The Plextor M3 (256GB) Review

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• Kristian Vättö - Friday, April 6, 2012 - link

  Oops! Thanks, fixed it now. I added the Vertex 4 scores right before this went live so that's why Vertex 4 is not included in any of the analyses.

• wvh - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - link

  Back at the end of the '90s we used to burn a lot of CDs at university, and only the Plextors lasted and rarely burned coasters. It was the brand to have. In fact, the only writer that hasn't broken down on me yet is my Plextor.
  
  This isn't a shill ad – it's just a CD-writer after all – I'm just surprised to hear you've never heard of Plextor.

• hrrmph - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - link

  I may have missed it, but more emphasis on the inclusion (or lack) of toolbox software and what functions it provides would be appreciated. Preferably near the beginning of the review.
  
  When I look at ranking SSDs, the inclusion of toolbox software that supports Secure Erase and possibly even 'settable spare area' is important to me.
  
  I find manual (non-toolbox) methods of Secure Erase to be overly complicated and time-consuming.
  
  So the inclusion of toolbox software that supports Secure Erase, and thus easy maintainability is important.
  
  Settable spare area is also nice, because I'm willing to buy an SSD that is the next size up just to get some more spare area, because reliability is extremely important to me.
  
  So when reading a review, while it's nice to know that the manufacturer took the time to provide good firmware and good validation (I'm not sure that validation was well-covered in this review either), it's also very nice if I can quickly 'suss out' whether the manufacturer took the time to make a good toolbox.
  
  To my knowledge, only Intel, OCZ, and Samsung provide a toolbox that allows for easy Secure Erase from inside Windows, assuming the drive is connected to a machine as a secondary drive.
  
  Similarly, I think that only Samsung is allowing settable spare area in their toolbox.
  
  I usually eliminate OCZ from consideration these days because Intel and Samsung provide very adequate alternatives, and most importantly, I saw OCZ forum moderators horribly and publicly abusing some of the other OCZ customers. So while I wasn't abused by OCZ when I was a customer of theirs, I saw the potential.
  
  Coming back to reviews, AT still writes the best reviews in my opinion. I like the non-emotional tone, and the long length, detail, and insightful analysis included in the reviews make them stand out from the crowd.
  
  Other review sites tend to miss even basic points, or worse, they get breathlessly emotional and sensationalist over small differences in the various products. I think AT knows when something is worth getting worked up over, and when it's just run of the mill.
  
  My understanding of the review, is that the Plextor M3 256GB is run of the mill.
  
  I hope I'm not missing something here :).
  
  -
  
  

• Anand Lal Shimpi - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - link

  i agree wholeheartedly - Samsung's toolbox is definitely the new gold standard here. I've been pushing folks behind the scenes to ramp up the quality of their options as well. I want to start paying more attention to it as it's a huge part of the user experience.
  
  Take care,
  Anand

• Kristian Vättö - Friday, April 6, 2012 - link

  Unfortunately, there is no toolbox software included in Plextor M3. I have to say I'm not a fan of secure erase either, especially during write tests because this is starting to feel like work!
  
  I'll definitely try to concentrate more on the software in future reviews as several readers have requested it :-)

• Coup27 - Friday, April 6, 2012 - link

  I'm a massive Samsung fan and I have a contact there who says Samsung will be releasing an updated ssd magician either this month or next which will also report ssd life like Intels do. Think they realised disabling the smart values to do it yourself was a mistake, esp if u want to put one in a server.

• cooldadd - Thursday, April 5, 2012 - link

  Kristian, I commend your writeup. New and capable talents are welcome in this arena... You will certainly have a chorus of voices with earlier/other perspectives, but they in their own way will bring you "up to date" on history prior to your entry into the mix!
  
  We are living in an amazing frenzy of technical advancement. Thirty years into the development of the telephone, for instance, not only would few people have been able to have technical discussions over its progress, but there was no popularly-available medium in which to discuss it!
  
  I discovered AnandTech when it was new, sixteen years into my mainframe career, started by a young person like yourself who happened have a sharp technical curiosity and an ability to write well. I hope your contributions will follow in similar fashion.

• Bozo - Friday, April 6, 2012 - link

  I must be getting old...
  Back when burnable CDs came out you needed a SCSI burner like 'Smart & Friendly' to make more good CDs than coasters. Then Plextor introduced one of the first PCI burners that actually made more good CDs than coasters. It was the CD burner to have if you were serious about making usable CDs.
  
  I feel old.

• sbmeirow - Friday, April 6, 2012 - link

  If you haven't heard of Plextor, then you are a newbie, and I don't read articles written by n00b's.

• Coup27 - Friday, April 6, 2012 - link

  Idiot.