Corsair recently released a new PCIe 5.0 gaming SSD that doesn’t have an intimidating price tag on it. New Corsair MP700 Elite it still has high speeds of up to 10,000MB/s, but at MSRP a 1TB drive costs just $144.99, meaning PCIe 5.0 drives are now finally coming down in price.

That’s already $35 cheaper than this drive’s more powerful sibling. Corsair MP700 ProHas a place in our guide best gaming SSDand in our experience, SSDs regularly sell for less than their MSRP. So what do you lose by going cheap? Pirate to spread?

Corsair MP700 Elite features

These are the Corsair MP700 Elite specifications:

The main answer here is performance, but this is still a very fast ride. Corsair says that the sequential read speed of the new MP700 Elite reaches a nice 10,000 MB/s, while the sequential write speed reaches 8,500 MB/s. Comparatively, the MP700 Pro can read and write at speeds of 12.00 MB/s and 11,800 MB/s respectively, but the MP700 Elite’s speeds are still a significant step up from PCIe 4.0 drives. WD Black SN850X.

Besides the cheaper price, another key benefit of these lower performance speeds is their operating temperatures. While the MP700 Pro has a water block and actively cooled heatsink and fan assembly options, Corsair is confident that the MP700 Elite can be kept under control with a relatively modest cooler.

Choosing the cooler-equipped version only adds another $5 to the cost, or you can buy the drive without a cooler and rely on a PCIe 5.0-capable cooler from your motherboard. Note that you will need 4x PCIe 5.0 2280 M.2 slots to run this drive at full speed. It will still run on PCIe 4.0 motherboards, but you won’t get more than 7,500 MB/s.

The new drive is based on high-density 3D TLC (tri-level cell) NAND flash memory and the new 7nm Phison PS5031-E31T controller. You also get a five-year warranty with the drive, and Corsair says the 1TB drive has an endurance rating of 600TBW (terabytes written), but the 2TB drive is even more durable with a whopping 1,200TBW rating.

Corsair promises that the new MP700 Elite will bring you “faster boot times” and “faster game loads,” but in our testing we found that the main benefits of PCIe 5.0 drives are only seen in large-scale file transfers with minimal data transfer. Impact on game loading times.

Corsair MP700 Elite price $144.99 for a 1TB drive without a cooler and $254.99 for a 2TB drive. This is cheap for a PCIe 5.0 drive, but there are often good deals on other drives. For example, faster 1TB Important T705 currently $239.99 only $154.99 It’s on Amazon and would be a better buy at this price. But at MSRP we hope the Corsair MP700 Elite will set a trend for cheaper, faster SSDs.

If you’re considering upgrading your storage, check out our guide at: How to install SSDWe guide you step by step through the entire process.