Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

Much like everybody Plextor needs to inject a value SSD that offers strong read performance and, within that range, the ability to forfeit on write performance for the 128 GB and 256GB models. In that respect the product series is a success as read performance wise this product can easily keep up the competition. And if you use your PC or laptop in a normal fashion like for the internet and gaming, these SSDs will still be plenty fast. Write performance in several segments however is bad for the 128GB model. The 256GB model is a nice starting number otherwise, at say 350 MB/sec I think it offers good enough performance. The 512GB model will even write at roughly 480 MB/sec. The IOPS performance was excellent, 70~80K on 4K random aligned reads and writes. Our trace testing shows impressive results as well, but out trace is targeted at reads. This is a trace test and can emulate what you guys do on your PC with spicy workloads focused on reads mostly. Sequential and sustained writes hover at 300 MB/sec which is plenty fast, meaning copying an ISO or MKV file will drop down to values at say 200~300 MB/sec. 

Performance and Endurance

Performance and features wise the SSD series is pretty good, not fast in writes for the 128GB and 256GB model though, but consistent and good enough starting at the 256GB model. Endurance wise we can't say much, Plextor has not publicly released any info on number of writes that are guaranteed hence it remains very difficult to predict a lifespan. it should be fine though. After asking we got a guaranteed 40 GB per day for three years under warranty. So that is 40GB x 365 x 3 = 43.8 TB written. But we all know these drives last so much longer endurance wise.

The M6V will also get support for TurboCache, basically you can use a chunk of system memory as extra cache buffer from which most frequent data is read. Unfortunately Plextor does not provide the software with the SSD bundle, they also did not email the software to us and the 2.2 version online at their website was not compatible with this SSD. It seems that next month revision 3.0 of the software will be released and that version will be compatible. If you want to download the software from their website, you'll need to give Plextor a valid email address on which you will receive a download link. Entering emails information for a download on a product you purchased, that is rather annoying. 

Overall SSD Usage

An SSD is enjoyable, very much so. If you put a drive like this into your SATA 3 compatible laptop or SATA 3 compatible PC, you'll have no idea what is about to hit you. We very much enjoy the grand sustained performance of this SSD series. Make no mistake, replacing an HDD with an SSD in your desktop PC or laptop eliminates the random access lag of the HDD head, it is no longer mechanical. That, combined with the performance SATA 3 offers these days, is simply a massive difference and probably the best upgrade you can make for your computer anno 2015.

SATA Controllers

Some overall recommendations then. Should you be in the market for a SATA 3 SSD then we have a couple of hints though. First and foremost if you have a SATA 2 controller only on your motherboard, then you'll get limited at roughly 270 MB/sec read and writes. SATA 3 (6Gbps) will free you up from that allowing the SSD to perform in the 500 MB/sec range. It is however important that you connect your SSD to the proper controller. We absolutely prefer the performance of the Intel Series 6 and 7 (H67/P67/Z68/Z77/H77/Z87/X79/H97/Z97/X99) integrated SATA 6G controller over anything else available in the market. If you run the SSD from a 3rd party controller like say a Marvell 6G controller, you will see lower performance. The new AMD 85X chipsets also offer fantastic performance. The more recent Asmedia controllers we spotted lately on motherboards also offer good performance, albeit still 20% ~ 25% slower than Intel's controllers. Also make sure you run your drive in AHCI mode, it does make such a difference in performance, a big difference.

Concluding

Performance wise the M6V sits where it needs to be aside from that 128GB model with pretty rubbish advertisied write speeds, face it the 128GB SSD era is over and everybody is buying a 256GB or higher capacity drive anyway. Starting at that value we can't really complain about performance, and if you go for a 512GB model then the write performance even becomes excellent. So the higher the volume size of the SSD, the better write performance will get. Trace read tests show that under normal workloads the performance is really good. Product positioning wise things work out OK overall. We can't really comment on endurance, as Plextor has not released any specs on that, so this drive is guaranteed for 3 years, but not combined with a number of host writes, I dunno .. maybe that's a good thing ? Power consumption is a tiny bit on the high side if you were planning to use one in a laptop at close to 4 Watts, then again an HDD inside a laptop uses more. Plextor will release three models.

PX-128M6V 128GB	€ 69 / 0,53 cents per GB	535 MB/sec Read - 170 MB/sec Write
PX-256M6V 256GB	€ 115 / 0,44 cents per GB	535 MB/sec Read - 335 MB/sec Write
PX-512M6V 512GB	€ 245 / 0,48 cents per GB	535 MB/sec Read - 455 MB/sec Write

So as you have been able to observe, prices start at 53 cents (euro) per GB with the cheapest model being the 256GB version at 44 cents per GB. Unfortunately for a value drive series, the price is still too high. Samsung for example offers their 850 EVO 240GB at 40 cents per GB. I do have to mention though that the Plextor prices are MSRP prices, not street prices. In order for Plextor to have a success with the value series the prices will need to drop to roughly 35~40 Cents per GB. Yeah it is tough to beat the Samsung's and Microns out there. Then again this drive uses Toggle based NAND which I prefer over TLC NAND big-time. If your target is a gaming or am internet PC, then we have to admit, this is looking to be a great option. So if the prices come down a little more, and you purchase a 256 GB of higher volume model, you'll get our two thumbs up.