New Plextor M3 Pro: push Marvell, push :D

[Gilgamesh]

At CES2012:

http://hothardware.com/News/Plextor-...rive-Goes-Pro/
http://www.storagereview.com/plextor..._ssd_announced

The M3 Pro Series uses high-grade 24nm Toggle Flash memory, includes updated firmware, and boasts a new 7mm height form factor for use in ultra-slim notebooks. Sequential read and write speeds have been bumped up to 540MB/s and 450MB/s, respectively, and random read/write speeds have gone up about 7 percent to 75,000/69,000 IOPS.

The M3 Pro Series will be available in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB capacities in "early 2012." No word yet on price.

5 years warranty as PX-M3.

[Cyber-Mav]

how reliable is the marvell controller? im guessing anything is more reliable than sandforce.

[OS-Wiz]

Most non-Sandforce SSDs enjoy equal or better performance and better reliability. The Crucial M4 and Samsung 830 series SSDs currently sit on top of the performance/reliability curve. We'll have to wait and see how Plextor's latest effort goes. A good site for all things SSD is here: http://thessdreview.com/category/our-reviews/sata-3/

EDIT: removed some incorrect info

[johnw]

Marvel is slowly making a come back from their bad start.

What bad start? The Crucial C300 was the first widely available SSD to use the Marvell controller (that I recall), and that was a great SSD. Then came the Intel 510 and the Crucial m4, two other excellent SSDs. The Corsair Performance 3 (the predecessor to the Performance Pro) was not bad either. I cannot think of a single SSD with a Marvell controller that was bad.

[Gilgamesh]

Marvel is slowly making a come back from their bad start. Most non-Sandforce SSDs enjoy equal or better performance and better reliability. The Crucial M4 and Samsung 830 series SSDs currently sit on top of the performance/reliability curve. We'll have to wait and see how Plextor's latest effort goes. A good site for all things SSD is here: http://thessdreview.com/category/our-reviews/sata-3/

Bad start?

No-Sandforce ssds consumer are: Indilinx Barefoot/Everest (Vertex Plus/Octane), Intel 320 series, Toshiba (Kingston V+100), JMicron (Kingston V200) and Samsung (470 and 830 series) and ALL have worst performance.

Just only Samsung 830 can pair Marvell controller (some test win, sequential write, in other lose, 4K).

And for reability, just only Intel x25-M G2 can beat Crucial C300:
http://www.behardware.com/articles/8...s-rates-5.html

next april/may, you will see new analisys with Sandforce SF-22xx, Intel 320, Samsung 470 and Crucial M4

For Plextor, I can just refer on product page, no third part analysis:
http://www.plextoramericas.com/index.../px-m2p-series

"Before leaving the factory, each drive goes through the most rigorous tests in the industry, including a 20-hour high temperature burn-in test and strenuous simulations of real-world working environments. Reflecting its commitment to excellence, Plextor’s SSDs have an average annual failure rate of 0.5%, one of the lowest in the industry."

There are only 2 other ssd with 5 years warranty: Intel 320 series and OWC Mercury Extreme Pro.

[Anvil]

Marvel is slowly making a come back from their bad start.
...

You might got Marvell and JMicron mixed?

[DooRules]

The Intel 520 also has a five year warranty.

[OS-Wiz]

You might got Marvell and JMicron mixed?

Hmmm, wish I'd never said that now. I read one thing, wrote about another. Geez!

[Computurd]

interesting, i have this SSD right before me

[felix_w]

interesting, i have this SSD right before me

...is it begging for benchmarks ?

[Computurd]

yes but this pile of a very new sort of Intel is REALLY begging, and that has to be done very very soon as well..you know...release and all

[railmeat]

You might got Marvell and JMicron mixed?

thought jmicron made the mem,not the controller...i had the c300 yrs ago....buggy on intels chipset,latest firmware,and drivers on intel mobo.

[railmeat]

interesting, i have this SSD right before me

????

