Corsair today announced immediate availability of what it says are its fastest ever PCIe SSDs. The Corsair Force Series MP500 M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD range employ Phison PS5007-E7 NVMe controllers and PCIe Gen. 3 x4 M.2 2280 interfaces to achieve performance stats up to five times faster than traditional SATA 6Gbps SSDs.
The new ultra-compact M.2 2280 form factor drives are being made available in capacities of 120GB, 240GB and 480GB to begin with. Headline performance claims from Corsair are that the Force Series MP500 can achieve read speeds of up to 3,000MB/s, write speeds of up 2,400MB/s, and up to 250K IOPS (performance figures vary with the capacity tested, see full specs in table below).
For data integrity and security Corsair has implemented a number of technologies which include; proprietary SmartECC, SmartRefresh and SmartFlush tech, plus static and dynamic wear-levelling enhance drive reliability. Furthermore, enhanced error correction improves data retention, and advanced garbage collection is supported by the firmware. Corsair says that the hardware features a toughened contact surface material for better contact to the motherboard socket and vibration resistance.
Users can monitor drive health and securely clean and wipe these drives with the usual free Corsair SSD Tool box software (Windows). Though you won't be able to run the Tool box software these drives are also compatible with your Mac OS X and Linux systems, with no special driver or administrative rights required.
As mentioned in the intro, Corsair's Force Series MP500 drives are immediately available; just look on from Corsair direct and at the the usual retailer outlets. UK RRPs are £119.99 for the CSSD-F120GBMP500, £184.99 for the CSSD-F240GBMP500, and £349.99 for the CSSD-F480GBMP500. Buyers receive a three year warranty.
