Plextor M6M mSATA SSD (256GB) Review – Reliable Storage In A Small Package

CRYSTAL DISK BENCHMARK VER. 3.0.3 x64

Crystal Disk Benchmark is visually straightforward, and is used for measuring the speeds at which your storage device reads and writes in both compressible (oFill/1Fill) and random, mostly incompressible, data. Random data is more consistent with everyday use of a computer, such as transferring videos, pictures and music. We run the benchmark twice, using oFill data first, and then proceeding to test with random data. Since results typically return with nearly identical scores, we only include the results for random data samples.

The M6M returned test scores that are lower than what Plextor has listed, which of course is expected as we have switched data types. The write speeds are almost not affected by this, with speeds reaching 434 MB/s, and read speeds that dropped slightly  to 502 MB/s.

AS SSD BENCHMARK VER. 1.7

AS SSD Benchmark uses incompressible data in their testing of SSDs, essentially providing results that would be consistent with using the heaviest workload, thus lower speeds are expected. Transfer speeds (MB/s) are seen in the left picture below and IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second) are on the right.

Again, we can see that the M6M returns tests score similar to that of Crystal Disk Mark, where the write speeds remain unaffected. Plextor’s mSATA drive returned some excellent results for IOPS with 93150 read and 78447 write.

Another interesting feature of the AS SSD Benchmark is that it also can test  durations and speeds of copying various files, this is an important test for our digital media professionals who require top transfer speeds.

Using AS SSD’s copy benchmark tool, the M6M showed that it can sufficiently handle the copying of ISO files, but when copying Games the scores did come out lower than expected.

ANVIL STORAGE UTILITIES PROFESSIONAL (BETA)

Anvil Storage Utilities is essentially an all-in-one tool for all of your SSD benchmarking needs. Anvil can be used for basic consumer testing, as well as endurance testing and threaded I/O read, write and mixed tests. It displays data regarding the SSD, and even about your system

Our all-in-one benchmarking tool again proved that the performance of the M6M using incompressible data is great. ASU returned a total score of 3862 for Plextor’s mSATA SSD.

PCMARK VANTAGE X64 HDD SUITE

Technology X uses benchmark software called PCMark Vantage x64 HDD Suite to create testing scenarios that might be used in the typical user experience. There are eight tests in all and the tests performed record the speed of data movement in MB/s to which they are then given a numerical score after all of the tests are complete. The simulations are as follows:

• Windows Defender In Use
• Streaming Data from storage in games such as Alan Wake which allows for massive worlds and riveting non-stop action
• Importing digital photos into Windows Photo Gallery
• Starting the Vista Operating System
• Home Video editing with Movie Maker which can be very time-consuming
• Media Center which can handle video recording, time shifting and streaming from Windows media center to an extender such as Xbox
• Cataloging a music library
• Starting applications

 VANTAGE TOTAL SCORE

The Plextor M6M mSATA managed to achieve a total score of 71224, which is a respectable  score. Out of all the benchmark tests ran throughout the HDD suite of PCMark Vantage, the highest transfer speed recorded was 404 MB/s when video editing in Windows Media Center.