Plextor SSD M3 review up - your experiences (and new 1.2 firmware)

[KingFatty]

FYI Anandtech has a review of the Plextor M3 SSD up:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5628/the-plextor-m3-review

I have the Plextor M3 128GB version, so it's nice to see some more analysis of plextor SSDs. Seems the review thinks the Plextor M3 performs slightly better than Crucial M4, and that the Plextor was somewhat surprising in performance?

Also noted that the review was done on an older version of the Plextor firmware, without testing the recently released version 1.2. Has anyone installed this newer version, does it offer improved performance?

The anantech review speculates that there probably won't be any additional performance improvements with the new/recent firmware, but that speculation is merely based on the concept that Plextor didn't specifically mention that the firmware was intended to increase performance. Kind of odd how the review makes the point that customized firmware is what sets drives apart and lets one drive distinguish itself, and then speculates that the newer firmware is probably not bringing any performance changes without testing that.

I wonder if the speculation is true (too bad Anantech couldn't actually do a quick and dirty test of the firmware to at least have some justification to their speculation whether performance increases with the new firmware). Anybody install it? I've been very pleased with my Plextor M3.

 

[bradley]

The new 1.2 M3S firmware doesn't show any speed increases, based on benches over at xtremeforums. I believe Plextor stated, in so many words, new firmware updates for the M3S will probably only fix existing bugs. This is probably as to not step on the toes of the newer higher-tiered M3P, which is the identical drive with slightly better tuned firmware.

IMO, in a highly competitive market, this decision to support two drives so closely released together (instead of supporting one truly fast drive) wasn't prudent and will probably come back to bite them. Otherwise the drive is amazing and on par with the fastest most stable drives currently on the market.

 

[Soulkeeper]

I own a 128GB plextor m3, and a 128GB crucial M4
side by side, they are both about the same speed
the limited benchmarks i've done seem to give me better write performance on the m3 and better read on the crucial m4. The performance differences are small and i'd consider them within the margin of error.

My IOZONE results
the second run of the M4 should represent the margin of error imo, that was right after issuing a trim

I personally prefer my crucial M4 because the smart output is more complete, dunno if others noticed this ?

 

[bradley]

The sweet spot for price performance ratio with the M3S seems to be 256 GB, where both the M3S and M3P are equal performers. In the 128GB class, the M3P shows itself to be much faster, the M3S is effectively gimped. Perhaps someone will figure out a way to flash the M3S with M3P firmware. Either way, the lack of valid SMART data does suck in an enthusiast drive.

 

[Topweasel]

The new 1.2 M3S firmware doesn't show any speed increases, based on benches over at xtremeforums. I believe Plextor stated, in so many words, new firmware updates for the M3S will probably only fix existing bugs. This is probably as to not step on the toes of the newer higher-tiered M3P, which is the identical drive with slightly better tuned firmware.

IMO, in a highly competitive market, this decision to support two drives so closely released together (instead of supporting one truly fast drive) wasn't prudent and will probably come back to bite them. Otherwise the drive is amazing and on par with the fastest most stable drives currently on the market.

Sure it does. Crucial does it too, heck, when you think of it just about every manufacturer does it. WD, Seagate. They all make enterprise and proffesional based drives sold at a mark up. Difference is that only a few times does it actually mean a better drive. Instead they just mark up the MSFT or lower the specs slightly to increase reliability. Instead they took the Nvidia/ATI route of making a small firmware difference, to give a slightly better performance to the drives targeted at a higher market.

Best way to think about it this way. No matter where they sit in performance it has to be a price competitive drive. Which this one is. If that one isn't then its not us that needs to worry its Plextor.

 

[bradley]

Sure it does. Crucial does it too, heck, when you think of it just about every manufacturer does it. WD, Seagate. They all make enterprise and proffesional based drives sold at a mark up. Difference is that only a few times does it actually mean a better drive. Instead they just mark up the MSFT or lower the specs slightly to increase reliability. Instead they took the Nvidia/ATI route of making a small firmware difference, to give a slightly better performance to the drives targeted at a higher market.

I definitely agree. The only problem is that Plextor isn't comparible to those big brand names with revenues in the billions: Micron/Crucial, Samsung, WD etc, not even OCZ. They are once again this tiny little upstart, with hardly any market recognition, trying to forge a name for themselves.

