Plextor M6 SSD Series: SATA, mSATA, M.2 Form Factors Reviewed

Steve

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This whole standard is a waste of time, imo. If you really want to get a much faster and swappable system, go for LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2. And if you need it for a PC that doesn't have Thunderbolt 2, buy a PCI card, like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Sbuy-Thunderbolt-2-Pcie-1-Port-Card/dp/B00J1EQDV6/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1401378699&sr=8-16&keywords=thunderbolt pci

Granted, it is more expensive, but you get the fastest swappable + portable storage, and not some +10% on paper nonsense that can be -10% in reality compared to Sata-III.
 
May get me some SSDs or try an M.2 soon. Just making up a new system, with the H97M-E I ordered today, which has a M.2 socket on it. And chuck it into something like a Fractal design Node 804 case. Or one of these MATX cube cases. Nice and small.
 
It seems to me like the 840 Pro is still the most well rounded SSD for the price. Good review nonetheless.
 
This whole standard is a waste of time, imo. If you really want to get a much faster and swappable system, go for LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2. And if you need it for a PC that doesn't have Thunderbolt 2, buy a PCI card, like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Sbuy-Thunderbolt-2-Pcie-1-Port-Card/dp/B00J1EQDV6/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1401378699&sr=8-16&keywords=thunderbolt pci

Granted, it is more expensive, but you get the fastest swappable + portable storage, and not some +10% on paper nonsense that can be -10% in reality compared to Sata-III.

hehe the LaCie Little Big Disk uses socket M.2 SSDs :) It's expensive and nowhere near as practical as just buying an M.2 SSD and sticking it in an M.2 socket or using a PCIe adapter.

This is the same thing you said when we published the OCZ RevoDrive 350 review and it didn't make sense then. It is far more practical to boot Windows from the native PCIe interface than TB.

LaCie don't make super fast SSDs you or I can't just buy, they use SSDs from Intel, Samsung and so on that we can purcahse. There is no magic here and they use the same standards that you deemed "a waste of time".

Your suggestion to spend $160 on a Thunderbolt card just to support the LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2 which costs $1600 and uses an SSD that are supported by a cheap PCIe adapter or Z97 motherboard is bonkers!

It would actually be cheaper to build a new computer.

Asrock Z97 Extreme6 = $170 (offers a pair of M.2 sockets)
Crucial M550 M.2 = $480
Crucial M550 M.2 = $480

Total = $1130

With the almost $500 left over lets by a new CPU, Haswell-refresh Intel Core i7-4790 done ($315). Buy a nice $150 dinner to celebrate your new system ;)
 
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hehe the LaCie Little Big Disk uses socket M.2 SSDs :) It's expensive and nowhere near as practical as just buying an M.2 SSD and sticking it in an M.2 socket or using a PCIe adapter.

This is the same thing you said when we published the OCZ RevoDrive 350 review and it didn't make sense then. It is far more practical to boot Windows from the native PCIe interface than TB.

LaCie don't make super fast SSDs you or I can't just buy, they use SSDs from Intel, Samsung and so on that we can purcahse. There is no magic here and they use the same standards that you deemed "a waste of time".

Your suggestion to spend $160 on a Thunderbolt card just to support the LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2 which costs $1600 and uses an SSD that are supported by a cheap PCIe adapter or Z97 motherboard is bonkers!

It would actually be cheaper to build a new computer.

Asrock Z97 Extreme6 = $170 (offers a pair of M.2 sockets)
Crucial M550 M.2 = $480
Crucial M550 M.2 = $480

Total = $1130

With the almost $500 left over lets by a new CPU, Haswell-refresh Intel Core i7-4790 done ($315). Buy a nice $150 dinner to celebrate your new system ;)
Well, you trade in performance + portability for a discount in price. And you get a system that's not really any better than SATA-III SSD-s. In other worlds, you get what you pay for. The idea of M.2 was to improve performance, which we haven't seen yet, and given how little boost it promises, may never see it. That's why I called it a waste of time, referring to the whole M.2 idea for the PC-s.
 
There are two big things that come with M.2.

1) No Cables... Love that, I hate wires/cables, makes my wiring even easier and cleaner.

2) No need for HDD bays... With no need for a DVD drive anymore, it will clear the way for much better airflow.
 
Well, you trade in performance + portability for a discount in price. And you get a system that's not really any better than SATA-III SSD-s. In other worlds, you get what you pay for. The idea of M.2 was to improve performance, which we haven't seen yet, and given how little boost it promises, may never see it. That's why I called it a waste of time, referring to the whole M.2 idea for the PC-s.

How is the performance not as good? You do understand that they are just two M.2 SSDs on RAID0 right? Why can't you just buy two of the same M.2 SSDs and put them in your system using RAID0?

How is it not better than SATA-III SSD-s when its using M.2 not SATA?

M.2 does improve performance, we just need faster SSDs. Again the LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2 uses M.2 :S
 
Some M.2 form factor SSD are still SATA-3. These are keyed with 2 slots in the edge card connector.

The M.2 that LaCie are using are 2-lane PCIe and can utilize higher bandwidth. SSD controllers today still can't utilize the full bandwidth available.

The LaCie LBDV2 can deliver up to 1.3 Gigabyte per second thruput.
 
Some M.2 form factor SSD are still SATA-3. These are keyed with 2 slots in the edge card connector.

The M.2 that LaCie are using are 2-lane PCIe and can utilize higher bandwidth. SSD controllers today still can't utilize the full bandwidth available.

The LaCie LBDV2 can deliver up to 1.3 Gigabyte per second thruput.

The LaCie M.2 have a single keying slot in the LBDv2. Correction, they are 4 lane PCIe.

Apple 2013 Mac Pro SSD also have a single keying slot, are 4-lane, but it is proprietary, not M.2 standard.

Older Apple SSD are 2-lane PCIe SSD.

Sooo...need to know a lot more detail before discussing performance possibilities of M.2 and PCIe.
 
The LaCie Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2 uses two Samsung's XP941 PCIe x2 SSD's in RAID0.
 
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