Plextor S3C 256GB SATA3 SSD Review

Introduction Lately, we've had a look at a lot of NVMe drives and while they're awesome, they aren't for everybody. Plextor's S3C is a classic SATA3 2.5-inch drive which makes it highly compatible with almost any system. It is also a more budget-oriented choice, allowing you to get away with a cheaper price or end up with more storage capacity. Design Plextor's S3 series is classic and especially the S3C series which I'm taking a look at today. The drive is a classic 2.5-inch form factor with a 7mm height. That along with the SATA3 interface makes it compatible with almost any system. In many cases, it will even be plug-and-play thanks to easy installation and external drive bays. The silver casing gives it a sleek appeal which matches most setups, no matter your system's colour combination. The Plextor logo in one of the corners breaks the monotony a little. Capacity and Model Options The S3 series has both M.2 and 2.5-inch form factor drives, so you aren't limited in the event that your ultrabook or netbook only supports M.2 SATA drives. However, we'll take a closer look at the M.2 version another day. The 2.5-inch model comes in three capacity options: 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB. There is a slight performance difference between the options with the 512GB performing the best. Performance With a SATA3 drive, we have some natural limitations such as the 6Gbps interface. That doesn't mean that we should forget about it, it's still a great choice. The 256GB model of the Plextor S3C offers up to 550MB/s when reading and up to 510MB/s when writing. The random performance is rated at 90K IOPS reading and 71K IOPS writing. The performance somewhat depends on the capacity of the drive. The smaller 128GB version is rated at 550MB/s reading and 500MB/s writing. The random performance is rated at 72K and 57K IOPS reading and writing. The largest 512GB model is also the one with the best performance. Here we get up to 550MB/s read and 520MB/s write performance. The random read performance goes up to 92K while the write performance goes up to 79K IOPS. Controller, NAND, and Features All of these SSDs look the same, but they aren't all the same on the insides. Within the Plextor s3C, we find a Silicon Motion (SMI) SM2254 controller and SK Hynix 14nm TLC NAND. The smallest 128GB version features 256MB DDR3 cache while the two larger versions have 512MB DDR3 cache. While the amount of cache is the same as the previous S2 series, the rest of the S3 is different. We get a different controller as well as advancements in NAND fabrication. Feature-wise, you'll find everything you need from basics such as Trim, S.M.A.R.T., and NCQ. The S3 series also features LDPC error correction technology for data accuracy and drive reliability. One of the obvious advantages of Plextor drives over many competitors is the full availability of capacity. You get the full 128GB instead of 120, 256GB instead of 240GB, and 512GB instead of 480GB. Effectively, that means more capacity for same-priced items that do use over-provisioning. Endurance Plextor rates the S3 endurance with 50TB per 128GB capacity. That means the 256GB model I'm testing today has a 100TB TBW rating. The MTBF is rated at 1.5 million hours while Plextor backs the drive with a 3-year warranty. Plextor Features PlexNitro is the caching technology that is responsible for you getting the full NAND capacity. It is developed especially for TLC SSDs to improve both read and write speeds. PlexVault is a piece of bonus software, allowing the creation of secured and protected storage space. It creates an encrypted portion, allowing you to keep your private files private. This is particularly useful if you share the system with others and don't want them snooping through your personal files. Plexcompressor is another piece of software you get along with this drive. It utilises a custom smart-compression technology to offer more storage capacity with minimal performance impact. The last piece of software is the PlexTurbo. By using part of your system memory as cache, you're able to boost the performance to impressive levels. There is a bonus effect to this, being a longer lifetime of your SSD. By using the cache to write to first, the drive has to perform fewer write operations. Write operations are what degrade NAND storage, making the advantage clear. Less writes to your drive, such as temporary data, means more endurance. Feature Highlights Boot and load faster than with an HDD Compatible and budget friendly Full NAND capacity PlexTurbo, PlexCompressor, and PlexVault software bonus Package and Accessories Plextor delivers the S3 in a standard SSD box. The front has a bold S3 logo as well as some drive details. At the bottom, we also get a list of the special Plextor features. There are more details on the back as well as a list of other available capacity models. Inside is a quick installation guide and the drive itself. Testing & Methodology In a bid to make our testing as thorough and as accurate as possible, we have devised a testing methodology that will give us the maximum amount of data. While this means that testing each drive will take considerably longer – easily up 36 hours – the overall picture that we can gather is bigger too. It helps both you as the reader and us as the reviewer’s to gain a clearer view of the drive’s overall performance, strengths, and weaknesses. It also provides a more accurate