So Plextor making their mark by branding two identical drives with slightly different firmware probably won't cut it. The decision has only served to create more confusion. That confusion is compounded with a naming scheme so close to Crucial's M4. At least choosing 'M5' would have made the branding seem by design and not chance.

 

[Topweasel]

Its not chance they both worked up to this point. M4 is the 4th gen SSD, but since its primarily aimed at oem sales compared to Enthusiast it's named after the parent company, Micron Technologies. The C300 after Crucial the retail sales branch. The M4 has done better then the C300 and now has more of a retail presence, but that wasn't the plan. The M3 on Plextors end has more to do with their designation with the Marvel chip. This is their Third generation SSD and M for the manufacturer of the controller. The M4 also launched after Plextor's M2.

As for Plextor themselves. They are again a boutique performance component company. But they learned their lessons. They had to sell re-branded Burners along with their developed stuff, or they weren't going to sell much. Today they get the option to offer a drive price and performance and reliability competitive with the best out there and another slightly tweaked for a little bit more power that they can sell for more margin.

I don't get the downside. They have a total of like 6 products. Its not like they are flooding the market with options, with smaller differences.

 

[bradley]

I think you missed the point. To the average user, M4 is clearly better than M3, since the number is higher.

I am basing my observations on comments culled from Plextor's own forum. Average users are confused as to the naming scheme and performance levels.

Also... in the comments section of Anand's own review, very little is about the drive itself and more about the obscurity of the Plextor brand-name. Ouch. The review pretty much makes the same main points. I also agree with Kristian Vatto about their pricing scheme being slightly unrealistic. The 128GB M3S performs not much better than the highly-regarded M4, and should be priced accordingly.

I would rather see small companies such as Plextor better focus and hone their energy/resources/priorities. They will only make a name by attempting to place their best foot forward and getting the word out there. I would be hammering home their high build quality and stability, excellent real-world speed and gc, great warranty, low power consumption. Meanwhile their best M3P does not have nearly the same availability as the M3S.

I couldn't even find any decent reviews for almost a month, and decided to publish my own more comprehensive benchmarks on this forum. In a fast-paced industry, that's almost criminal. The fact that OCZ's Vertex is being lauded as being "the first of its kind," when it lags in a few benches to older drives, shows just how much is lacking even in Plextor's marketing. Nevertheless, that's entirely another story.

 

[bryanW1995]

Price relative to the listed msrp of the m4 isn't too bad, I was more concerned to see that the m3 is nearly identical in pricing with the 520 on the high volume 128 and 256gb models. No offense to plextor, but even with a sandforce controller I would take intel for the same price every time. Also, the m4 has had lots of sales recently, it was only $550 for a 512gb model yesterday. And Samsung is nearly the same price as both the intel and plextor, it's a crowded market out there.

From looking at the Anandtech storage bench tests, I'd say the m3 is clearly superior to the m4 at least.

 

[Topweasel]

I think you missed the point. To the average user, M4 is clearly better than M3, since the number is higher.

I am basing my observations on comments culled from Plextor's own forum. Average users are confused as to the naming scheme and performance levels.

Also... in the comments section of Anand's own review, very little is about the drive itself and more about the obscurity of the Plextor brand-name. Ouch. The review pretty much makes the same main points. I also agree with Kristian Vatto about their pricing scheme being slightly unrealistic. The 128GB M3S performs not much better than the highly-regarded M4, and should be priced accordingly.

I would rather see small companies such as Plextor better focus and hone their energy/resources/priorities. They will only make a name by attempting to place their best foot forward and getting the word out there. I would be hammering home their high build quality and stability, excellent real-world speed and gc, great warranty, low power consumption. Meanwhile their best M3P does not have nearly the same availability as the M3S.

I couldn't even find any decent reviews for almost a month, and decided to publish my own more comprehensive benchmarks on this forum. In a fast-paced industry, that's almost criminal. The fact that OCZ's Vertex is being lauded as being "the first of its kind," when it lags in a few benches to older drives, shows just how much is lacking even in Plextor's marketing. Nevertheless, that's entirely another story.

Even when Plextor was at the top of their game most people didn't know them. You seem to think their goal is to be king of the world. They have always been a low volume vender and the one time they tried to get a true retail presence it only lasted half a year.

