Primary storage has always been a fork in the road for most system builders and the main path has always been the way of the HDD. With the advent of slimmer devices, came the need for small form factors for storage and with SSDs quickly gaining their spot in most systems, their chip-based structure allowed SSDs to adapt to this burgeoning need for smaller yet storage. The speed advantage was also another healthy benefit from this transition.
Now that SSDs have reached the point where they are more accessible, plenty of options are now available. Modern devices also take advantage of SSds quick access speeds with Windows 8 together with intel’s latest 7- and 8-series chipsets fully complementing each other to provide a snappy computing experience, the SSD advantage is more clear than ever.
Today we have the Plextor M5M mSATA SSD, designed for Ultrabooks featuring SATA Device Sleep (DEVSLP), and Plextor’s unique TrueSpeed and TrueProtect technologies to ensure the drive lasts and performs well over the years.
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Performance
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| Model | PX-64M5M | PX-128M5M | PX-256M5M |
| Capacity | 64GB | 128GB | 256GB |
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Buffer
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| DRAM Cache | 128MB DDR3 | 256MB DDR3 | 512MB DDR3 |
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Read/Write Speed (Under Windows NTFS)
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| Sequential Read Speed (SATA 6Gb/s) |
Up to 540 MB/s | Up to 540 MB/s | Up to 540 MB/s |
| Sequential Write Speed (SATA 6Gb/s) |
Up to 160 MB/s | Up to 320 MB/s | Up to 430 MB/s |
| Random Read Speed (IOPS 4KB) |
Up to 73,000 | Up to 80,000 | Up to 79,000 |
| Random Write Speed (IOPS 4KB) |
Up to 42,000 | Up to 76,000 | Up to 77,000 |
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Power Consumption
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| Moble Mark | 0.2W | 0.2W | 0.2W |
Closer Look
Packaging
Its always a dilemma for any company when packaging high-value equipment that have very small form factors. Plextor being an OEM supplier, doesn’t go for any marketing fluff and delivers the M5M mSATA SSD in a clear blister clamshell that is devoid of anything save for the label mark.
Accessories
Inside the package is the M5M mSATA SSD and a pair of screws to secure the product onto your mSATA slot.
Closer Look – The SSD
mSATA drives are bare by nature and the Plextor M5M is no different. Plextor uses MLC Toshiba Toggle NAND
[singlepic id=11662 w=800 h=600 float=center]And here’s a picture of an mSATA slot just in case you’ve seen one before or don’t know what it looks like. These can also be found in most modern laptops and ultrabooks, as is the intended application of this product.
PERFORMANCE
Test Setup
Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K
Motherboard:รย ECS Z87H3-A2X Extreme
Memory: Avexir Core Series DDR3-2666
Storage: Plextor M5M mSATA SSD
ATTO Disk Benchmark benchmarks a drive’s read and write speeds with increasing file sizes and graphs them.
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[tab title=”Maximum Write”]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 Disk Mark 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.
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Weรขโฌ™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.
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[tab title=”Boot-Up Time”]To measure boot-up time we used BootRacer. BootRacer is a free program that measures Windows boot-up times.
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[/tabgroup]CONCLUSION
The Plextor M5M mSATA 128GB performance is right up there with the big boys. Although it doesn’t set any new standards when it comes to performance but knowing you’re getting all that speed at nearly the 1/10 the size of a regular SSD then you’ve got a whole lot going on for you in that little a space. Anyways, let’s break down our score:
Performance.รย The M5M from Plextor demonstrates just how much power can be crammed in such small spaces and showcases the possible direction that the future of storage may take. With what basically can be surmised as desktop-level performance, the Plextor M5M delivers in a small form factor, enough to supercharge ultrabooks and anything that uses the mSATA interface.
Build Quality.รย Plextor has a stringent QA process and we’re confident in the quality of their products. In regards to the M5M mSATA SSD, there really isn’t much to nitpick at since we’re looking at what basically is a naked daughterboard. Plextor doesn’t play in the “gamer” or “enthusiast” ways of marketing, but a black PCB should help make it change scenery with all the green in the market out right now.
Functionality.รย With the majority of ultrabook and high-end laptops sporting an mSATA slot to serve as cache or primary storage, the M5M SSD can serve both duties well. In more niche applications, high-end system builders looking to ditch SATA storage altogether to create a beautiful build can opt to use a sole 256GB Plextor M5M mSATA SSD, provided their motherboards supports the standard.
Bundle.รย Nothing much really. Average. Perhaps a link to a cloning software would have been nice. The 2.5″ SSD have them.
Value.รย Pricing for the Plextor M5M mSATA SSD 128GB ranges from $130 to $190, with that much disparity in average pricing, its quite hard to gauge the value. In our judgement, we’ll go for the peak value which is at $190, and at that price it is quite an expensive proposition for a 128GB, fortunately though we have Newegg carrying the 256GB model at $199 which is a way sweeter deal.
To wrap things up, the Plextor M5M mSATA SSD is a top performing SSD that will instantly provide a boost to your mSATA-capable device or even replace your primary storage with a low-power, small form factor storage.
We award the Plextor M5M mSATA SSD with our Back2Gaming Silver Award and ourรย Editor’s Choice.The Plextor M5M mSATA SSDรย backed by a 3-year warranty.
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