Plextor M5 Pro: an other step forward

[Callsign_Vega]

Ugg, I've been holding off on re-installing Windows waiting for the M5P. If Plextor put these drives on a cargo ship that stinks. You can fit thousands of these things on a pallet for air-freight and would only cost a dollar or two more per drive which I'd gladly pay for.

I might just break down and get the M3 Pro. In the TT review it actually did slightly better than the M5P in the Vantage disk tests.

[Highendtoys]

I can tell you that both drives are very fast. If you are going notebooks, wait for the M5P as it should pull less power. I'm working on those tests now.

BUT, something now is coming in just a few days and if I were you......

[Zaxx]

BUT, something now is coming in just a few days and if I were you......

I know I'm chomping at the bit to see what the Indilinx Barefoot 3 can do...fingers crossed.

[UranusFX]

Looks like there margin of stock has still well. except 512G.

Akiba's PC Parts Watch (Plextor M5 Pro)
http://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/...14_553218.html

PC DIY SHOP FreeT / Faith / SOFMAP / Ark : 512G selling very well. it's cheap.
TSUKUMO eX. / Twotop : 256G has popular. some sold out.
DOSPARA : Many people buy two drives. for RAID?
ZOA : 128G selling fairly. 256G is not in much demand.
Pasoconhouse Toei : Order? Stock? Had not seen the e-mail from distributor. HAHA...

[Callsign_Vega]

I got impatient while waiting for the M5P and I got in a 256GB Plextor M3Pro in to play around with. Not too impressed so far:




128 GB Vertex 4:




Not sure why the M3Pro has this low of results, I thought they would be higher. Certainly higher than a 128 GB Vertex 4. Another extremely annoying thing with this Plextor drive is no simple way to secure erase. With OCZ Vertex 4 you can use windows Toolbox or Linux boot up disk. I don't know what crack Plextor was smoking when they decided to make their Windows Plextool set to only secure erase "external drives". The Plextor HBA is locked and even DOS HDDERASE won't send the secure erase command. I guess I'll have to try Ubuntu HDparm. So far not particularly impressed with the $270 M3Pro.

[Callsign_Vega]

OMFG this Plextor is a PITA. Time to do something basic like secure erase a SSD with the Vertex 4: 2 seconds. Time with the M3Pro, 4 hours and unsuccessful. Let's see, Plextor's "Plextool" is completely worthless and doesn't send secure erase commands, HBA is shown as locked even when the drive isn't locked with HDDERASE in DOS, Ubuntu HDParm gives an input/output error with the drive not being locked, Parted Magic doesn't boot and goes to fail-safe main text menu. That's where I gave up. Tried all of the above in IDE and AHCI modes. Seriously glad I didn't wait for the M5P if Plextor drives are this archaic and difficult to work with.

EDIT: Downloaded an ancient Parted Magic that worked and finally got the secure erase to work. Plextor needs to get off their behinds and make a proper tool to secure erase like everyone else.

[Nizzen]

I got impatient while waiting for the M5P and I got in a 256GB Plextor M3Pro in to play around with. Not too impressed so far:




128 GB Vertex 4:




Not sure why the M3Pro has this low of results, I thought they would be higher. Certainly higher than a 128 GB Vertex 4. Another extremely annoying thing with this Plextor drive is no simple way to secure erase. With OCZ Vertex 4 you can use windows Toolbox or Linux boot up disk. I don't know what crack Plextor was smoking when they decided to make their Windows Plextool set to only secure erase "external drives". The Plextor HBA is locked and even DOS HDDERASE won't send the secure erase command. I guess I'll have to try Ubuntu HDparm. So far not particularly impressed with the $270 M3Pro.

Do not look at the total score. Look at the individual scores. Then you will see that M3p wins where it counts

Read reliability :p

[johnw]

OMFG this Plextor is a PITA. Time to do something basic like secure erase a SSD with the Vertex 4: 2 seconds. Time with the M3Pro, 4 hours and unsuccessful. Let's see, Plextor's "Plextool" is completely worthless and doesn't send secure erase commands, HBA is shown as locked even when the drive isn't locked with HDDERASE in DOS, Ubuntu HDParm gives an input/output error with the drive not being locked, Parted Magic doesn't boot and goes to fail-safe main text menu. That's where I gave up. Tried all of the above in IDE and AHCI modes. Seriously glad I didn't wait for the M5P if Plextor drives are this archaic and difficult to work with.

I suggest you try to calm down and think clearly. Also, Parted Magic should be able to secure erase any SSD. If you cannot boot it, then it is hardly the SSD's fault.

