Plextor M6e A no-frills M.2 2280 option

Using the PCIe 2.0 x2 interface, rather than SATA 6Gbps, the Plextor SSD comes in 128GB (as tested), 256GB and 512GB models. It uses the standard M.2 2280 form factor, measuring in at 80mm long, 22mm wide, 3.8mm thick and weighing 13g. The drive doesn’t include any accessories — you’ll need a compatible PCIe M.2 slot or PCIe adaptor card to use it. The Plextor M6e SSD uses the Marvell 88SS9183 controller to drive Toshiba 19nm MLC NAND and has a 256MB DDR3 DRAM cache. Performance is faster than what the limited SATA 6Gbps interface can handle, with sequential reads hitting 659MB/s. Write speeds are limited in the 128GB model and only manages 329MB/s — the larger-capacity drives should hit 500MB/s plus. The M6e performed well at random 4K reads and writes and on par with the Plextor Black Edition SSD. The 128GB M.2 is rated for 96,000/83,000 read/write IOPS. Plextor doesn’t provide an endurance rating for the drive, though the company does back it with a fi ve-year warranty. The SSD comes with a suite of software, such as PlexTurbo, which can use some of your system RAM as an SSD cache to further boost performance as well as increase lifespan. The M6e supports 256-bit AES encryption and can run as a boot device.