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Plextor M5 Pro 256 GB Review: 19 nm NAND And Marvell's Latest
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1. Plextor M5 Pro: A Performance-Oriented SSD

Just as we finished our Plextor M5S 256 GB Review, the company's 256 GB M5 Pro (PX-256M5P) showed up at our door. We couldn't get the highly-anticipated drive out of its box and onto our test bench fast enough, particularly since we had just seen the M5S do so well, and despite its position as Plextor's value-oriented model. Needless to say, we started testing with high expectations.

The M5 Pro is a more performance-oriented product, and the hardware inside its chassis indicates that we should expect the M5 Pro to surpass our expectations of previous Plextor drives. For instance, the M5S we reviewed previously uses 25 nm synchronous NAND from Micron and Marvell's 88SS9174-BLD2 controller, while the M5 Pro employs 19 nm Toggle-mode DDR from Toshiba and a more modern Marvell 88SS9187-BLD2 processor.

To see Toshiba's 19 nm MLC flash in a retail product this early is remarkable. Mass production only started in July at the Yokkaichi plant in Japan. Of course, the question is whether an even smaller node negatively impacts the write endurance of Plextor's latest and greatest, and we'll get into that in more detail.

The M5 Pro also comes with Plextor's customized firmware, which, as we saw in our M5S coverage, is both tweaked and tuned to augment performance in metrics that matter.

Beyond its performance advantage over the M5S, the M5 Pro also adds full drive encryption via AES-256 and the latest 128-bit error correction codes. A five-year warranty and accessory package round out the kit, reassuring customers of Plextor's confidence in its handiwork, similar to what we've seen from companies like Intel.

Plextor makes the following claim about its M5 Pro:

"The M5 Pro has a unique double-data protection system to protect the integrity and confidentiality of your data. To confirm that each piece of data is correctly stored with one hundred percent accuracy, the newest 128-bit error correction code is used; this is backed by a unique Robust Data Hold-out Algorithm in Plextor’s exclusive firmware. This algorithm ensures that even in the very long-term, data can be read with extremely high accuracy. For data confidentiality the M5 Pro supports full drive encryption with an Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256-bit algorithm using its US Government AES-validated Marvell controller. Using the latest 128-bit error correction system built into the latest Marvell controller  the M5 Pro is able to automatically check and correct the accuracy of data being read from the flash memory.

The drive was extensively tested during development using the world’s most advanced SSD testing facilities to guarantee a high level of stability. The final design was able to pass Plextor’s strict enterprise-grade Zero Error standard of 400 units surviving 500 hours of the toughest continuous testing without a single error or failure. Before leaving the factory, every individual M5 Pro SSD is required to pass a rigorous high temperature burn-in test and accelerated operating simulation."

Clearly, the company is aiming for reliability as a primary selling point. Plextor also claims a MTBF forecast of 2.4 million hours.

Plextor is selling the M5 Pro in three different capacities: 128, 256, and 512 GB. For reference, the performance figures in brackets, below, are for Plextor's M3P series.


PX-128M5P
PX-256M5P
PX-512M5P
Processor
Marvell 88SS9187-BLD2
DDR RAM Buffer Size
256 (256 x 1)
512 (256 x 2)768 (1 x 512 and 1 x 256)
NAND
Toshiba 19 nm MLC Toggle-mode NAND
Formatted Capacity

238 GiB

Interface
SATA 6Gb/s
Form Factor
2.5", 7 mm
2.5", 7 mm2.5", 7 mm
Command Set Support
TRIM, S.M.A.R.T., NCQ, ATA/ATAPI-8
Data Encryption
AES
WarrantyFive Years
Sequential Read (MB/s)540 [535]540 [540]540 [535]
Sequential Write (MB/s)340 [350]450 [420]450 [450]
4 KB Random Read (IOPS)91 000 [75 000]94 000 [75 000]94 000 [56 000]
4 KB Random Write (IOPS)82 000 [69 000]86 000 [68 000]86 000 [34 000]


There is a "Ninja" limited edition, souped-up version of the M5 Pro that comes in a red casing with engraved shuriken graphics, but we are sad to say it won’t be sold in the U.S. It's as rare as hen's teeth in any other market, so we can only provide you with a mouth-watering image of what it looks like.