I have a 256GB Plextor M3P and I have secure erased it several times during testing. It is straightforward enough, except for one thing (which is NOT unique to Plextor) -- if I boot my machine with the SSD connected, the BIOS sends a "freeze" command to the SSD, and when the SSD is frozen it will not accept a secure erase command. This is supposed to prevent a trojan infecting your system and erasing your SSDs, although it doesn't make a lot of sense, and I've seen several SSDs that do it. The reason I don't think it makes much sense is because you can also wipe an SSD quickly by TRIMming all sectors, and TRIM can be done even on a frozen SSD.

Anyway, what you need to do is boot without the SSD attached (or leave SATA attached but no power), and then attach (or power up) the SSD after booting. Or just power-cycle the SSD by unplugging the power, waiting, and then restoring the power.

I usually run linux when I am testing SSDs, so this is how I secure erase:

# hdparm -I /dev/sd_

That is not necessary, but it shows whether the SSD is frozen, which is useful to know if you are having trouble. You can also check if the SSD supports enhanced erase (the Plextor does).

# hdparm --security-set-pass NULL /dev/sd_

You can assign any password you like, but it is necessary to assign one before hdparm will do a security erase.

# hdparm --security-erase-enhanced NULL /dev/sd_

The password must match the one assigned previously.

And that's it. It takes less than 30 seconds for a 256GB M3P.

If you prefer a GUI, then parted magic should work (it just calls hdparm behind the scenes). If you explain your hardware setup and exactly the problem you are having with getting parted magic to boot, I may be able to give you some suggestions to try.

[johnw]

Do not look at the total score. Look at the individual scores. Then you will see that M3p wins where it counts

Agreed. Also, his sequential read and 4K-64 random write look low. Here is mine:

[Highendtoys]

Parted Magic has been able to SE every drive I've used it with except for one. That one drive was an ES drive and it was later fixed in development so you are good with Parted Magic. Also, every SSD will show as frozen if it's attached when you boot. Parted Magic will ask you to enter a sleep mode, just do it and hit your space bar to wake the system up. Go through the procedure for SE again and you are good. The longest it has ever taken to SE an SSD is about 1 minute and that was a thrashed 480GB.

As for the Barefoot 3 comment, yeah that one will be exciting as well. Hopefully OCZ has the money to spin their own silicon.

[Zaxx]

As for the Barefoot 3 comment, yeah that one will be exciting as well. Hopefully OCZ has the money to spin their own silicon.

That'll depend on if Seagate (or Micron by rumor) reaches a deal to buy Ocz, giving them a much needed cash infusion and access to vast validation resources. Ryan Peterson mentioned that they are prepared to borrow the production $ if need be. Tho overpriced atm...Ocz is ripe for the picking for a any major player to make a big entrance into the consumer ssd market.

[Callsign_Vega]

Got my Plextor M3Pro OS drive working properly. I used the latest 11.5 and it said "this driver isn't guaranteed to work blah blah" and I forced it to install. Now the numbers are great:



No one should be using the C600 X79 Intel drivers those things are horrible.

[UranusFX]

hermitage Review Vol.169 PLEXTOR M5 Pro
http://www.gdm.or.jp/review/ssd/plex.../index_01.html

[dctokyo]

hermitage Review Vol.169 PLEXTOR M5 Pro
http://www.gdm.or.jp/review/ssd/plex.../index_01.html

Those charts came from a special Plextor event held for Plextor VIP members that I attend in Akihabara.

[Zaxx]

Until the M5Ps fw matures to work better with the new 19nm toggle, AnandTech doesn't think there's as much of a performance increase over the M3P as there could be.

"Despite not breaking any records, the M5 Pro is a good drive. Without any huge increases in performance via firmware updates however, the M5 Pro needs to be competitive on price. The M3 Pro wasn't priced as aggressively as it needed to be, but with the M5 Pro Plextor has another chance."


M5P AnandTech Review

[dctokyo]

Until the M5Ps fw matures to work better with the new 19nm toggle, AnandTech doesn't think there's as much of a performance increase over the M3P as there could be.

"Despite not breaking any records, the M5 Pro is a good drive. Without any huge increases in performance via firmware updates however, the M5 Pro needs to be competitive on price. The M3 Pro wasn't priced as aggressively as it needed to be, but with the M5 Pro Plextor has another chance."


