SSDs featuring 64-bit NAND are entering the market this year 2018 and ahead of the pack is Plextor with their latest series of solid-state drives aimed at people looking to upgrade their high-speed storage soon. Taking over the Plextor flagship SSD position is the M9P series featuring 3 variants for those looking for specific solutions for their system. We’ll be taking a look at the bare flagship M.2 and PCIe variants, the Plextor M9PeY (PCIE) and Plextor M9PeG (M.2). Both of which are intended to perform on a higher level than their bare counterparts as both the aforementioned SSDs feature heatsinks.
In this review we’ll be covering the Plextor M9PeG M.2 SSD from Plextor, intended for applications wherein you don’t have a heatsink to cover your Plextor M9Pe for maximum performance. While it doesn’t have the RGB touch, it serves a more direct and practical purpose and that’s to keep temps down for optimal performance from the device.
About the Plextor M9Pe SSD Series
The Plextor M9Pe series of SSDs will still feature the Marvell 88SS1093 controller which is an aging controller. And while it can still keep up with today’s performance expectations, it has been known to be have thermal throttling which limits performance in some applications. Plextor used a lighter heatsink to combat this in its previous M8P series but the SKUs without did show the thermal throttling. In this wave of M9P drives, Plextor is going for the same approach of releasing multiple solutions with bare M.2 drives and its higher-end products will have heatsinks included. The flashiest of them all is the M9PeY.
The distinction between the SKUs is that the M9PeY requires an x4 PCI-Express slot in which it will connect to. It is also the most expensive of the lot as its large heatsink with RGB does come at price but it does offer the best cooling of all the SKUs. The Plextor M9PeG is a 2280 standard size M.2 SSD with a slim heatsink. The heatsink spans the entire length of the PCB itself and is intended to hold of heat before throttling kicks in.
The M9PeGN is also an M.2 2280 SSD barring the heatsink. This is intended for consumers who want an NVMe-capable storage in their ultraportable like gaming laptops that don’t have the space for an M.2 SSD with a heatsink installed.
Plextor is also using Toshiba BiCS 64-bit 3D TLC NAND. Depending on the capacity, the M9Pe comes with 512MB DDR3 cache or 1GB for the 1TB version.
Closer Look
Similar to the Plextor M9PeY, the M9PeG brandishes the series’ new packaging style with the bright coloration and logo print. It’s quite suggestive that the product has RGB but the Plextor M9PeG doesn’t have the bright and flashy RGB lightbar that the M9PeY has.
It does however feature a slim heatsink that covers the full-length of the device and allows it to operate for a longer period under load before thermal throttling occurs.
This product is suitable for people that will use open M.2 slots that don’t have integrated heatsink covers such as those found in high-end motherboards. Our ROG Maximus IX APEX is one such motherboard that can utilize something like the Plextor M9PeG with its exposed M.2 riser.
User Experience & Conclusion
As we didn’t cover SSDs much in recent months, we’re presenting raw data here from our benchmarks for your reference.
There are no performance rating differences between form factors in the Plextor M9Pe series but the capacity does dictate what kind of performance each has. The higher 1TB models have the best rating amongst the bunch. As seen in the benchmarks above, the results are quite impressive. You can compare results with our Plextor M9PeY PCI RGB SSD for your reference.
Since it doesn’t have the extra bling as the PCIe variant, the Plextor M9PeG is hoping to attract consumers with sheer, raw performance and confidence in Plextor that they’ll deliver excellent support. Plextor has been quite active in updating their products after release with firmware updates to improve their products. We expect the same for the M9Pe series.
The Plextor M9PeY have a pricing of $150/$250/$460 for its 256GB, 512GB and 1TB variants. The M9PeG are slightly cheaper at $125/$225/$440 for their 25GB/512GB/1TB models. The bare M9PeGN starts $112, $213 and $424 for the same capacities.
The Plextor M9PeG arrives a bit cheaper than the PCI-e model and if you don’t need the added RGB lighting then you save a PCIe slot with the M.2 version which is really good if you’re running multiple GPUs and the included heatsink allows the drive to operate even with a GPU next to it that may cause radiant heat.
Simply the best in the entire Plextor M9Pe series, the 1TB M9PeG M.2 SSD is quite an attractive option if you want to focus on sheer performance and capacity rather than aesthetics. You can opt for the bare M.2 option should your motherboard have an integrated heatsink but for those that want better performance in limited space but want some sort of cooling, the Plextor M9PeG is a great choice.
Plextor backs the M9Pe with a 5-year warranty. We give it our B2G Silver Award and B2G Recommended Award!