2. Inside Plextor's 256 GB M5 Pro

Pulling out the contents of Plextor's box, we find that the M5 Pro comes with the following accessories:

  • Mounting bracket for desktop installations
  • Four screws to fix the mounting bracket
  • Four screws to fix the mounting bracket to a hard drive bay
  • A software CD


The CD contains:

  • NTI Echo (Cloning software)
  • NTI Backup Now EZ (Backup software)
  • NTI SSD Performance Analyzer (Bechmark software)
  • NTI Software Trials (NTI Media Maker, NTI Shadow, and NTI Ninja)


The M5 Pro's enclosure has a different, brushed finish than the M5S, and it comes in the smaller 2.5" form factor with a 7 mm Z-height. The casing comes apart quite easily via four screws located on the sides. Unlike the M5S, the M5 Pro employs thermal pads on top of the NAND and DDR RAM chips.

Once the casing is removed, we find eight 64-Gb Toggle-mode NAND packages manufactured at 19 nm and hosting two bits per memory cell on one side of the PCB. A 128 GB drive uses two 64-Gb dies per package, the 256 GB model employs four dies in each package, and the 512 GB version hosts eight 8 GB dies in each memory package.

The Toshiba NAND was developed under a longstanding collaboration with SanDisk, achieving industry-first 15 MB/s programming throughput. Smaller geometries typically result in a loss of write endurance, higher bit error rates, and slower memory performance. However, Toshiba's collaboration with SanDisk is reported to have introduced new technologies that combat those typical side effects. The 19 nm NAND employs a one-sided, All-Bit-Line (ABL) architecture with proprietary programming algorithms and multi-level data storage management schemes to help sustain performance and reliability. Write cycle endurance is reportedly equivalent to what Toshiba was producing on its 24 nm node, and the latest die shrink also has a new memory cell programming algorithm to mitigate program disturbances. 

Plextor's M5 Pro leverages the same Nanya 256 MB DDR3-1333 SDRAM chips as the M5S. Two, operating side-by-side, yield an aggregate 512 MB DRAM buffer.

The back side of the PCB hosts Marvell's 88SS9187-BLD2 processor and very little else.

We have it on good authority that this isn't the first SSD with Marvell's 88SS9187-BLD2 controller. As we'll see, though, the M5 Pro performs very differently from the other drive we suspect employs the same processor. This demonstrates the flexibility that Marvell's hardware affords to SSD vendors willing to customize their firmware and differentiate their products. Ultimately, this gives you more choice, and it's a pleasant break from the uniformity seen from SandForce-based offerings.  

Plextor provides a tool kit available on its website that lets users monitor drive health and free capacity, apply firmware updates, and securely erase all data stored on the drive. Unfortunately, as of this writing, the M5 drives aren't yet supported by the application suite. Plextor claims it is working to update its Plextool utility, though.

As we mentioned in Plextor M5S 256 GB Review: Marvell Inside, With A Twist, the secure erase feature only works if the drive doesn't already have a volume and it is connected via USB (quite the show-stopper in most cases).

The CD comes with the NTI SSD Performance Analyzer, which only takes a few seconds to run and reports average and maximum read/write speeds. It doesn't have the bells and whistles of a real benchmarking tool, so relying on this for test results is probably not a good idea.

