Last year, we had the pleasure of checking out Plextor’s M6e SSD which was one of the first PCIe SSDs on the market using the M.2 form factor. At the time we were fairly impressed with the drive as it was a solid offering from Plextor with great performance and a solid warranty to match. Unfortunately, the drive is quite pricey and there’s only marginal performance gains for anyone who couldn’t take advantage of the lightning fast sequential performance offered by the drive.
However, Plextor sees the opportunity in being the first to market with a M.2 based PCIe SSD, so they recently unveiled the Plextor M6e Black Edition, which they claim is faster and more feature filled than the original.
Plextor M6e Black Edition Specifications
Manufacturer
Plextor
Plextor
Plextor
Model
M6e Black Edition
M6e Black Edition
M6e Black Edition
Model Number
PX-AG128M6e
PX-AG256M6e
PX-AG512M6e
Form Factor
HHHL (M.2 2280)
HHHL (M.2 2280)
HHHL (M.2 2280)
Capacity
128GB
256GB
512GB
Controller
Marvell 88SS9183-BNP2
Marvell 88SS9183-BNP2
Marvell 88SS9183-BNP2
NAND
Toshiba A19nm Toggle Mode MLC
Toshiba A19nm Toggle Mode MLC
Toshiba A19nm Toggle Mode MLC
DRAM Cache
256MB DDR3
512MB DDR3
1024MB DDR3
Sequential Reads
770 MB/s
770 MB/s
770 MB/s
Sequential Writes
335 MB/s
580 MB/s
625 MB/s
4K Random Read
96,000
105,000
105,000
4K Random Write
83,000
100,000
100,000
Interface
PCIe Gen 2 x2
PCIe Gen 2 x2
PCIe Gen 2 x2
Warranty
5 Years
5 Years
5 Years
As such, today we’ll be reviewing the Plextor M6e Black Edition. Like the original, the M6e Black Edition will be available in capacities of 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB. Surprisingly, rated performance between the original and the Black Edition are identical as well. However, unlike the original, the Plextor M6e Black Edition will only be available bundled with the HHHL adapter and the adapter is getting a huge “gamer-centric” redesign. There are no plans for a standalone, bare M.2 drive at this time. Plextor will also be including PlexTurbo 2.0 with the M6e Black Edition, which is something we’ll get into a bit later.
In terms of internal components, the Plextor M6e Black Edition is sticking to the same Marvell 9183/Toshiba A19nm Toggle Mode MLC used in the original M6e. This makes sense given that Marvell’s upcoming Altaplus controller will be used in the upcoming Plextor M7e, and Toshiba’s 15nm NAND is still nowhere to be seen.
Warranty on the Plextor M6e Black Edition is a solid 5 years and Plextor doesn’t seem to do any sort of endurance limitation on their drives either. Nice!
