Plextor M6M 128GB mSATA Solid State Drive Review

Final Thoughts

Pricing

Pricing in the mSATA market has not quite come down as far as the mainstream SATA market as of yet, but it is certainly on its way there. Priced at around $0.70 per GB (or ~50p per GB for the UK market), through Amazon and Newegg the 128GB M6M boasts a respectable price tag of around $80 / £65.  Whilst this price is a bit more than the M6S of the same size, we have to remember that mSATA is not as ‘popular’ as SATA and therefore the pricing wars have not quite made their way over to drive the prices right down, even though the components being used are the same.

Overview

Whilst mSATA does not take up a huge amount of the SSD market, its presence is still key to modern computing with devices such as Intel’s NUC and AIO (All-in-One) systems using this to their advantage, allowing them to shrink right down to amazingly small proportions. When we look at the number of mSATA drives that are out there to choose from, it is surprising to see that the choice is rather small (in relation to that of 2.5″ drives). Looking over the mSATA range in finer detail we soon see that the number of ‘performance’ drives that are on offer are not that good. Whether or not it comes down to mSATA not having the same appeal as M.2 or 2.5″ SATA for performance systems is one that I’m still not decided on, but either way, it is somewhat forgotten about and left on the sidelines.

Fortunately though Plextor have not forgotten about this format and with the recent explosion of Intel’s NUC and their AMD equivalents on the market, Plextor have seized the opportunity to aim their sights directly at this market and deliver a drive that delivers a performance punch that most other mSATA drives are not able to offer. Not only have they given a huge blow to many other mSATA brands, they are giving those who do buy the M6M the exact same components that are found on the M6e and the M6S as we will see in our next Plextor review in the coming weeks.

As an overall drive compared to the rest of the SSD market the M6M gives every other drive a good run for its money with read speeds that are well up there in the charts, with the only thing holding it back being its write speeds at around 340MB/s (which is still pretty fast when you think about it). As drive in the market overall, the write speed does let the M6M down a little, but as a drive in the mSATA market, like the M6e, it is one hugely impressive drive and a perfect partner for any system that runs on a mSATA drive.

Pros:

• Read performance figures that challenge that of 2.5″ SSDs
• Near 50p/GB or $0.70/GB price.
• Components the same as those found on the M6e
• Well known brand and strong warranty to back.

Cons:

• Write speeds are a little lower than that of a 2.5″ drive.
• Slightly higher price per GB

“The mSATA market is somewhat sparse when we look at the number of drives that are on offer compared to that of the mainstream SATA market and Plextor have seized the opportunity to pile into this sector with a strong performing drive that is a perfect match for Intel’s NUC and a number of other tiny, performance based systems.”

Thanks to Plextor for providing this review sample.