3. Test Setup And Drive Comparison

Samsung 830
256 GB
(MZ-7PC256N)
Crucial M4
256 GB
 (CT256M4SSD2)
Vertex 4
256 GB
Plextor M5S
256 GB
(PX-256M5S)
Plextor M5P
256 GB
(PX-256M5P)
 Current Price
$248$210
$210
$230
Awaiting MSRP
Processor
Samsung S4LJ204X01-Y040Marvell
88SS9174-BLD2
Marvell
88SS9187-BLD2
Marvell
88SS9174-BLD2
Marvell
88SS9187-BLD2
 DDR RAM Buffer Size (MB)
256 (128 x 2)

128 (128 x 1)

1,024 (2 x 512)

512 (2 x 256)

512 (2 x 256)
NAND
2x-nm MLC Toggle-mode DDR
Micron 25 nm Synchronous MLC
Intel 25 nm Synchronous MLC
Micron 25 nm Synchronous MLC
Toshiba 19 nm MLC Toggle-mode DDR
Firmware
CXM03B1Q
000F
1.5
1.0
1.0
Formatted Capacity
238 GiB
238 GiB238 GiB238 GiB238 GiB
Interface
SATA 6Gb/s
SATA 6Gb/s SATA 6Gb/s SATA 6Gb/s SATA 6Gb/s
Form Factor
2.5" 7 mm
2.5" 9.5 mm
2.5" 9.3 mm2.5" 9 mm
2.5" 7 mm
    Warranty     Three Years
Three YearsFive Years
Three Years
Five Years
Sequential
Read (MB/s)
520500560520540
Sequential
Write (MB/s)
400260510390450
4 KB Random
Read (IOPS)
80 00045 00090 00073 00094 000
4 KB Random
Write (IOPS)
30 00050 00085 00070 00086 000

Test System and Software Setup
CPU
Intel Core i7-2700 (Sandy Bridge), 3.5 GHz, 8 MB Shared L3 Cache, Hyper-Threading enabled, Power-saving features disabled
Motherboard
Asus P8Z68-V, Z68 Chipset, LGA 1155, BIOS 3402
Memory
Corsair Vengeance 4 x 4 GB DDR3-1600
Graphics
AMD Radeon HD 6970 2 GB
Storage
Plextor PX-256M5P, SATA 6Gb/s, Firmware 1.0
Operating System
Windows 7 (64 Bit) SP1  
Intel Chipset Drivers
10.8.0.1003
AMD Graphics Driver
Catalyst 12.6
Benchmarks
Anvil's Storage Utility
RC3
hIOmon
Client Version 7.0.229.0
HD Tune Pro
5
Iometer
2006.07.27
4. Benchmark Results: Anvil's Storage Utility

We begin testing using Anvil's Storage Utility. The idea is to start with fresh out-of-the-box drives and a 4 GB test file.

Plextor's M5 Pro comes out on top in the read benchmark. Specifically, it does well in 4 KiB transfers, though it falls behind the Vertex 4's write results at queue depths of four and 16. Overall, ASU puts the M5 Pro just behind OCZ's Vertex 4, which was recently augmented with new firmware (OCZ Vertex 4 128 GB: Revisiting Write Performance With Firmware 1.5). But, it still manages to outpace the other competition.

5. Monitoring Transfers With hIOmon's Disk I/O Ranger

With ASU behind us, we dive into hIOmon, which helps rate the performance of file transfers and application installations using a “Data Transferred/Time Index (DXTI).” This gives us a high-level means for comparing I/O performance. A higher index corresponds to better performance (more data transferred and/or lower response time).

The hIOmon DXTI is calculated by taking the observed amount of data transferred, using the I/O operations converted to megabytes for scaling, and dividing by the combined sum of the actual response times of those same I/O operations. What you end up with is a lot like a car's fuel economy index insofar as it conveys performance efficiency. It is comparable to more miles driven (more data transferred) for fuel used (response time taken to transfer this data). Or, it could represent the same number of miles driven (data transferred) using less fuel (lower response time).

This software can be configured to monitor at the physical volume level, located between the file system and the volume manager. This gives us an indication of I/O performance below the file system and closer to the storage device within the constraints of the operating system.

