An Ssd for Bargain Hunters

With a rich feature set, great endurance and price, the M7V is the sensible option on a budget.

byKenny Yeo Jul 2016

With a rich feature set, great endurance and price, the M7V is the sensible option on a budget.

In a bid to offer SSDs to a wider audience, Plextor has finally embraced TLC NAND. The M7V uses Toshiba’s newest 15nm TLC NAND and a Marvell 88SS1074B1 controller. The drive will utilize a SATA 6Gbpss interface and comes in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB capacities. It will also be available in two form factors: 2.5-inch and M. 2 2280.

Where Plextor differentiates itself from the crowd is in its custom firmware and exclusive technologies. Its unique PlexNitro cache acceleration technology developed specially for TLC NAND SSDs apparently doesn’ t block off a portion of storage for its cache. So a 256GB M7V will have exactly 256GB of free space, unlike the competition which might offer only 250GB or 240GB.

Another technology of interest is PlexTurbo. Much like Samsung’s RAPiD mode, PlexTurbo accelerates a drive performance by utilizing unused system memory as a cache. However, PlexTurbo needs lots of memory to work; Plextor ideally recommends 32GB of RAM (gasp!).

The M7V also features PlexVault and PlexCompressor. The former is a security feature that lets you store and hide data, useful if your system is shared; and the latter automatically compresses seldom used data to free up space. Finally, there’s PlexTool, a drive management utility to monitor and manage your drive.

Now, if you want to be fashionably late to a party, as Plextor is to the TLC NAND bandwagon, you had better roll up to the door with something to show for. The M7V supposedly offers performance and endurance beyond competiting TLC NAND drives. But, despite Plextor’s bold claims, we found the M7V’s performance was mediocre at best. Sequential read and write speeds were quite respectable, but 4K performance was generally erratic and disappointing.

Fortunately, the M7V makes up for its lack of performance with its useful array of features. And it has some of the highest rated endurance claims we’ve seen for a TLC NAND SSD. The 512GB model, is said to be good for 320TBW (Terabytes Written). in comparison, the 500GB Samsung SSD 750 evo is rated at just 100TBW and the 480GB OCZ Trion 150 is rated at 120TBW.

By far though, the biggest trump card Plextor has is affordability. The 512GB model tested here has a going price of just $179. even at the lower end, a 512GB Samsung SSD 750 evo goes for a 27% premium at $229.