[Computurd]

actually it is not the pro version

[Gilgamesh]

Review Plextor PX-256M3 vs PX-256M3P
http://www.gdm.or.jp/review/itten/ss.../index_01.html

Plextor PX-256M3



Plextor PX-256M3P

[Ao1]

Nice

Plextor have posted some benches on their web site, including AS SSD, which for some reason they made nearly impossible to read. It looks like 4K read is 31.73MB/s and sequential read 493.25MB/s. This has got to be the fastest SSD on the market at the moment?

http://www.plextor-digital.com/index.../px-256m3.html

Their web site claims 0.5% average annual failure rate (AFR).

[Christopher]

I'm liking what Plextor is doing. If you're shopping at 128GB, the M2S is the way to go, but at 256 the M3P is what you want.

Interestingly, I had initially thought Samsung's 27nm and Toshiba's 24nm to be quite similar, but I do not think this is the case.

Oh, and I also thought it not out of the realm of possibility that Marvell could be powering Cherryville. Especially when you consider that steady state performance is much better with Marvell than Sandforce... by a lot.

[iboomalot]

newegg only has the M3 without the P for sale

still going to heads abover my 10K VRs

[Christopher]

You know, I think the M3 64GB is using 32gbit devices (similar to the 830).

[johnw]

The Plextor M3P has not been officially released yet, at least not in the US. If you want to see the specifications, you can look at them on Plextor's Asia website (but not US or UK):

http://www.goplextor.com/Asia/index....3pro/px-256m3p

Judging from the CDM in the review Gilgamesh linked to, it seems the performance of the M3P is very close to that of the M2P. So the move to smaller flash does not seem to have been an issue for Plextor.

Since the Corsair Performance Pro is almost identical to the Plextor M2P, I wonder if Corsiar will simply switch the CPP to using the Plextor M3P, or if Corsair will introduce a new model to be a rebadge of the Plextor M3P. Either way, I guess the Plextor will be a better choice than the Corsair, because Plextor is offering a 5 year warranty (vs. 3 years from Corsair), and Plextor has released some minor firmware updates for the M2P, but Corsair has no firmware updates for the CPP.

[iboomalot]

Pro says 75,000/69,000 IOPS and 540/450 MB/s sequential read and write speeds

non Pro says 70,000/65,000 IOPS amd 510/360 MB/s

Is that ever going to be noticed??? Reason I ask is my non-pro just shipped from newegg I could wait a month for the pro to come out but then again it might costs more too hummmmm

[johnw]

Pro says 75,000/69,000 IOPS and 540/450 MB/s sequential read and write speeds

non Pro says 70,000/65,000 IOPS amd 510/360 MB/s

Is that ever going to be noticed??? Reason I ask is my non-pro just shipped from newegg I could wait a month for the pro to come out but then again it might costs more too hummmmm

If you don't have a specific need for a certain speed (you'd know if you did), then no, you probably will not notice the difference.

[Christopher]

I don't know whether the M3P's smaller versions will use 32Gbit devices, though the M3S's smaller cap drives surely benefits from them. I thought it noteworthy as I thought this was one area in which Samsung had an advantage -- if they want to put 32gbit devices in 64/128GB drives, they can just make up a batch of appropriate NAND. I'm thinking the M3S would be a good testing drive -- it seems like a dead ringer for the 830 64GB.

The M3S does use about half the power of the M2P (from what I've seen).

I wonder if Corsair is just rebranding the Plextor drives.

Pro says 75,000/69,000 IOPS and 540/450 MB/s sequential read and write speeds

non Pro says 70,000/65,000 IOPS amd 510/360 MB/s

Is that ever going to be noticed??? Reason I ask is my non-pro just shipped from newegg I could wait a month for the pro to come out but then again it might costs more too hummmmm

I'm with johnw on this. Truth is, sometimes I have a hard time telling which SSD in my system is which particular drive, at least based on performance (I rotate through quite a few SSDs on a weekly basis).


Besides, the Plextors are sorta hard to find, period. Newegg has them, then doesn't, then posts ridiculous ETAs for new shipments of out-of-stock drives.

[iboomalot]

not even sure why I care at this point since my current i7-920 setup is sata 2 anyways

I guess I will get a nice surprise when I upgrade to sata3 in a few months

Thanks for the input

[Christopher]

not even sure why I care at this point since my current i7-920 setup is sata 2 anyways

I guess I will get a nice surprise when I upgrade to sata3 in a few months

Thanks for the input

Honestly, you might not even notice under most circumstances.