[Random] The LITE-ON/Plextor M3S 256GB SSD

[ikjadoon]

I recently received a Dell XPS L702x replacement laptop and it included a slightly odd LITE-ON/Plextor M3S 256GB SSD (model # LCT-256M3S). It's faster than the Plextor M3, but slower than the M3 Pro. The case is the lighter gray of the M3 Pro.

Plextor M3 256GB
Seq. Read: 510MB/s
Seq. Write: 360MB/s
4K Random Read: 70K IOPS
4K Random Write: 65K IOPS

Plextor M3 Pro 256GB
Seq. Read: 540MB/s
Seq. Write: 420MB/s
4K Random Read: 75K IOPS
4K Random Write: 68K IOPS

LITE-ON/Plextor M3S 256GB
Seq. Read: 520MB/s
Seq. Write: 420MB/s
4K Random Read: 74K IOPS
4K Random Write: 70K IOPS

A little different. Most surprising was the stock 50GB of overprovisioning: http://prntscr.com/flhle. 50GB! Maybe it was Dell or maybe LITE-ON/Plextor. Whoever: kudos and thanks,

~Ibrahim~

 

[Jocelyn84]

Could you screenshot the firmware in AS SSD? I'd be interested to see if it's using LITE-ON or Plextor FW.

Edit: Never mind, I missed the bit about LCT-256M3S. FWIW there is no difference between the M3 and M3 Pro, other than firmware.

 

[Hellhammer]

A little different. Most surprising was the stock 50GB of overprovisioning: http://prntscr.com/flhle. 50GB! Maybe it was Dell or maybe LITE-ON/Plextor. Whoever: kudos and thanks,

That's Dell because Lite-On/Plextor would have done that at the firmware level (i.e. the drive would show up as 200GB, the OP'ed space would be inaccessible by the OS).

FWIW there is no difference between the M3 and M3 Pro, other than firmware.

That is correct.

 

[ikjadoon]

AS SSD screenshot: http://prntscr.com/flszp

Right, it's some LITE-ON firmware. Since I'm pretty sure LITE-ON supplies Plextor, I wonder why the M3 would be slower than LITE-ON's "stock"?

@Hellhammer: oh, good point! Huh, I'm surprised Dell would do this, as they seemed to be the epitome of efficiency. I mean, is the everyday consumer going to see the difference between a well TRIM'd drive and an OK TRIM'd drive? Probably not...but, I appreciate the fact anyways!