The SATA3 interface is now becoming heavily saturated by ultra-fast SSDs which is the primary reason why SATA-Express was created. For the most part though, that new interface won’t get mainstream adoption until after a few motherboard cycles which is why SATA3 is still the most predominant choice for storage solutions these days. With SSDs evolving so fast and SATA3 still saturated, you have to give it companies like Samsung and Plextor to come up with ways to get around these restrictions and still offer some excellent figures for their high-end line.
For today’s review we have another SSD from Plextor: the Plextor M6 Pro SSD. Now that PRO stands for something and that something is a touch of performance boost. Coupled with the new PlexTurbo caching tool, the Plextor M6 Pro promises some very good performance figures and we’re here to find out.
Features
- Sequential Read Speed:545 MB/s (128GB) 550MB/s (256GB/512GB)
- Sequential Write Speed: 330 MB/S (128GB) 490MB/s (256GB/512GB)
- Random Read Speed: 100,000 IOPS
- Random Write Speed: 82,000 IOPS (128GB), 86,000 IOPS (256GB), 88,000 (512GB)
- Plextor’s exclusive solution boosts performance up to 10 times the above values, shattering the SATA 3 limitations and reaching speeds other SSDs just can’t match.
- Handles multiple file executions, picture/video editing, and the newest games at full throttle. Don’t get stuck waiting around and staring at your screen.
- Extreme stress testing (1008 hours) in special FLEXSTAR testing systems to create flawless 100% pass rates for maximum reliability
Closer Look
Plextor gives the M6 Pro a touch of class with a wine gold theme. The packaging and the SSD itself both share distinctive metallic looks exuding a hint of elegance from the product. The Plextor M6 Pro comes in the 7mm thin 2.5″ drive form factor and other than the really distinct color scheme, physically its nothing out of the ordinary.
PlexTool
Download the latest version here
PlexTool is a monitoring and maintenance software by Plextor for use on compatible SSDs. For the M6 Pro, tools include drive status for monitoring drive health, capacity etc. while other options include Secure Format to securely delete all your data and revert the drive to near factory state. Firmware update allows us to download the latest firmware from Plextor. A built in speed test is available under Diagnostics and finally we have PlexTurbo.
PlexTurbo as mentioned is a RAM caching tool that uses the system RAM as a high-speed cache for some really breakneck performance. The RAM cache varies by capacity depending on your M6 Pro model.
PERFORMANCE
Test Setup
Processor: Intel Core i7 3770K
Motherboard: MSI Z77 Mpower
Memory: Kingston HyperX Beast DDR3-2400 16GB
Storage: Plextor M6 Pro SSD
PSU: Seasonic Platinum P1000
[tabs]
[tab title=”Potential Performance”]
ATTO Disk Benchmarkรย benchmarks a drive’s read and write speeds with increasing file sizes and graphs them.
[/tab]
[tab title=”Maximum Write”]
For potential write testing,รย HD Tuneรย was used to measure the drive’s write performance. Again, we focus on the average results for real-world relevance.
[/tab]
[tab title=”Crystal DiskMark”]
Crystal Disk Markรย is storage benchmarking software was developed by รขโฌลhiyohiyoรขโฌย of Japan, and is available for free. Crystal Disk Mark measures sequential, and random read/write speeds of storage devices.
[/tab]
[tab title=”AS SSD”]
AS SSDรย is a benchmark tool that determines the performance of Solid State Drives but can also be used to measure hard drives, it just takes longer. The tool contains six synthetic and three copy tests .
[/tab]
[tab title=”File Transfer”]
Weรขโฌโขve taken our compression test files, a collection of images, documents and other files ranging from 1KB to 50MB amounting to 3,310 files for 3.34GB and a single, large 12GB file. We’re posting the raw transfer results for your reference.
[/tab]
[/tabs]
PlexTurbo Enabled
[tabs]
[tab title=”Potential Performance”]
ATTO Disk Benchmarkรย benchmarks a drive’s read and write speeds with increasing file sizes and graphs them.
[/tab]
[tab title=”Maximum Write”]
For potential write testing,รย HD Tuneรย was used to measure the drive’s write performance. Again, we focus on the average results for real-world relevance.
