Plextor Launches Budget M8V SATA SSDs
Subject: Storage | February 5, 2018 - 11:54 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: toshiba, ssd, SM2258, silicon motion, plextor, BiCS, 3d nand
Plextor is introducing a new SATA SSD option with its 2.5” M8VC and M.2 M8VG solid state drives. The M8V series pairs a Silicon Motion SM2258 controller with Toshiba’s 64-layer 3D TLC NAND (BICS flash) to deliver budget SSDs in 128 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB capacities. Plextor is using its own Plex Nitro firmware and includes SLC cache, system RAM cache support, Plex Compressor compression, 128-bit ECC and LDPC error correction, and hardware AES encryption. Plextor warranties its M8V series SSDs for three years.
Plextor’s new drives are limited by the SATA 6 Gbps interface and max out at 560 MB/s sequential reads. Sequential writes top out at 400 MB/s for the 128 GB model, 510 MB/s for the 256 GB model, and 520 MB/s for the 512 GB drive. Similarly, 4K random reads and 4K random writes scale up as you add more flash which is shown in the table below. The top-end 512 GB drive hits 82K 4K random read IOPS and 81K 4K random write IOPS. The 256 GB solid state drives are only slightly slower at 81K and 80K respectively. The 128 GB M8V SSDs do not appear to have enough flash channels to keep up with the larger capacity drives though as their performance maxes out at 60K random reads and 70K random writes.
| Plextor M8V Series | 128 GB | 256 GB | 512 GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sequential Reads | 560 MB/s | 560 MB/s | 560 MB/s |
| Sequential Writes | 400 MB/s | 510 MB/s | 520 MB/s |
| 4K Random Read IOPS | 60K | 81K | 82K |
| 4K Random Write IOPS | 70K | 80K | 81K |
| Endurance | 70 TBW | 140 TBW | 280 TBW |
| DWPD | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| MTBF (hours) | 1.5 Million | 1.5 Million | 1.5 Million |
Plextor rates the M8V series at 0.5 DWPD (drive writes per day) and write endurance of 70 TB for the 128 GB, 140 TB for the 256 GB, and 280 TB for the 512 GB model. Plextor rates them at 1.5 million hours MTBF. These numbers aren’t too bad considering this is TLC flash and they are likely to get more life than the ratings (it’s just not guaranteed).
The SM2258 controller appears to be fairly well established and has also been used by Adata, Mushkin, and others for their budget solid state drives. Plextor did not announced pricing or availability and in searching around online I was not able to find them for sale yet. Its previous S2C series (M7V replacement) SATA drives came in at just under 26 cents/gigabyte using the same SMI 2258 controller but with SK Hynix 16nm planar TLC flash though so I would expect the M8V to come in close to that if not better.
I just wish we could get a SATA 4 standard already to at least get consumer systems up to the 12 Gbps enterprise-oriented SAS can hit. While RAM and GPU shopping may make your wallet cry more than a Steam sale, at least it is a good time to be shopping for storage. What do you think about the influx of budget SSDs? Have you upgraded your family’s PCs to the magical performance of solid state storage yet?
Plextor's Upcoming M8Pe M.2 SSD Previewed at Computer Base
Subject: Storage | August 1, 2016 - 03:14 PM | Sebastian Peak
Tagged: M8PeG, ssd, solid state drive, preview, plextor, nand, M8Pe, M.2, CES 2016, M8PeY
Plextor announced their first M.2 SSD at CES 2016, and now the M8Pe series is officially set for a release this month. Computer Base (German language) had a chance to preview the new drive, and supplied a detailed look at the M.2 version (this is model M8PeG, and the version with a riser card is M8PeY).
The Plextor M8PeG SSD (Image credit: Computer Base)
Even the M.2 form-factor version of the SSD includes a heatsink, which Plextor warns creates incompatibility with notebooks as the M8PeG is 4.79 mm in height with the heatsink in place.
Specifications for the drives are as follows:
| Plextor M8PeG | Plextor M8PeY | |
|---|---|---|
| Controller | Marvell 88SS1093 (8-Channel) | |
| DRAM | 512MB LPDDR3 (1024MB variant) | |
| Capacity | 128 GB, 256 GB, 512 GB | |
| NAND | Toshiba 15nm Toggle 2.0 MLC | |
| Form Factor | M.2 (80 mm) | PCIe card (HH, HL) |
| Interface | PCIe 3.0 x4 | |
| Warranty | 5 years | |
So what did Computer Base have to report with their hands-on preview of the new drive? Here's their CrystalDiskMark result:
(Image credit: Computer Base)
Naturally we'll have to wait for a full-scale AllynReview™ to get a better idea of performance in all situations, but until then it's good to know we'll soon have another option to consider in the M.2 SSD market. As to pricing, we don't have anything just yet.
