By: Jonathan Kwan
March 15, 2024
Recently, Shell had a 40x Air Miles promotion when you fill up. For those who are unfamiliar with how it works, Shell awards you one Air Mile for every 20L of regular gas, and one Air Mile is worth about $0.10. However, when you count points in increments of 20L, you can potentially lose quite a bit under the 40x promotion. For example, in an extreme case, if you fill up 19.999L, you will get zero miles, while adding 0.001L to that will net you just over $4 in points. I was thinking how to maximize this promotion as we had two cars in the house that I needed to fill, and filling them separately means I can potentially lose up to $8 worth up to Air Miles if I miss the increments on both cars. Without resorting to fuel containers, filling them at the same time could be a challenge even with two drivers, as the closest Shell to my house is not the cheapest Shell in the area, and it costs money to drive to the gas station. Furthermore, it is physically challenging to fill up two cars in one transaction, as one person needs to pump gas while the other needs to shuffle the two cars between fill ups. After thinking about it for a while, I figured out a solution. On the last day of the promotion, my wife and I were both passing by the cheapest Shell in the area at the same time, so that solved the first problem. To solve the second problem, we parked on opposite sides of the pump, so the hose is long enough to reach both cars without moving any of them. As luck would have had it, we netted 80.037L in one transaction, hitting the increments perfectly and scoring a solid $16 worth of Air Miles. As it can be seen, small modifications in the right areas can result in significant results. Last year, we reviewed the MP600 Core XT 2TB, a budget SSD from Corsair. Today, we have the MP600 Elite 2TB, which has the same DRAM-less design, but if you take a closer look, you will see the Elite uses a faster Phison controller and upgraded flash memory. Are these modifications in the right areas that will result in significant performance differences? Read on to find out!
Our review unit of the Corsair MP600 Elite 2TB arrived in a small brown corrugated cardboard box from FedEx's supply chain management system in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. Using the FedEx Express service, everything arrived in excellent condition to us here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for our review today.
The retail packaging of the Corsair MP600 Elite 2TB is immediately recognizable to anyone who has seen products from the company in the last little while. It uses the same template as the MP600 Core XT 2TB my colleague Jonah reviewed last year. The predominantly yellow color scheme is complemented by black strips on the side, contrasted by the white text on the darker shades and black text on the lighter shades. A photo shot from three-quarter view of the SSD occupies the majority of the real estate in front. At the top, you will find Corsair's logo. The model name and description of the drive is printed underneath it. At the bottom is an array of feature highlights, indicating its 7000MB/s maximum read speed, 6500MB/s maximum write speed, and 2TB capacity. The NVMe logo can be found at the bottom right corner. Further information in various languages can be found on the back of the box.
Before we move on, let us take a look at the specifications of the Corsair MP600 Elite 2TB, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
Storage Form Factor: M.2 2280
Heatsink Color: BLACK
Heatsink: Aluminum
SSD Max Sequential Read CDM: Up to 7000MB/s
SSD Max Sequential Write CDM: Up to 6500MB/s
Max Random Read QD32 IOMeter: Up to 1.0M
SSD Smart Support: Yes
NAND Technology: 3D TLC
Storage Temperature: -40°C to +85°C
Endurance: 1200TBW
Storage Humidity: 93% RH (40° C)
SSD Package Contents: MP600 ELITE M.2 SSD
SSD Operating Temperature: 0°C to +65°C
SSD Shock: 1,500 G
Form Factor: M.2 2280
SSD Compatibility: M.2 2280 Interface Connector Windows 11, Windows 10, Mac OS X
Voltage: 3.3V, +/- 5%
Vibration: 20Hz~80Hz/1.52mm, 80Hz~2000Hz/20G
DEVSLP: PS4: <5mW
Encryption: AES 256-bit Encryption
Max Random Write QD32 IOMeter: Up to 1.2M
Power Consumption Active: 5.7W Average
MTBF Hours: 1,500,000 hours
SSD TBW: 1200
Capacity: 2TB
Interface: PCIE 4x4
Weight: 0.063
Opening the box reveals the Corsair MP600 Elite 2TB itself placed on a brown cardboard tray. There is also a QR code that points you to the company's website for the manual as well as a safety and compliance information booklet. Everything looks very recyclable, and waste is kept to a minimum, which is awesome. This is it -- out of the box, you will get nothing more than what you need.
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look, Test System
3. Benchmark: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark
4. Benchmark: ATTO Disk Benchmark
5. Benchmark: Crystal Disk Mark 8.0
6. Benchmark: HD Tune Pro 5.70
7. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 10
8. Benchmark: PCMark 10
9. Benchmark: 3DMark
10. Conclusion
