Corsair Unveils A Tiny And Fast SSD To Supercharge Your Steam Deck And SFF Gaming PC

Give credit to Valve and its popular Steam Deck handheld for helping push demand for smaller solid state drive (SSD) options in the M.2 2230 form factor. Helping to meet that growing demand is Corsair with its brand-spanking-new MP600 Mini, an ultra-compact NVMe SSD with respectable speed ratings to give your Steam Deck or small form factor (SFF) gaming PC a boost. In addition., Corsair is rolling out a version in the more traditional M.2 2280 form factor, which it has dubbed the MP600 Core XT.

Corsair's MP600 Mini is arguably the more interesting of the two, considering there are fewer high-speed options in the in the M.2 2230 form factor. Those numbers, by the way, denote the physical size of the SSD. Full-size M.2 2280 SSDs measure 22mm x 80mm, roughly the size of a stick of bubble gum, while M.2 2230 models measure 22mm by 30mm.


"The MP600 Mini is compatible with popular handheld gaming systems, such as the Valve Steam Deck, as well as thin and light machines where space is at a premium, such as the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 and 9," Corsair explains.

Both the MP600 Mini and MP600 Core XT are PCIe Gen 4 models, though the specs are not identical. Starting with the former, Corsair is offering just one capacity for its miniature SSD, that being 1TB. It leverages 3D triple-level cell (TLC) NAND flash memory chips and is rated to deliver up to 4,800MB/s of sequential read and write speeds. Random 4K reads and writes are rated at up to 1.1 million IOPS and 850,000 IOPS, respectively.

As for durability, the MP600 Mini carries an endurance rating of 600 terabytes written (TBW) and a mean time before failure (MTBF) rating of 1.5 million hours. Corsair backs the drive with a five-year warranty.


Moving on to the larger MP600 Core XT, this one utilizes quad-level cell (QLC) NAND chips and is available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities. It's also a little bit faster in some areas, at least for sequential reads and writes. Oddly enough, Corsair hasn't disclosed 4K random reads and writes for this model.

Speed ratings vary by model. The 1TB SKU is rated to deliver up to 5,000MB/s of sequential reads and 3,500MB/s of sequential writes, with a 250TBW endurance rating. Meanwhile, the 2TB and 4TB models offer the same 5,000MB/s sequential read speed while boosting the write speed to 4,400MB/s, along with a 450TBW (2TB) and 900TBW (4TB) endurance ratings.

The 1TB MP600 Mini is available now for $109.99 (~$0.11 per GB) direct from Corsair. Pricing per gigabyte on the MP600 Core XT is considerably cheaper with the 1TB model going for $59.99 (~$0.06 per GB), the 2TB model for $114.99 (~$0.06 per GB), and the 4TB model for $284.99 (~$0.07 per GB).