On the surface, Plextor's upcoming M7e PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD is identical to the M6e Black Edition released in August 2015. Some changes were made to spice up the add-in card product's appearance (shown below), and performance will increase as well. Paul Alcorn already discussed the new software features Plextor will bring with the M7e PCIe SSD and M6V, the company's new value product with Toshiba 15nm TLC NAND flash.
We expect the M7e to ship in four capacities thanks to Toshiba's new 15nm MLC technology. The new capacity size is 1 TB, making the Plextor M7e the first 1 TB PCIe based SSD in the channel. The m.2 product should launch at the same time, but we are not sure if Plextor can pack 1 TB of density in a 2280 form factor. So far, all 1 TB SSDs at Computex fit on 22110 PCBs (22 mm wide and 110 mm long).
The new adapter spices up the visual appeal with a new LED lit area that displays Plextor branding.
Plextor displayed a working demo of the M7e at the booth, but the numbers are invalid with our existing data. The drive on display does give us more information than the image shows on the surface. The system is running on the drive, not just a few quick hit benchmarks from a secondary drive.
This means the drive is not only stable enough to run the quick hit benchmarks but can also hold up to normal operating system conditions. With the drive hidden under the 10 watt heatsink, we can't confirm if it's 2280 or 22110. The custom Plextor adapter allows for 2242 to 22110 form factor m.2 SSDs, so only time will tell....or a follow up call after Computex.
Chris Ramseyer is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware, covering Storage. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Follow Tom's Hardware on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.