analysis of how each drive performs under different conditions. Data Fillage There are many ways to test a storage drive, and we have chosen to include close to every test possible. We will start with a typical benchmark analysis of the formatted drive with various village scenarios. However, depending on how a drive is built, the performance may differ depending on how much data it is already storing. Testing this, the drive will be tested empty as well as with 25%, 50%, and 75% space usage. For these tests, we will be using Anvil’s Storage Utilities, AS SSD Benchmark, ATTO Benchmark, and CrystalDiskMark. Application and Gaming Besides these synthetic fill tests, the drive is tested with PCMark 8’s storage benchmark to get real-world performance results. Plain Drive Performance Following the fillage tests, the partition gets removed, and we check the drive’s raw performance. These tests will determine the hardware’s capabilities while eliminating any interference from the set file system. AIDA64’s storage benchmark and IOmeter are both great tools for this, and they help us paint an even clearer picture of the drive. The IOmeter tests I run are quite different from the rest as they will give a final result after a longer performance test rather than a maximum or average score; this gives us yet another view of the tested drive over the regular tests. Drive Conditioning Durability is a vital factor when it comes to NAND-based drives as the chips only can be rewritten so many times before they’ll stop working properly. Modern SSDs come with wear-level algorithms to increase the lifetime and reduce this factor as much as possible. We also take this into consideration in our reviews even tho it would take years to simulate this under real-world conditions. Luckily, Anvil’s Storage Utilities comes with an endurance test that can perform this action much faster, but it is still a time-consuming process. process. Depending on the hardware, this can easily take several days, and we write thousands and thousands of small files in various sizes and compressibility to drive over and over. Following this conditioning process, all of the previous benchmarks will be run again in the same scenarios and the same order. This will give us a great view on how a drive will perform after prolonged usage, and that is a very vital factor when you pick out your storage drive. The Preparation and In Between The drive will be formatted as NTFS with default settings, as most users will do. The quick format option isn't used as that might affect the performance the first time data is written. Modern operating systems all take care of the TRIM command in the background and it isn’t something to worry about for regular users. However, for these reviews, I will add a waiting period between each benchmark to make sure that the TRIM command has been fully executed and finished. After all, we want a clear picture of the drive’s performance with minimal interference from the operating system. On each page that follows with the benchmark results, I have inserted result screenshots from the benchmarks, created drive analysis chart for the fill-level performance, and added drive comparison charts where possible. Hardware Supermicro C7Z270-PG Intel Core i7-7700K Crucial Ballistix Sport DDR4 2400MHz (4x8GB) Toshiba OCZ VX500 512GB SSD be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 (1200W) Noctua NH-D15S Dimastech Easy V3 Software AIDA64 Storage Benchmark Anvil's Storage Utilities AS SSD Benchmark ATTO Benchmark CrystalDiskMark IOMeter PCMark 8 Storage Benchmark Windows 10 AIDA64 Storage Benchmark AIDA64 is a streamlined Windows diagnostic and benchmarking software for home users with a broad range of features to assist in overclocking, hardware error diagnosis, stress testing, and sensor monitoring. The app has unique capabilities to assess the performance of the processor, system memory, and disk drives and is compatible with most Microsoft Windows operating systems. It also has a disk benchmark tool, and that is the one I'll be using. Fresh Drive The Linear Read and Write tests measure the sequential performance by reading or writing all sectors without skipping any. It gives us a view of the drives overall performance from start to end. The Random Read and Write tests measure the random performance by reading or writing variable-sized data blocks at random locations on the surface of the drive. The Random tests are a combination of both speed and access times as it moves the position before each new operation. The Access time tests are designed to measure the data access performance by reading or writing small 0.5KB data blocks at random locations on the drive surface. Conditioned Drive The Linear Read and Write tests measure the sequential performance by reading or writing all sectors without skipping any. It gives us a view of the drives overall performance from start to end. The Random Read and Write tests measure the random performance by reading or writing variable-sized data blocks at random locations on the surface of the drive. The Random tests are a combination of both speed and access times as it moves the position before each new operation. The Access time tests are designed to measure the data access performance by reading or writing small 0.5KB data blocks at random locations on the drive surface. Drive Performance Analysis Anvil's Storage Utilities Anvil’s Storage Utilities is a complete benchmark solution