Test - Plextor M6e 128Go :Specs | CPU | Hashrate | Review

Contents hide

1 Specification – Hashrate

2 The test setup

3 ATTO Disk Benchmark

4 AS SSD

5 CrystalDiskMark

6 HD Tune Pro

7 Futuremark PCMark 8

8 Practical tests

9 Advantages

9.1 Where can I find the Plextor M6e?

9.2 Related posts:

Hello there!

After testing the very good Plextor M6S 256GB I will try to test a slightly different SSD today, in M.2 format with an M.2 adapter -> PCIe 2x I named the M6e 128GB always at Plextor!
With the democratization of M.2 slots on motherboards, it will become more and more frequent to use this type of solution, given that the SSD is then “integrated” into the motherboard and therefore does not take any slot. 2.5 ″ in the case and therefore does not require cables either. In addition, the speed of the SSD can be faster than on a Sata SSD given the bandwidth available on the PCIe (8 Gb / s for 2x or 16Gb / s for 4x against 6Gb / s for Sata) .
Very chatty, let’s see what M6e has in the belly!

Specification – Hashrate

Model name	PX-AG128M6e	PX-AG256M6e	PX-AG512M6e
Capacity	128 Go	256 Go	512 Go
Format	M.2 + PCie 2x adapter	M.2 + PCie 2x adapter	M.2 + PCie 2x adapter
Weight	72g with adapter 13g without adapter	72g with adapter 13g without adapter	72g with adapter 13g without adapter
Interface	M.2 + Pcie 2x	M.2 + Pcie 2x	M.2 + Pcie 2x
Controller	Marvell® 88SS9183	Marvell® 88SS9183	Marvell® 88SS9183
Nand	Toshiba A19nm MLC	Toshiba A19nm MLC	Toshiba A19nm MLC
Cache memory	256 Mo DDR3	512 Mo DDR3	1 Go DDR3
Sequential Read	Up to 770 MB / s	Up to 770 MB / s	Up to 770 MB / s
Sequential Write	Up to 335 MB / s	Up to 580 MB / s	Up to 625 MB / s
Shuffle playback	Up to 96,000 IOPS	Up to 105,000 IOPS	Up to 105,000 IOPS
Random writing	Up to 83,000 IOPS	Up to 100,000 IOPS	Up to 100,000 IOPS
Operating temperatures	0°C ~ 70°C	0°C ~ 70°C	0°C ~ 70°C
Impact resistance	1500G	1500G	1500G
MTBF	> 2,400,000 hours	> 2,400,000 hours	> 2,400,000 hours
Guarantee	5 years	5 years	5 years
Price	~ 155€ With Pcie adapter ~ 115€ Without adapter	~ 240 € With Pcie adapter ~ 200 € Without adapter	~ 440 € With Pcie adapter ~ 390 € Without adapter

The M6e range is available in 3 versions, 128 256 and 512 GB, it is the 128 GB version that I will test today. Apart from the difference in capacity, only the writing speed changes from 335MB / s for the 128GB version to 625MB / s for the 512GB version, which means that the figures are rather excellent!
The integrated controller is a Marvell 88SS9183 supported by toshiba A19 nm MLC type memory. Regarding the weight we are here in the presence of a featherweight, with 72g including the PCIe adapter and only 13g for the SSD alone, you have to be careful when handling all this!
In terms of the warranty, we have it for 5 years, with an MTBF of 2.4 million hours, which is not nothing! We can see that plextor relies above all on the reliability of its M.2 models. Offered at 115 € (version without PCIe adapter) in 128GB version the M6e is of course more expensive than Sata SSDs, unfortunately we have nothing for nothing when we want to taste the latest technologies!

The box is a bright red without excessive marketing, we can see the various features specific to Plextor such as True Speed and True Protect as well as the 5-year warranty, of course the name of the model as well as the capacities are also at the rendezvous!

At the back there are tables with the main technical characteristics of the SSDs of the same series, performance, MTBF, weight, etc. It is also mentioned that the PCie SSD can be used as a “bootable” disk, which is always good for you. know, and this little mention is available in 22 different languages, just that!

Inside the box the SSD is sandwiched between 2 foam plates, this is more than enough for transport 🙂

Here is the beast! We can see the M.2 port as well as the M6e installed, not much more to say here is an adapter! Note however that if we remove the SSD from the adapter the warranty also jumps!

The SSD itself, the first thing that strikes you is the size of the machine, indeed with only 8cm long, 2.2cm wide and 3.8mm high we are dealing with a small template, all the chips are glued side by side. The build quality is excellent, handle with care though!
It’s time to take the tests!

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The test setup

The configuration used during the tests is as follows:

Processor: Intel Core i4670K @ 4 Ghz
Ventirad Processor: Noctua NH-D15
Motherboard: Gigabyte Z97-D3H
Graphic card: XFX 7870 Black edition
Ventirad Graphics Card: Accelero S1 rev B + 2 Noctua NF-F12
Memory: Kingston Beast 4 x 8 Go 1866Mhz
SSD: Intel Postville X25-M 80Go (OS)
Food: be quiet! E9 580CM
Operating system: Windows 8.1 64bits

The Plextor M6e 128GB will be tested against the SSDs I have at my disposal, i.e. a Samsung 830 128GB, an AMD R7 240GB (tested here) and a Plextor M6S 256GB (tested here)!