M5P AnandTech Review

Man, sorry to hear that you guy's are getting ripped off there in the states. I can get a M5P for around "$220" and it comes with a 5 year warranty... A OCZ Vertex 4 is only a couple of dollars cheaper at around "$216" and it comes with a 3 year warranty only

[canthearu]

So far not particularly impressed with the $270 M3Pro.

Compare how the M3P ran in comparison to my Vertex 4 on the endurance thread .... the vertex 4 was a lot slower, and lasted half as long.

The vertex 4 uses some special tricks to get such high scores ... which means it isn't a particularly good drive to give a good thrashing to.

Edit: I got a liteon LZT-128, which is very similar performance-wise to the M3P, but a lot cheaper here in Au. The Liteon S100 is a more direct clone of the Plextor M3P.

My 128gig drive result (on z77 chipset):

[bamtan2]

m5p doesnt perform as well as the hardware indicates it should. I assume this is because the hardware is all new, whereas the previous generation ssds are all old hardware with over a year of firmware tweaking done to them. I expect m5p to be much faster than m3p in one year. but will it get better fast enough to warrant buying it before something better comes out. that is the question.

I wish I could say that no one should buy it if the prices stay japanese-high. but there are not many good, fast, 5 year warranty 512gb ssds to choose from.

[zads]

I will know more about 20nm this time next week when I meet with some people closer to the action. When I saw IMFT 20nm at Computex and played with a working drive you could tell that it was a lot slower than 19nm. At Computex 19nm was ready to go and we have proof of that now with the P5 Pro.

I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see 20nm until 2013....but they are still saying 2012 as of right now.

20nm Intel or Micron, on who's controller?
You'll see it soon enough.. I can't wait for the nerd forum rage to commence.

[johnw]

The 128GB Plextor M5P is now available on newegg.com. The 256GB and 512GB are not yet on newegg.

[canthearu]

20nm Intel or Micron, on who's controller?
You'll see it soon enough.. I can't wait for the nerd forum rage to commence.

Lol, what is there to get angry about .... the longer it takes to get 20nm out, the better.

It will likely be a little slower then 25nm, have weaker endurance, and it won't immediately cause prices to drop further.

However, it won't be the end of the world either, as it will probably be a little bit more reliable then 25nm NAND, and will eventually allow for further price drops and the introduction of 1tb SSDs.

[automaton]

the 128gb ver is for sale at newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820249026

[automaton]

http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=150954

http://www.johnnylucky.org/data-stor...-database.html

heres some ssd reviews the johny lucky has several of the m5 pro also you can preorder at ncix usa

[jimba86]

So are these plexor drivers any better compared to say a intel or OCZ or crucial SSD?

the one thing that has put me off SSD's is the high failure rate of some of them.

[johnw]

Anything is better than OCZ when it comes to quality. OCZ has a long history of selling low quality SSDs with gimmicks to make them look good in reviews. Definitely avoid OCZ products.

Sandforce SSDs are also problematic historically. There have been numerous problems with Sandforce drives during the past few years, the worst being random crashing (BSOD), but there have been many other issues. The most recent problems are broken AES encryption and TRIM not working for months until a very recent firmware update (that may not have made it to all Sandforce SSDs yet).

But choosing a good SSD now is simple. The best value (good price, good quality, good performance) is the Samsung 830, and the best SSD (best quality and performance, 5 year warranty) is the Plextor M3P or M5P.

Here's Plextor's description of their preproduction and burn-in tests that they use to ensure quality:

http://www.goplextor.com/asia/index.php/ssd/m5-pro

With the M5Pro, Plextor has focused on developing and supplying one of the most stable drives on the market. To achieve this, extensive pre-production testing took place using the world’s most advanced SSD testing facilities - FLEXSTAR testing chamber. It was only when the design was able to pass strict enterprise-grade Zero Error standard of 400 units surviving 500 hours of the toughest continuous testing without a single error or failure that the drive was approved. To ensure stability and reliability for individual drives all drives undergo rigorous high-temperature burn-in tests and accelerated usage simulation testing.


Preproduction tested for professional use in Plextor’s state-of-the-art testing facilities. Rigorous operational and environmental tests resulting in drive with an impressive MTBF of 2.4 million hours.

48hr Sustained Read and Write Test
Two days continuous 4K file read / write test, zero error pass requirement.
4000 Times Idle Test–Sleep and Hibernation Test
After 24 hrs read & write SSD enters sleep (S3) mode and is woken after 5 minutes, repeated for hibernation (S4) mode, zero error pass requirement.
250 Times Power Cycle–Cold and Warm Boot Tests
Continuous cold boot and warm boot cycles 250 times, zero error pass requirement.