Plextor M6M 128GB mSATA Solid State Drive Review

A Closer Look

Like M.2 drives, mSATA drives have no drive casing and can come in a variety of lengths based on the components that they hold. Measuring in at a shade over 50mm, the M6M takes on a more standard format making it compatible with the vast majority of products that run on mSATA drives. Just in case the host platform does not have any screws to lock down the drive once installed, Plextor do include a pair which fit through the two holes that can be seen on the end of the drive opposite the mSATA connector.

Lifting off the product label which holds the same level of information that we would find on the M6S or the M6e allows us to take a look at the controller and NAND. Using the very same controller as the M6e, a Marvell 88SS9188 four channel chip and using the same customised firmware, the M6M [128GB] is able to deliver speeds of up to 540MB/s read, 340MB write and 90k read and 76k write IOPs.

NAND comes in the form of four Toshiba 20nm TH58TEG8DDKBA8C MLC packages, each with a capacity of 256Gb/ 32GB. Beside the NAND on the underside of the PCB is a 256MB DDR3 package, with the 256GB and 512GB drives offering 512MB or 768MB RAM respectively. The 256GB and 512GB SKUs of the M6M also follow the same form factor, with a similar component layout, although the MLC NAND is replaced with packages capable of holding up to 128GB of raw data each.