14 DAY TRIAL // The M.2 form factor for solid state drives offers about as much storage space as PCI Express models only in a much smaller package. Also, the performance varies depending on how the interface is designed. Plextor figured it would offer the best of both worlds.
Its efforts eventually consolidated into the M6e Black Edition series of PCI Express SSDs which aren't really PCI Express SSDs.
Instead, they are M.2 drives installed on what can only be described as PCI Express riser printed circuit boards (PCBs).
The products are compatible with any motherboard (unless you happen to own one a couple decades old anyway) and are powered by the Marvell 88SS9183.
We imagine that the main M.2 module was made that way in order for Plextor to have some coverage of the laptop industry as well, even if desktops are its main target for now.
The Plextor M6e Black Edition SSDs
The newcomers are wired through the PCI Express 2.0 x4 root complex, which means they can read and write data at up to 770 MB/s and 625 MB/s, respectively.
Pretty low speeds as far as PCIe drives go, and even among M.2 drives. After all, we've seen 2 GB/s performance on some models.
However, Plextor's new drives still work faster than any SATA-based, 2.5-inch product, and the random performance is of up to 105,000 IOPS 4K random reads, and up to 100,000 IOPS 4K random writes. Those numbers definitely beat things like the new Mushkin Striker.
The 1 GB of DRAM cache and the use of Toshiba 19nm NAND Flash chips contribute to the general level of performance.
The drives are, needless to say, bootable, meaning that they can hold the operating system instead of a larger but slower hard disk drive.
However, there is one pitfall: despite the famed efficiency of NAND Flash technology compared to magnetic platters, the Plextor M6e Black Edition units need more power than the PCIe slot can provide. Which is why they, or their PCBs, were designed with one SATA power port.
Availability and pricing
The Plextor M6e Black Edition series of SSDs, complete with PlexTurbo 2.0 technology (moves critical data to system memory), TRIM, NCQ, and NVMe, should be put up for sale soon, in 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB capacities.
Unfortunately, an exact launch date or a pricing scheme continue to elude us, even now when the product page is up and running.
