Plextor M7V M.2 2280 256GB Solid State Drive Review

Bohs Hansen / 9 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

The M7V M.2 modules can still be tricky to find available at the time of writing, but that should change shortly as stock arrives at local retailers and online shops. In the meantime, I can tell you that the MSRP for the M.2 version is$41.40 for the 128GB, $67.85 for the 256GB version we just tested, and $120.75 for the 512GB version. That is only about $0.23 per GB.

Conclusion

If you have an M.2 slot available on your motherboard, then you should use it. And stocking that slot with a Plextor M7V M.2 drive would be a great idea. The M7V M.2 2280 256GB SSD did very well in our benchmarks and although it didn’t top out in the charts, it’s a great drive. The M.2 comparison has some hard competition and also features high-end MLC-based drives. The M7V is a TLC-based drive that is a lot cheaper and yet it is able to compete with the rest of the drives in many areas.

The choice of the Marvell controller and Toshiba 15nm TLC NAND in combination with Plextor’s own firmware and technologies make the M7V perform great, within its area. NVMe might be the future, but most current systems don’t support those yet and that’s where this drive is perfect. The added software bonus increases both the value of the drive as well as the performance of your system. Hide your personal files, create a RAM disk for improved drive performance, or let the drive compress files automatically to give you more capacity without performance loss – you can do it all.

Pros

Great performance
PlexTurbo RAM disk support for better performance and increased lifespan
PlexVault for secure drive spaces and PlexCompressor for increased capacity
Advanced LDPC error correction technology
Full NAND capacity
Cheap to buy

Cons

None

“Plextor’s M7V M.2 2280 SSD sets itself apart from the rest with the added PlexTurbo support on top of an already good drive. This takes SSD storage to a whole new level with an extra capacity for very little money.”