What's the difference between the MP600 ELITE, CORE, GS, PRO, PRO NH, and PRO LPX?

If you're in the market to upgrade your storage, CORSAIR has you covered. We have plenty of SSDs to choose from.

It can be a little baffling to be presented with so much choice, but there are reasons we have such a wide range of drives: to make sure you get the right SSD for your needs. Unsurprisingly price is a factor, but so is how the drives are intended to be used (laptop, desktop, handheld, or ultra-compact), underlying performance, and the cooling mechanism you have in mind.

There's the PCIe generation to consider too—PCIe 3.0, PCIe 4.0, or more recently, PCIe 5.0. Our PCIe 4.0 drives are available under the MP600 moniker and offer sequential throughput up to 7,100MB/s reads and 6,800MB/s writes. The newer PCIe 5.0 generation use the MP700 name and can hit over 10,000MB/s reads and writes, although make sure your motherboard supports the latest standard if you want to reach such numbers.

Now that's all been said, here's a quick rundown of what the different drives we have available offer and which ones you should be looking at for your next upgrade.

At the top of the pile is the MP600 PRO, our fastest PCIe 4.0 (Gen 4) M.2 NVMe SSD.

There are a few MP600 PRO drives to pick from, each aimed at slightly different markets. The MP600 PRO NH for instance doesn't ship with a heatspreader and should be used with your motherboards cooling to keep it running optimally, while the MP600 PRO LPX has a low-profile heatspreader designed to fit snuggly inside the Sony PS5 (it works fine in desktop PC too.) The MP600 PRO XT has a slightly larger heatsink and is designed for use in desktop PCs.

The MP600 ELITE lineup is the latest addition to our PCIe 4.0 family of drives, offering competitive performance and a range of cooling options at an attractive price point. The performance on offer isn't far behind the aforementioned MP600 PRO drives, with sequential reads and write hitting up to 7,000MB/s and 6,500MB/s respectively. At launch the MP600 ELITE family is available as 1TB and 2TB capacities, with the 4TB models coming very shortly.

You can grab a drive with a heatsink in the form of the MP600 ELITE with Heatspreader, or you can go for the base model without any additional cooling with the 2TB MP600 ELITE. There's also a white heatspreader version specifically for Sony's latest console in the form of the MP600 ELITE for PS5.

If you're looking to upgrade the SSD in your laptop or mainstream desktop, then the MP600 GS is a consideration. The MP600 GS is a cost-effective TLC option designed with more constrained cooling min mind. It may not hit the performance highs of the MP600 PRO range but will still serve you well in day-to-day operations. The fact that it is more affordable than the MP600 PRO range makes it a tempting option for those on a tighter budget too.

If value for money is your key consideration, then our CORE and CORE XT range of SSDs is the best option.

The MP600 CORE XT uses QLC memory to offer the best capacity per dollar of any of our drives. This is the best option if you're looking to boost capacity on a tight budget and performance isn't quite so important. It still performs well and represents a huge boost over previous-generation SSDs and SATA drives but doesn't offer the raw throughput of the MP600 GS or range of MP600 PRO drives. Again, this is a drive aimed at desktop and laptops.

The M.2 NVMe SSD market is still evolving. This relatively new form of storage is finding it way into all sorts of devices and use cases, which means that while there are plenty of general use SSDs to pick from, there are some that are very specific to certain applications.

The MP600 MINI is a case in point: while you can potentially use this in pretty much any motherboard, laptop, or machine (provided it supports the M.2 2230 form factor), this is a drive specifically designed with handheld gaming machines and ultra compact PCs in mind. The likes of the Valve Steam Deck, ASUS ROG Ally, and Microsoft Surface Pro can all benefit from additional storage offered by the MP600 MINI.

Whatever device your looking to upgrade, you'll find CORSAIR has an SSD to suit. Check out the full range of M.2 NVMe SSDs for more information and options.