The procedure we run through goes as follows:

  1. Copy MP3 files: 47 695 MiB written (6663 files in 353 folders).
  2. Copy Windows image backup: 14 875 MiB written (16 files in four folders).
  3. Copy Windows 7 SP1 ISO file: 1953 MiB written
  4. Install Crysis: 2103 MiB written
  5. Install Office: 1174 MiB written
  6. Back-up Steam game: 14 246 MiB written
  7. Run antivirus scan: 365 MiB read
  8. Play Crysis single-player: 813 MiB read

The tasks we chose are all write-intensive, with the exception of the Crysis single-player campaign. Therefore, we are primarily looking at write performance in a real-world environment. The combined activity results in just over 80 GiB of capacity written to on each drive. The reason this matters during our benchmark analysis will be explained further in the results from our HD Tune Benchmark tests.

The Vertex 4 dominates all of the tasks, aside from the only read-intensive workload, where it finishes in last place.

Plextor's M5 Pro does significantly better than the M5S, and simultaneously beats Samsumg's 830 and Crucial's m4 in everything except the read-intensive task, where Crucial's m4 comes out on top.

The Crysis single-player campaign consists of random and sequential read operations, roughly split down the middle, with 80% of the data transferred by sequential operations.

Frankly, we're a little surprised that Crucial's drive does so well here, since the synthetic read performance results indicate that Plextor's M5 Pro should be superior.

6. Benchmark Results: HD Tune

We benchmark with HD Tune Pro over the full span of the drive using a 64 KiB write access pattern. What we're looking for is consistent write performance.

The test involves writing data to every sector of the drive while measuring speed and latency. In the graphs below, the orange line represents write performance and the yellow dots indicate the write access time.

Crucial m4

Samsung 830

Plextor M5S

Plextor M5 Pro

OCZ Vertex 4

Up until now, our benchmarks have left plenty of free space on each drive. It's only when we use HD Tune to write across the full span of our contenders that we see OCZ's Vertex 4 stumble as it switches from SLC to MLC mode (for an explanation of this, check out this page).

Although the 256 GB Vertex 4 is better able to mitigate the impact of the switch-over than the 128 GB model, there is still a performance degradation as free capacity is consumed. The phenomenal write performance we saw when the Vertex 4 was in SLC mode has to be tempered by the amount of space available and the size of the writes within that free space.  

Our M5 Pro doesn't dominate, but its performance is both solid and consistent. However, it allows Samsung's 830 to emerge as the fastest drive in maximum, average, and minimum write speeds.

Next, we measured read performance, filling each drive using an Iometer test file before running HD Tune. We then used a 4 MiB sequential read access pattern across the full span of each contender.

Crucial m4

Samsung 830

Plextor M5S

Plextor M5 Pro

OCZ Vertex 4 

Plextor's M5S does best in average read speed measurements, while Samsung's 830 and the M5 Pro finish neck and neck.

The Vertex 4 can't compete with the M5 Pro. Its read speeds start off a lot slower than the other drives, and then drop further as the benchmark gets to the last quarter of its run.

As far as large block read transfers go, there really isn't a whole lot of variation between the drives, so user experience in that context isn't going to change much from one model to the next. 

Now, let's compare our Anvil's Storage Utility and HD Tune results to each  manufacturer's sequential read specifications.


Manufacturer Specification (MB/s)
ASU (MB/s)
HD Tune (Avg MB/s)
HD Tune (Max MB/s)
Samsung 830
520
506
496
507
Crucial m4
500
479
480
498
Vertex 4
560
418
389
496
Plextor M5S
520
506
503
521
Plextor M5 Pro
540
504
496
504


There is no universally accepted methodology SSD vendors use to rate their products. Most specs prefaced with an "up to," and a number of different metrics can be used to generate that value.

