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 M9PeY PCI-E SSD from Plextor and it does have the distinction of being the first SSD with a touch of modern RGB.
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
Plextor is quite proud of their new found love for RGB as the box shows us with its new packaging style featuring bright colors with the M9Pe highlighted in bright RGB.
The Plextor M9PeY itself features a familiar design similar to its previous iterations with some slight refinements. Plextor is also promising improved thermals with this new heatsink material on their PCIe card.
The most notable feature that Plextor wants to show off is its RGB functionality on this card and its simply fair to say Plextor did a great job implementing RGB lighting on the M9Pe without being too gaudy or flamboyant.
The lights will cycle and will also wave in a spectrum pattern as seen above.
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.
As seen in the benchmarks above, the results are quite impressive. Easily competitive of top-end SSDs and Plextor manages to leave their mark in the industry again. This time around they have the flash of RGB to include their bragging rights.
The Plextor M9PeY is a great option for those that want to really go for that “most RGB build” and while they always have the option of having a M.2 drive in today’s motherboards and their flashy concealed M.2 slots, it just won’t compare to the same level of dissipation that a larger heatsink can do and HHHL PCIe SSDs offer that. Plextor just happened to drop in some RGB in the M9Pe and while its a polarizing topic, you can’t take away the practical benefits of the PCIe SSD.
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.
All in all, the Plextor M9PeY PCIE RGB SSD offers a compelling first look at what to expect for this year’s high-performance storage market and if you’re in the market for a reliable brand, Plextor and their new M9Pe is something to look into.
The Plextor M9PeY offers great performance and if you can appreciate RGB, its certainly a nice addition to your build.
Plextor backs the M9Pe with a 5-year warranty. We give it our B2G Gold Award!