[/tab]
[tab title=”Crystal DiskMark”]
Crystal Disk Markรย is storage benchmarking software was developed by รขโฌลhiyohiyoรขโฌย of Japan, and is available for free. Crystal Disk Mark measures sequential, and random read/write speeds of storage devices.
[/tab]
[tab title=”AS SSD”]
AS SSDรย is a benchmark tool that determines the performance of Solid State Drives but can also be used to measure hard drives, it just takes longer. The tool contains six synthetic and three copy tests .
รย 
[/tab]
[tab title=”File Transfer”]
Weรขโฌโขve taken our compression test files, a collection of images, documents and other files ranging from 1KB to 50MB amounting to 3,310 files for 3.34GB and a single, large 12GB file. We’re posting the raw transfer results for your reference.
[/tab]
[/tabs]
User Experience & Conclusion
We’ve really come to a point where SSDs are segregated now by features and componentry rather than performance since the majority of SSDs nowadays will offer the same level of read/write speeds the main difference is how they handle various tasks like small file performance, incompressible data and wear leveling, etc. The data we presented above are all raw info contrary to our normal comparative graphics so you may see and decide for yourself where’d you place the drive in your personal ranking. Still, let’s do a breakdown before our conclusion:
Performance. Read speed is really looking good for the Plextor M6 Pro and shouldn’t really come at a surprise for a product at this price segment. Its the read speeds that really matter for this controller/memory combination and we can see from the specs that the 256GB and 512GB variant really push it way up there at around 490MB/s while our sample for today, the 128GB M6 Pro sits at around 330MB/s write speed. That said, if you really want to get the most from the M6 Pro product line, we recommend going for the higher capacity models. That goes the same way for the PlexTurbo cache which increases together with the capacity of the model you choose. This allows the SSD to handle more and while we can’t really properly benchmark the PlexTurbo caching performance, we still can see by way of some benchmarks that we’re getting some really nifty performance boost which translates to rather excellent transfer speeds in appropriate scenarios.
Build Quality. Plextor promises to have screened their M6 Pro products for over 1000 hours before clearing them out the factory and as we’ve seen from past products that we still use in-house here B2G, Plextor’s product quality is something they stand for and we’ve yet to have anything break on us. The Plextor M6 Pro with its 5 years warranty and stringent batch testing should further be testament to how much Plextor invests in the quality of their products.
Functionality. As a SATA3 product, the Plextor M6 Pro still is usable on most modern systems and this gives it wide adoption compared to PCI-e or SATA Express should Plextor went that route to improve performance numbers. The M6 Pro along with its PlexTurbo cache works well and should be a plug and play scenario for even the most average of users.
Bundle. Other than the cloning software on disc and the PlexTool software, there isn’t much in terms of extras here unless we’ll count the standard assortment of 3.5″ drive bracket, SATA cable, and screws. We’ll still give it extra props for the including cloning software.
Value.รย The Plextor M6 Pro as the name suggests aims to compete in the upper-end of the SSD spectrum which means it places itself along the likes of the Samsung PRO series SSDs, also boasting its own caching technolog. While local pricing isn’t set yet, online etailers prices the M6 Pro just a tad above the Samsung Pro and given the case, its gonna be a tough call for anyone not exactly adept at SSDs. To make things easier though, we would highly recommend the Plextor M6 Pro if you’re comfortable with settling for the 256GB version as that is the sweet spot we really adore in this match up. For the 512GB though, its definitely going to be tougher to choose and we advise that you go with the brand you’re more comfortable with.
รย The Plextor M6 Pro is a solidly built SSD and its caching feature gives it an edge over the average SSD. While it tries to compete with top-tier SSDs, Plextor itself still struggles to leave a name in this field and while the company has a fairly good reputation overall, its existence as a high-end player has yet to be established. The M6 Pro is aimed to change that as well as the upcoming new releases from the company. For now though, our focus on the M6 Pro shows us its got what it takes to serve as a high-performance solution for both gaming and daily use.
Plextor backs the M6 Pro with a 5 year warranty. We give the Plextor M6 Pro our B2G Performance Award and B2G Recommended Award.