Our ASU and HD Tune results illustrate this nicely. The most notable deviation from manufacturer specs comes from OCZ's Vertex 4. The company states that is uses ATTO to come up with its sequential read speed numbers. We ran ATTO ourselves and, sure enough, on an empty drive using a 256 MiB test file and a 1 MiB access pattern, we achieved 560 MiB/s. But, if we increased the test file size, we were unable to replicate that number.

On the other hand, while Plextor's M5S slightly exceeds its specification in HD Tune, the M5 Pro missed its mark by 36 MiB/s.

7. Benchmark Results: Iometer

We used an 8 GiB LBA range for each of our Iometer benchmarks, running each test for 90 seconds. We also aligned the read and write access patterns to a 4 KiB sector boundary.

This measurement is useful for looking at the read and write performance of common transfer sizes at queue depths ranging from one to 32. Queue depths in a typical client environment are generally quite low, so the results generated between one and four are of particular interest. Read operations are typically a lot more prevalent than writes operations, so read performance is also most relevant.

Plextor's M5 Pro dominates read performance across all transfers sizes and queue depths, while the Vertex 4 comes out on top in write performance, peaking high and early.

In order to compare our findings to what each manufacturer says its drive can do, we have to convert the MiB/s results to IOPS. Notably, the "up to" results that vendors like to use are typically based on a queue depth of 32, and it's possible to see significant variation in Iometer results depending on the span of the test file and prior write history.

As expected, there is some variation between our benchmark results and those specified by the manufacturers. This comes down to differences in how each company determines its performance specifications, the state of the drives, and the test system used. We're happy to see that Plextor's M5 Pro, though rated for the highest I/O performance, also finishes first in what we measure.


Vendor-Rated "Up to" 4 KiB Read IOPSObserved 4 KiB Read QD 32 IOPSVendor-Rated "Up to" 4 KiB Write IOPSObserved 4 KiB Write QD 32 IOPS
Samsung 83080 00076 30930 00039 657
Crucial M450 00046 82450 00059 175
Vertex 490 00085 15985 00082 335
Plextor M5S73 00073 88870 00069 346
Plextor M5 Pro94 00090 88386 00084 081


But those numbers are at a queue depth of 32. Let's instead have a look at 4 KiB read and write performance at a queue depth one, which is where you're going to see more activity. We again converted the MiB/s results to IOPS in our chart below.

Plextor's M5 Pro comes out on top again for read performance, but trails the Vertex 4 on write performance (though not by much).


Iometer, 4 KiB Read QD 1 IOPSIometer, 4 KiB Write QD 1 IOPS
Samsung 830
5 721
15 849
Crucial m4
5 849
15 900
Vertex 4
7 036
16995
Plextor M5S
7 076
15 823
Plextor M5 Pro
7 729
16 688
8. Plextor Hits A Home Run With Its PX-256M5P

Plextor's M5 Pro is the first drive from any vendor to use Toshiba's 19 nm NAND, and it's the second SSD equipped with Marvell's 88SS9187-BLD2 controller. The combination of both advancements, in conjunction with the company's custom firmware, delivers very stable, consistent, and fast performance.

Read speeds are the fastest we have seen to date. And although OCZ's Vertex 4 capped our write benchmarks, the M5 Pro is unique in the speed and consistency of its write performance. The Vertex 4 can't match it there.

Plextor delivers more than just great performance, however. The company has a reputation for quality that comes from its experience with optical storage. Although its SSDs are sourced from somewhere else entirely, the M5 Pro is still backed by five-year warranty coverage, which is something that can't be said for many competing client-oriented drives.

The M5 Pro family also adds features that aren't available from the M5S series, such as full-drive encryption via AES-256 and the latest 128-bit error correction codes.

We've been running the M5 Pro in our workstation for a few weeks to get a better feel for its performance over time. As with the M5S we reviewed previously, this drive continues to operate trouble-free. It looks like the 128 GB M5 Pro is started to show up online for about $130, but the 256 GB model is still missing in action. Should the company achieve a similar $1/GB price range, then this is undoubtedly going to be one of the fastest, most consistent SSDs on the market.