read test that is much less representative of typical client computing usage.

The power efficiency is above average for NVMe SSDs, but doesn't quite match the Toshiba XG series and the WD Black, both of which use the same NAND with different controllers. The idle power management is effective and trouble-free on our testbed, a welcome surprise for a drive using a Phison NVMe controller.

Overall, the Corsair Force MP510 shows that the Phison E12 controller paired with Toshiba's 64-layer 3D TLC NAND is a winning combination that is well-equipped to compete against any other high-end SSD on the market. It's a very well-rounded product that doesn't make any severe sacrifices in pursuit of higher benchmark numbers. After Phison's first-generation E7 NVMe SSD controller (used in the Corsair Force MP500) failed to deliver competitive high-end performance, it's great to see this generation produce such a strong competitor. Phison E7 drives with planar MLC NAND are barely able to compete with today's entry-level TLC and QLC NVMe SSDs, and the new Phison E12 is in an entirely different league.

There's still room for improvement with the E12 SSD controller, and Phison will undoubtedly keep refining their firmware long after the hardware has shipped, as they have done for previous controllers. We've heard that Phison is working to address at least one performance problem that our test suite does not expose. This is not to suggest that the E12 platform is immature—it is definitely ready to be on the shelves and entering consumer desktops and notebooks. Not every brand that sells Phison-based SSDs bothers to support them by delivering firmware updates after release, but Corsair's SSD Toolbox software takes care of that.

Every brand in the consumer SSD market now has access to the ingredients for a good high-end NVMe drive. Great controllers are no longer the exclusive territory of giants like Samsung, as even smaller brands can make use of reference designs from Phison and Silicon Motion. Corsair is not the first to bring a Phison E12 drive to market, but they are a bit ahead of the coming deluge of E12-based SSDs. The MP510 will face the most fiercely competitive high-end SSD segment the market has seen since the introduction of PCIe SSDs. Corsair has never been known for being particularly aggressive with their SSD pricing but their introductory MSRPs for the MP510 are actually slightly better than the MyDigitalSSD BPX Pro, another Phison E12 SSD from a vendor that is known for very competitive pricing. NAND flash prices are still dropping so the price landscape today is likely very different from what we'll see in the holiday sales starting next month, but at the moment the Corsair Force MP510 seems like a pretty good deal for a high-end NVMe SSD.