The M8Pe SSD lineup (Image credit: Computer Base)
Plextor to Introduce Company's First NVMe SSD at CES 2016, the M8Pe
Subject: Storage | December 28, 2015 - 04:44 PM | Sebastian Peak
Tagged: ssd, plextor, PCIe SSD, NVMe, M8Pe, M.2, CES 2016
Plextor is set to announce their first NVMe SSD at CES 2016, and the new M8Pe uses 4 lanes of PCIe 3.0 to provide up to 270,000 IOPS read and 150,000 IOPS write performance (4K random). Throughput numbers were not revealed.
Image credit: PC World
The drive is in the M.2 form factor though the image indicates it will include a PCIe adapter and heat sink.
"The new drives also feature Plextor’s specialty features, such as PlexTurbo RAM caching, compression technology for maximizing storage capacity, and PlexVault, which allows you to hide private data from others on a shared computer."
No details have been announced yet on capacity, release date, or (of course) pricing. We'll have to wait until CES to find out more.
Podcast #336 - GTX 960 Overlocking, Plextor M6e Black Edition, AMD R9 3xx Rumors and more!
Subject: General Tech | February 12, 2015 - 01:46 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: podcast, video, gtx 960, plextor, m6e black edition, M6e, r9 390, amd, radeon, nvidia, Silverstone, tegra, tx1, Tegra X1, corsair, H100i GTX, H80i GT
PC Perspective Podcast #336 - 02/12/2015
Join us this week as we discuss GTX 960 Overlocking, Plextor M6e Black Edition, AMD R9 3xx Rumors and more!
You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still access it directly through the RSS page HERE.
The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!
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Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Jeremy Hellstrom, Josh Walrath, and Allyn Malventano
Program length: 1:11:53
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Week in Review:
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News item of interest:
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0:46:10 NVIDIA Event on March 3rd. Why?
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Hardware/Software Picks of the Week:
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Closing/outro
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Introduction, Specifications and Packaging
Introduction:
Plextor launched their M6e PCIe SSD in mid-2014. This was the first consumer retail available native PCIe SSD. While previous solutions such as the OCZ RevoDrive bridged SATA SSD controllers to PCIe through a RAID or VCA device, the M6e went with a Marvell controller that could speak directly to the host system over a PCIe 2.0 x2 link. Since M.2 was not widely available at launch time, Plextor also made the M6e available with a half-height PCIe interposer, making for a painless upgrade for those on older non M.2 motherboards (which at that time was the vast majority).
With the M6e out for only a few months time (and in multiple versions), I was surprised to see Plextor launch an additonal version of it at the 2015 CES this past January. Announced alongside the upcoming M7e, the M6e Black Edition is essentially a pimped out version of the original M6e PCIe:
We left CES with a sample of the M6e Black, but had to divert our attention to a few other pressing issues shortly after. With all of that behind us, it's time to get back to cranking out the storage goodness, so let's get to it!
CES 2015: Plextor announces M7e
Subject: Storage, Shows and Expos | January 8, 2015 - 01:44 AM | Allyn Malventano
Tagged: plextor, pcie, NVMe, Marvell 88SS9293, M7e, M6e Black, M.2, CES 2014, CES
Today Plextor announced the successor to the M6e (that we reviewed here) - the M7e:
The M7e uses the same Marvell 88SS9293 that will be in Kingston's Hyperx Predator, and the performance is certainly impressive:
1.4GB/sec reads and 1.0GB/sec writes. Plextor's demo compared to an identical testbed running a Samsung XP941, and the M7e was faster in nearly every performance trait.
Next up is a bit of a gorgeous refresh to the M6e - the M6e Black Edition:
The above photo was taken HDR, so the Black Edition appears darker than in the above photo. This is basically a repackaging of the M6e, in a housing that should run much cooler. Plextor got a bit creative designing this one, and they even added a SATA power connector - an option for those who feel their motherboard may not be providing sufficient power over the PCIe connector. Here's an exploded diagram for your viewing pleasure:
Plextor also announced an update to their DRAM caching solution, dubbed PlexTurbo 2.0:
Cached speeds were certainly impressive here, showing a roughly 2x improvement over the initial release of their software.
The M7e does not launch until mid-2015, but the M6e Black Edition will be coming *much* sooner, and we will have a review of the latter up within the next few days.
Press blast for the M7e after the break.
PC Perspective's CES 2015 coverage is sponsored by Logitech.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
Introduction, Specifications and Packaging
Introduction:
In recent years, Plextor has branched beyond their renowned lines of optical storage devices, and into the realm of SSDs. They have done fairly well so far, treading carefully on their selection of controllers and form factors. Their most recent offerings include the M6S and M6M (reviewed here), and are based on Marvell controllers coupled with Toshiba flash. Given that the most recent Marvell controllers are also available in a PCIe variant, Plextor also chose to offer their M6 series in PCIe half height and M.2 form factor. These last two offerings are not simply SATA SSDs bridged over to PCIe, they are natively PCIe 2.0 x2 (1 GB/s), which gives a nice boost over the current SATA limit of 6Gb/sec (600 MB/sec). Today we are going to kill two birds with one stone by evaluating the half-height PCIe version:
As you can see, this is nothing more than the M.2 version on a Plextor branded interposer board. All results of this review should be identical to the bare M.2 unit plugged into a PCIe 2.0 x2 capable M.2 port on either a motherboard or mobile device. Note that those devices need to support the 2280 form factor, which is 80mm in length.