The software used is as follows:

ATTO Disk Benchmark (downloadable here)
AS SSD Benchmark (downloadable here)
CrystalDiskMark (downloadable here)
HD Tune Pro (downloadable here)
Futuremark PCMark 8 (downloadable here)

ATTO Disk Benchmark

plextor_m2_2280_results_tests_atto_lecture

Reading under ATTO Disk Benchmark we can see that the Plextor M6e 128GB literally buries the competition, we can see that the higher bandwidth linked to the use of PCIe benefits well here. There is no difference in performance with or without the M.2 -> PCIe adapter. The M6e was able to reach more than 730MB / s which is far ahead of the 560MB / s of its closest competitor the AMD R7 240GB, sequential reading is really the big plus of the M6e.

plextor_m2_2280_resultats_tests_atto_ecriting

In writing and still under ATTO, the Plextor M6e is faithful to its specifications, namely a maximum speed of around 340MB / s, it is actually slower than the AMD R7 240GB and Plextor M6S 256GB, which is quite normal , a 256GB version of the M6e would most certainly have exceeded these. Note that these remain benchmarks and that in everyday use there will be very frankly no perceptible difference in performance.

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AS SSD

Even constant under AS SSD the Plextor M6e buries the competition at the level of the sequential reading with more than 630 MB / s, the reading of small files is on the other hand equal to the AMD R7 240 GB but faster than the Plextore M6S 256 GB. In reading, the results comply once again with the technical specifications, a shame not to have had a 256GB version to compare all the SSDs!
Note that the performance is identical with or without the adapter.

CrystalDiskMark

Once again in sequential reading, the M6e explodes the competition with 680MB / s, reading 512K files is also much faster than the other SSDs in the comparison. When it comes to reading small files, even the M6e meets the standard for SSDs in the comparison. In writing everything is still within specification with a maximum speed of 335MB / s. The results are identical with and without the PCIe adapter, so as not to change!

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HD Tune Pro

HD Tune Pro does not seem to be appreciated by the M6e because, even if it remains in the lead in sequential reading compared to its competitors, it only achieves it by a short head with 427.6MB / s. In writing also it is not as fast as in the other tests, while remaining close to specifications. I remind you that this is only a benchmark and will not be felt in practice.

Futuremark PCMark 8

Futuremark PCMark 8	AMD R7 240 Go	Plextor M6S 256 Go	Samsung 830 128 Go	Plextor M6e 128Gb Without adapter	Plextor M6e 128Gb With adapter
Score	4924	4954	4927	4973	4976
Bandwidth	207.9 Mo / s	240.46 Mo / s	210.96 Mo / s	267.09 Mo / s	270 Mo / s
Adobe Photoshop light	115 s	114.8 s	114.7 s	114.1 s	114.0 s
Adobe Photoshop heavy	359.4 s	362.8 s	363.5 s	362.1 s	362.1 s
Adobe InDesign	58 s	57.9 s	58.4 s	57.7 s	57.6 s
Adobe After Effects	71.3 s	70.8 s	71.1 s	70.6 s	70.6 s
Adobe Illustrator	72.6 s	72.1 s	72.5 s	71.9 s	71.9 s
Microsoft Word	28.5 s	28.3 s	28.4 s	28.2 s	28.2 s
Microsoft Excel	9.4 s	9.2 s	9.3 s	9.2 s	9.2 s
Microsoft PowerPoint	9.3 s	9.2 s	9.3 s	9.2 s	9.2 s
Battlefield 3	134.5 s	133.7 s	134.4 s	133.2 s	133.2 s
Word of Warcraft	58.9 s	58.3 s	58.7 s	58.2 s	58.0 s
Total duration	1h 8min 56s	1h 6min 1s	1h 7min 30s	1h 8min 1s	1h 7min 55s

As we can see the results of the 3 SSDs are very close, despite everything the Plextor M6e 128GB wins and this with or without the adapter! PCMark8 tries to simulate everyday actions, we can see here that any SSD (from the comparison) is capable of very good performance.

Practical tests

Let’s move on to the practice tests now! For this I will use 2 scenarios, a copy of a 14.1 GB directory made up of 88 Folders and 12,647 files of various sizes and a copy of a single 15.3 GB file.
The source files are first copied to a RAMDisk (more information here) and then sent to the different SSDs, in this way there will logically be no clamping at the source level.

In terms of copying in practical tests the Plextor M6e obtains very good results, in terms of small files it is very similar to M6S 256GB and AMD R7 240GB, when copying a large file it is slower than others and this is easily explained because the sequential write is lower. In the end, unless you only copy large files (and again coming from a RAMDisk which is certainly not ready to happen in practice) the Plextor M6e is just as efficient as its competitors.

Here we are at the end of this test, what about the Plextor M6e 128GB?
The performance in the benchmarks of the Plextor M6e is very good, especially in reading where it literally explodes the competition at the level of sequential flows and a little more behind in writing, in practice the SSD will prove to be as swift as the 2 SSDs of the test today.
In the end, the performance of SSDs today is largely sufficient in the vast majority of cases to see no difference in practice, the Plextor M6e will be largely sufficient for almost all PC configurations.

The Plextor M6e 128GB can be around € 115 without an adapter and € 150 with an adapter and it is rather expensive per GB compared to 2.5 ″ SSDs, it offers a 5-year warranty and an MTBF of 2.4 million hours, we of course pay for the M.2 format which is not yet democratized enough to lower costs.