Plextor S3G 256GB M.2 SATA3 Solid State Drive Review

Introduction Today we're looking at Plextor's S3G which is the M.2 version of the new S3 drive series. While it is an M.2 module, it is SATA-based and not an NVMe drive. That does make it a little slower in comparison, but it also makes it more affordable. There's also the fact that it isn't everyone who needs the performance which an NVMe drive brings along. Design There isn't a whole lot to say to the drive design. The S3G is a bare M.2 module which leaves little open to the imagination. It is a 2280 form factor which should make it compatible with most systems. Some compact system only allow for 2242 and 2260 sized modules, so make sure you check your system's specifications before you purchase your drive. That's a great idea at any time and on any hardware part. Check the compatibility first. Capacity and Model Options Besides the M.2 model, the S3 series also features a 2.5-inch version. We've previously had a look at them. The S3G M.2 drive comes in two capacity options, 128GB and 256GB. Being a bare M.2 drive, it is well suited for netbook and similar systems. Those kinds of systems don't need a lot of local storage and rely a lot on remote file access and cloud storage. With that in mind, the capacity options are right on the spot. There's still plenty of space for the operating system as well as for documents and files that need to be local. Performance and Endurance 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 S3G 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. 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. Controller, NAND, and Features Plextor's S3G utilises a Silicon Motion (SMI) SM2254 controller and SK Hynix 14nm TLC NAND. The 128GB version features 256MB DDR3 cache while the larger version has 512MB DDR3 cache. The amount of cache is the same as the previous S2 series, but the rest of the S3 is different. We get a different controller as well as advancements in NAND fabrication from 16nm to 14nm. 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 and 256GB instead of 240GB. Effectively, that means more capacity for same-priced items. The reason is that other companies often use over-provisioning to compensate for limitations, but Plextor's technology doesn't need that. 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 a 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. Packaging and Accessories An M.2 module doesn't need a whole lot of packaging which is no exception for the Plextor S3G. It comes in a simple blister package with all the vital information on the front label. Besides the drive itself, you also get a replacement screw for your M.2 slot, just in case you misplaced the original one. 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. 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 of 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 Cooler Master HAF XB EVO 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 At the time of review, the drive was only found listed on Polish websites for pre-order. There, it starts at €97.25. We can expect it to arrive in other markets at a very similar price point. Conclusion M.2 isn't generally as common a form factor as the 2.5-inch is, but it's getting there. Plextor's S3 series comes in both and today we looked at the M.2 version. The small and thin form factor makes it perfect for space restrained systems such as SFF systems and ultrabooks. A lot of the times, those systems won't have space for a 2.5-inch 7mm drive. The S3G is a great example of such a drive, on a budget and compatible with older systems. The fact that it isn't NVMe makes it a little slower, but also compatible with more systems. The S3 is best when reading and not as great when writing a lot of data, which is common in this product segment. That said, what it does, it does well. It's also an improvement over the previous series, the S2. We aren't breaking any speed records with this drive, but there are situations where it would be useful. Media and web-surfing PCs that only play some videos and music, surf the internet, and do a little light office work such as letter writing, then the S3G will boost you to speeds your old mechanical hard drive simply can't. And that's what it is built for, when it comes down to it. As a better alternative to loud, power-hungry, and slow mechanical HDDs. However, PlexTurbo does add another factor to the table. By using a little portion of your system's memory, the drive can boost the performance to a new length. It is essentially a RAM disk, but it works great and it makes a noticeable difference. It also increases the endurance of your drive by performing less writes to it. Last but not least, the drive is backed by a nice 3-year warranty. Pros Good upgrade choice from HDD Full NAND capacity available Compatibility with older devices Increased value through software features Cons TLC NAND affects continuous writes "The S3G is Plextor's M.2 version in the S3 series. It's a budget-friendly drive in a small form factor for an increased system performance when compared to HDDs." We would like to thank Plextor for this sample.