You want to say they should get their stuff out to reviewers, that one thing. But I am not sure naming their drives, or having a workstation oriented variation is really that much of a concern. Plextor has always lived its life on people who know and word of mouth. Newegg runs a sale that makes it cheaper then an M4 and people will give it a chance because and then they start recommending it.

As for whether its a scam I can't tell you. What I can tell you is that Seagate and WD charges almost a 75% increase in price for the part with the only difference being that they give it a higher MTBF and certify it for use in RAID. So what if Plextor charges an extra $50 for a professional drive that actually provides 50MB/s in writes. The end point is most people are worried about reads, those seem unchanged. They just kicked up the writes for professional drives (guess who cares more about writes). It's sensible, if there is so little difference, then buy the price and performance competitive for users drive. If you need something with a little more write ooomph then compare its cost and performance to other drives.

 

[Topweasel]

Price relative to the listed msrp of the m4 isn't too bad, I was more concerned to see that the m3 is nearly identical in pricing with the 520. No offense to plextor, but even with a sandforce controller I would take intel for the same price every time. Also, the m4 has had lots of sales recently, it was only $550 for a 512gb model yesterday.

From looking at the Anandtech storage bench tests, I'd say the m3 is clearly superior to the m4 at least.

Besides the fact that all the Intel options are several GB smaller then their closest M4/M3 competitors, I think you can see from the pricing of most SSD's that the prices have basically bottomed out to $100-64 $170-128 $330-256. Ithink the margins are probably a lot tighter then we think, because it seems to only change week to week on which is on sale and by how much. We probably won't see a dramatic difference in pricing till the next big shrink hits. Then 512GB prices will bottom out with 1TB prices starting to be the big margin medium volume items.

When you look at it that way it makes sense to make a Pro/enterprise line.

 

[bradley]

The objective of any business (and Plextor is no different): making the most money possible and maximizing profits, while good consumers know how to save money. Speaking as a frugal enthusiast, I'm hard pressed to recommend the Plextor M3S 256GB when the Samsung 830 retails $40 cheaper.

Yet, if forced to pick between the two drives, I find the Plextor more resilient than the Samsung, and equally as snappy. Ultimately, the small window of opportunity Plextor had with their fastest current drive status has almost been squandered, which is sad. Again, I personally would have spent more effort marketing one drive, than building two similarly performing drives.

 

[zokudu]

The m4 is selling for $154 right now this Plextor drive is $179. As of this moment I would say take the m4.

 

[Jocelyn84]

The objective of any business (and Plextor is no different): making the most money possible and maximizing profits, while good consumers know how to save money. Speaking as a frugal enthusiast, I'm hard pressed to recommend the Plextor M3S 256GB when the Samsung 830 retails $40 cheaper.

Yet, if forced to pick between the two drives, I find the Plextor more resilient than the Samsung, and equally as snappy. Ultimately, the small window of opportunity Plextor had with their fastest current drive status has almost been squandered, which is sad. Again, I personally would have spent more effort marketing one drive, than building two similarly performing drives.

Well sure but it varies from week to week. I got my 256GB M3 for $290 in February and the 830 couldn't be found for less than $340 at the time. It's not entirely Plextor's fault they're not on sale.

The m4 is selling for $154 right now this Plextor drive is $179. As of this moment I would say take the m4.

Again the 128GB was $150 a week or two ago. I know not everyone needs a 2.5 to 3.5 bracket, but I'd at least be comparing the price of the m4 model that comes with one.

Sent from my Samsung Epic 4G Touch using Tapatalk

 

[zokudu]

Well sure but it varies from week to week. I got my 256GB M3 for $290 in February and the 830 couldn't be found for less than $340 at the time. It's not entirely Plextor's fault they're not on sale.



Again the 128GB was $150 a week or two ago. I know not everyone needs a 2.5 to 3.5 bracket, but I'd at least be comparing the price of the m4 model that comes with one.

Sent from my Samsung Epic 4G Touch using Tapatalk

That's the price for the package with a 2.5 to 3.5 adapter. I know because I bought one yesterday. But really I think it comes down to it's a decent buy if you can get it for cheaper than the alternatives. Just like with most SSDs.