Here's the M.2 version installed on an ASUS X99-Deluxe, as tested by Morry.
Plextor's M.2 PCIe SSD, the M6e
Subject: Storage | June 17, 2014 - 06:48 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: plextor, Plextor M6e, M.2, PCIe SSD
The Plextor M6e M.2 SSD Series comes in 128, 256 and 512GB models and for those lacking a M.2 slot you can opt for the model below which ships with a PCIe 2.0 adapter for an additional $60. One caveat that Legit Reviews offers immediately is that for many models of motherboards you must manually enable the M.2 slot in the UEFI, otherwise your drive may not be detected. Once enabled properly and benchmarked the performance was found to be in line with the advertised speeds of 770MB/s sequential read and 580MB/s sequential write speeds for the 256GB version. It would seem that the SATA 6Gbs limitation can indeed be overcome but of course that was not enough for the crew at Legit Reviews, they picked up a second M6e and RAIDed them to reach 1408MB/s read and 1098MB/s write!
"Are you wanting to get beyond 550MB/s without having to do a RAID setup? Are you willing to try a new interface? Meet the Plextor M6e Series of PCI Express SSDs! Plextor is leading the charge for native PCIe SSDs and has come up with the first readily-available M.2 PCIe SSD on the consumer market. Other drives like the Samsung XP941 series have been around much longer, but they are OEM only and aren’t really meant for end users. Plextor has stepped up to the plate with a drive that had end user firmware updates, an impressive 5-year warranty and mouth watering speeds."
Here are some more Storage reviews from around the web:
- Crucial MX100 256GB SSD @ Custom PC Review
- Kingston SSDNow E100 200GB Solid-State Drive Review @ NikKTech
- SanDisk Extreme Pro SSD Review - Wicked Speed & 10 Year Warranty @ The SSD Review
- Crucial MX100 512GB @ eTeknix
- KingFast F8 240GB SSD Review @ Madshrimps
- Crucial MX100 @ The SSD Review
- Crucial M550 @ X-bit Reviews
- Samsung 840 Pro @ Benchmark Reviews
- Seagate Surveillance 3TB SATA III HDD Review @ NikKTech
- Thecus N2560 Network Attached Storage (NAS) Review @HiTech Legion
- The eTeknix Guide To Building Your Own NAS System For Under $220
- SanDisk Extreme Pro UHS-II Memory Card @ The SSD Review
- ADATA Premier Pro SDXC UHS-1 U3 Card @ The SSD Review
Podcast #304 - GeForce GTX TITAN Z, Core i7-4790K, Gigabyte Z97X-SOC Force and more!
Subject: Editorial | June 12, 2014 - 02:28 PM | Ken Addison
Tagged: Z97X-SOC Force, video, titan z, radeon, project tango, podcast, plextor, nvidia, Lightning, gtx titan z, gigabyte, geforce, E3 14, amd, 4790k, 290x
PC Perspective Podcast #304 - 06/12/2014
We have lots of reviews to talk about this week including the GeForce GTX TITAN Z, Core i7-4790K, Gigabyte Z97X-SOC Force, E3 News and more!
You can subscribe to us through iTunes and you can still access it directly through the RSS page HERE.
The URL for the podcast is: http://pcper.com/podcast - Share with your friends!
- iTunes - Subscribe to the podcast directly through the iTunes Store
- RSS - Subscribe through your regular RSS reader
- MP3 - Direct download link to the MP3 file
Hosts: Ryan Shrout, Josh Walrath, Jeremy Hellstrom and Allyn Maleventano
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Pimp Next Week Events
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0:01:15 PCPer Live! Interview with AMD's Richard Huddy June 17th, 4pm ET / 1pm PT
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0:03:45 Podcast #305 with David Hewlett!
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Week in Review:
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News items of interest:
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Hardware/Software Picks of the Week:
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0:57:40 Ryan: Ken's Switching Hardware
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0:59:356 Jeremy: I started to loathe my other devices for still requiring lewd USB penetration
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1:02:15 Josh: This saved me last weekend.
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1:04:00 Allyn: Sony DSC-RX10
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- Closing/outro
Subscribe to the PC Perspective YouTube Channel for more videos, reviews and podcasts!!
Introduction, Specifications and Packaging
Introduction:
You might not expect it from who was originally an optical drive company, but Plextor has been cranking out SSDs for a while now. We will be taking a look at the recent wave of releases from Plextor, starting with the M6M:
This SSD contains the same Marvell 88SS9188 controller seen in the Crucial M550, MX100, and ADATA SP920 SSDs, but with additional firmware tweaks claimed by Plextor.
Let's dive right in. Read on for our full review!
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