Plextor M6V SSD with PlexTurbo Review

[section label=”Introduction”]

With SSDs all the rage lately in storage, we’ve noted how it’s hard to stand-out in this fierce market. And while performance has seemingly reached the saturation point for SATAIII offerings, its a different battle altogether for those in the value segment where companies battle it out on who offers the most out of their product for less cost. We’ve taken a look at many Plextor products in the past and we’ve seen how the company can play around in the SSD space when they feel like it but for this round they’re offering a serious contender in the value segment with their new product; the Plextor M6V SSD series.

The Plextor M6V series features 15nm Toshiba Toggle NAND flash and sports a Silicon Motion SMI-2246 controller which helps drive the costs down. While that may sound unappealing, note that we’ve checked out another Silicon Motion controlled drive in the recent months and ended up surprised at just how much performance we got from such a bargain SSD. The Plextor M6V aims to do the same. One more trick the Plextor M6V has up its sleeve is its DRAM cache drive capacities ranging from 128GB, 256GB and 512GB receiving 128MB, 256MB and 512MB DRAM caches respectively to boost performance when applicable. Another thing going on for it is PlexTurbo which not only uses the existing DRAM cache to boost read and write speeds, it also utilizes system RAM to get faster performance out of the drive. PlexTurbo also helps extend the lifespan of the SSD by reducing unnecessary writes to the drive.

• Up to 535 MB/s Sequential Read
• Up to 455 MB/s Sequential Write
• Up to 83K IOPS 4KB Random Read
• Up to 80K IOPS 4KB Random Write

[section label=”Closer Look”]

Closer Look

[section label=”Performance Testing”]

Performance Testing

Test Setup

Processor: Intel Core i7 3770K
Motherboard: MSI Z77 MPOWER
Memory: Kingston HyperX Beast DDR3-2400 16GB
Storage: Plextor M6V SSD 256GB
PSU: Seasonic Platinum P1000

Maximum Potential Performance

ATTO Disk Benchmark benchmarks a drive’s read and write speeds with increasing file sizes and graphs them.

Write Performance

For potential write testing, HD Tune was used to measure the drive’s write performance. Again, we focus on the average results for real-world relevance.

Crystal DiskMark

Crystal Disk Mark is storage benchmarking software was developed by “hiyohiyo” of Japan, and is available for free. Crystal Disk Mark measures sequential, and random read/write speeds of storage devices.

Real World Copy Tests

We’ve 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.

With PlexTurbo

[section label=”Conclusion”]

Conclusion

Let’s break down the score for the Plextor M6V SSD:

Performance. Our sample is the 256GB model which is rated for 335MB/s write performance and 535MB/s read performance. Plextor is a bit modest as we can see the drive peaking at 560MB/s read and 350MB/s write speeds. Read performance alone is fantastic and while write may be a bit lower, remember that this is a a value-oriented product and applications for these types of SSDs does focus on their reading off them. Which leads us to the addition of PlexTurbo which leverages system RAM to act as a super-fast cache enabling our Plextor M6V to reach insane speeds when needed.

Build Quality. Speaking of PlexTurbo, this caching technology also eliminates the need for unnecessary file writes to the drive especially in some scenarios where small changes to files happen. Plextor uses the cache in user-selected intervals and commits them to disk when final reducing SSD writes, prolonging the drive’s lifespan. Plextor has not made mention of the lifespan of these drives though.

Functionality. As a SATAIII drive, the Plextor M6V is very much at home at any application but it will benefit users the most as mostly a primarily “read-heavy” drive like for the operating system and for games/applications. The drive will easily serve up files for these applications speeding up loading times especially with the help of PlexTurbo.

Bundle. We’d expected some extras like SATA cables and a free edition of a cloning software but Plextor really kept the Plextor M6V as an essentials-only bundle with the box only including the SSD inside.

Value. The Plextor M6V currently is available in three capacities: 128GB, 256GB (the one we tested) and 512GB and are priced at $63, $119, $242 respectively. At these prices, they’re competitively priced and note that these are SRPs so street prices could be lower. Also note that Plextor has made their PlexTurbo technology now available for this drive wherein it used to be an exclusive for their higher-end parts.

If you’re looking to get into the SSD game, 256GB is the current optimal capacity. Looking at the Plextor M6V we have a solid offer at the 256GB sweet spot at $119 with read performance really looking good especially if you realize these is almost the same results we’d see from high-end drives. While write speeds are not as high as what we see from top-of-the-line SSDs, that’s not what Plextor is aiming for with the M6V series.

With a competitive price and solid performance, the Plextor M6V is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a fast storage solution but don’t want to go spend more on a top-end SSDs. The bonus of having PlexTurbo to boost performance also makes the M6V an effective solution for high-performance needs.

Plextor backs the M6V SSD with a 3-year warranty. We give the Plextor M6V SSD our B2G Value Award.

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THIS EVENT HAS CONCLUDED

Congratulations to Ian Aguda! You have just won a Plextor M6V SSD with PlexTurbo. Please message us at our Facebook page with your FB email address for confirmation. You have 24 hours to respond or we will repick a winner.

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Win a Plextor M6V SSD

Time to give back to the community and this time around we’re giving you the chance to win your Plextor M6V SSD courtesy of Plextor.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Get a chance to win your own Plextor SSDs by simply following Plextor Philippines and telling us why you need to win. Rules are simple:

1. Like Plextor Philippines
2. Comment in this review why you want to win a Plextor M6V SSD
3. Like Back2Gaming

By joining this promo, you agree to the following terms and conditions:

• Promo will run from date of posting (August 22, 2015) to 11:59PM September 4, 2015
• Open to all permanent residents of the Philippines, 13 years old and above.
• One(1) winner of Plextor M6V SSD.
• Prizes cannot be exchanged for cash or sold for cash.

For bug reports and issues with the apps, leave a comment with details about the issue and we’ll fix it ASAP.