Corsair MP600 Mini 1TB PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe M.2 2230

7,000 MB/s read in a 2230 drive is the best you're going to get right now. 600 TBW endurance and a 5-year warranty mean it'll outlast whatever device you put it in. Just don't pay more than $200 for it, the price spread on this thing is ridiculous.

7,000 MB/s sequential read and 6,200 MB/s write. That's the headline, and it's a big one for a 2230 drive. The PS5027-E27T controller is a newer DRAM-less design that squeezes Gen4 bandwidth out of a tiny PCB without melting your handheld. Random performance is more middle of the pack at the 62nd percentile, so don't expect it to hang with full-size drives in heavy mixed workloads. But for game loads, OS boots, and file transfers on a Steam Deck or Surface, it's going to feel dramatically faster than the stock drive.

Endurance is a genuine strength here. 600 TBW at the 83rd percentile means you can write about 328 GB a day for five years before hitting the warranty limit. Most people won't come close. The 5-year warranty matches what you'd get on Corsair's full-size drives, which is reassuring for something going into a device you'll probably keep for a while.

Against the Samsung 990 PRO and Crucial T500, the MP600 Mini gives up some random performance and capacity headroom. Those full-size drives hit 2TB and 4TB options with better sustained write speeds. But they won't fit in a Steam Deck or Surface, and that's the whole point. The Kingston Fury Renegade and WD_BLACK SN8100 are similarly stuck in the 2280 world. For 2230 specifically, the MP600 Mini's 7,000 MB/s read is ahead of most alternatives, and the 600 TBW endurance beats what you typically see from smaller drives. You're paying a form factor tax, but you're getting the best version of this form factor.

Pricing is all over the place. US listings range from $175 to $414, which is a $239 spread for the exact same drive. That's absurd. At $175, this is a solid deal for a 1TB Gen4 2230 drive with this endurance rating. At $414, you're paying full-size 2TB Gen4 money for half the capacity. Shop around before you buy, and don't just grab the first listing you see. The CAD listing at $955 is a different market entirely, but it's worth noting the drive commands a premium everywhere.

The Corsair MP600 Mini hits 7,000 MB/s read and 6,200 MB/s write in a drive the size of a stick of gum. That puts it in the 82nd percentile for speed in our database, which is wild for an M.2 2230 form factor. Most drives this small used to top out around half that. If you're upgrading a Steam Deck, Surface, or any thin device that only accepts 2230 drives, this is basically the ceiling right now.

Endurance lands at the 83rd percentile with 600 TBW, backed by a 5-year warranty. The PS5027-E27T controller and TLC NAND keep things snappy without the heat and power draw of a full-size Gen4 drive. User sentiment sits at 78th percentile, and the 4.5-star rating across 10 reviews backs that up. No real complaints from owners so far, just a lot of happy handheld gamers.

If you're building a desktop or upgrading a laptop with a full-size M.2 slot, skip this. The random performance at the 62nd percentile is nothing special, and you can get a 2TB Samsung 990 PRO or Crucial T500 for around the same money as the higher end of this drive's price range. The 1TB capacity cap also stings if you're a game hoarder. This is a specialist drive for 2230-only devices, and if that's not you, there are better options.

The MP600 Mini is the drive to buy if you need 2230 and you want the fastest thing that fits. The 7,000 MB/s read speed and 600 TBW endurance put it near the top of our database for this category, and the 4.5-star user rating with zero reported issues is exactly what you want from a storage upgrade. The only real knock is price, and that's a market problem, not a product problem. Find it under $200 and it's an easy recommendation.