used to test any writeable storage drive. It also has a drive endurance test that consistently reads and writes data to the selected medium to deliver days, months, and potentially even years of use in a shorter period. Fresh Drive Conditioned Drive Drive Performance Analysis Drive Comparison For the purpose of drive comparison, I will be using the performance figures from both unconditioned and conditioned tests with 0% data-fill. AS SSD Benchmark The AS SSD software determines the performance of Solid State Drives (SSD). The tool contains five synthetic and three practice tests. The synthetic tests determine the sequential and random read and write performance of the SSD, and they aren't using the operating system cache. Fresh Drive Conditioned Drive Performance Analysis Drive Comparison For the purpose of drive comparison, I will be using the performance figures from both unconditioned and conditioned tests with 0% data-fill. ATTO The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Measure your storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customise your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. Fresh Drive Conditioned Drive Performance Analysis Drive Comparison For the purpose of drive comparison, I will be using the performance figures from both unconditioned and conditioned tests with 0% data-fill. CrystalDiskMark CrystalDiskMark is a small HDD and SSD benchmark utility that allows you to measure a drive's sequential and random performance. Fresh Drive Conditioned Drive Performance Analysis Drive Comparison For the purpose of drive comparison, I will be using the performance figures from both unconditioned and conditioned tests with 0% data-fill. IOMeter IOMeter is an I/O subsystem measurement and characterization tool for single and clustered systems. As a benchmark and troubleshooting tool, it is configurable to replicate the behaviour of many popular applications. One commonly quoted measurement provided by the tool is IOPS. Sequential Performance Random 4K Performance Drive Comparison PCMark 8 Storage Benchmark PCMark 8 Storage benchmark tests the performance of SSDs, HDDs, and SSHD hybrid drives with traces recorded from Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office and a selection of games. You can test any recognised storage device, including local external drives. Unlike synthetic storage tests, the PCMark 8 Storage benchmark highlights real-world performance differences between storage devices. Fresh Drive Conditioned Drive Drive Comparison PCMark's storage test isn't purely drive-based and as such, the rest of the system has an impact on the scores. Drives which are marked by an asterisk are tested on a newer and more powerful system. That fact will cause improved scores for newly tested drives. PlexTurbo Benchmarks PlexTurbo is a Plextor-exclusive and it works with all their SATA-based drives. It is essentially a RAM disk coupled with an intelligent caching engine. PlexTurbo can boost your Plextor SSD's performance to a whole new level and it does so by utilising a little portion of your system memory. That portion will be used as a cache for hot files and also when writing to the drive. Besides a huge performance boost, there is the added benefit of a long-lasting storage drive. The system will perform less writes on your drive and thereby increase its lifetime. Win-Win. AIDA64 Storage Benchmark Anvil's Storage Utilities AS SSD Benchmark ATTO Disk Benchmark CrystalDiskMark PCMark 8 Storage Test Final Thoughts Pricing and Availability The S3 series availability varies at the time of review. I found the drive listed on Amazon UK for £80.52. The US version of Amazon only has the 128GB version listed at this time and they start at $49.99. Conclusion Today we saw another classic solid state drive and it was our first look at the new S3 series from Plextor. The S3C is a 2.5-inch 7mm drive which makes it compatible with almost any system. It isn't a groundbreaking drive as such, but it is an improvement over the predecessor. It uses a different SSD controller, the SM2254 instead of the SM2258, and 14nm TLC NAND instead of 16nm. The S3 series is designed to be an entry-level drive and it isn't one that will satisfy the enthusiasts. It is meant as a replacement for your old mechanical-driven HDD. Here, it will speed up your boot times and application loading. At the same time, it will decrease your system's noise generation, lower the power consumption of it, and decrease the chance of damage due to shocks. Light office work, web browsing, minor image editing, and media centres are tasks and functions in which the S3 will shine. While the above performance statement is true, there is a lot more potential when coupled with the software bonus. PlexTurbo can take your performance to a completely different level. The RAM disk feature also reduces disk writes which in return increases the life expectancy. There's also the compressor and vault apps which can increase your available space with compression algorithms and protect valuable files with passwords. These are bonuses you get with any Plextor SATA drive and they are real bonuses in my opinion. Pros Good for HDD replacement Full NAND capacity available Compatibility Increased value through software features Cons TLC NAND affects continuous writes "Whether your system is stationary or portable, the S3 will be a good replacement for your old and slow HDD." We would like to thank Plextor for this sample.