Plextor M6V SSD Review

Value-oriented shoppers in the market for an SSD don't have to settle for TLC-based drives. Plextor found another way to reduce prices with two-bit-per-cell MLC: just use flash with smaller cells.

Early Verdict

The Plextor M6V SSD competes with many of the low-cost drives on the market but just doesn't bring enough to the table to move past the low-cost SSD market leader. Plextor can turn that around by opening up support for the new advanced software applications, but right now, the road is artificially blocked.

Pros

  • +

    A viable alternative to low-cost Toshiba TLC flash SSDs hitting the market. Entry-level MLC still exists, but this may be one of the last from the MLC era.

Cons

  • -

    Although it's similar in price to the Samsung 850 EVO, the Plextor M6V can't compete. The M6V is slower and doesn't offer the same five-year warranty.

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Specifications, Pricing, Warranty & Accessories

The triple-level-cell flash memory revolution is already upon us. But not everyone is excited about low-cost SSDs that often offer performance to match their entry-level prices. Instead of following larger SSD makers down the TLC path to inexpensive drives designed to replace hard disks, Plextor is giving multi-level cell NAND one last round in a budget-friendly product.

Chris Ramseyer is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews consumer storage.
  • jimmysmitty
    Man I remember when Plextor was the name when it came to CD burners. You wanted a great burner? You got a Plextor.

    How times have changed....
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    17039348 said:
    Man I remember when Plextor was the name when it came to CD burners. You wanted a great burner? You got a Plextor.

    How times have changed....

    Yeah I still have my B940 that I use for backups and as long as that still works I will continue to use it.
    Reply
  • Quixit
    Man I remember when Plextor was the name when it came to CD burners. You wanted a great burner? You got a Plextor.

    How times have changed....

    They have to sell something, not much money in burners these days.
    Reply
  • CRamseyer
    When Plextor handed over burner manufacturing to LiteOn things went down hill. You could buy the same model with LiteOn branding and flash it to the Plextor firmware and same a few dollars. I still have all of my Plextor hardware going back to the old SCSI 50-pin units.

    Remember bit to bit copying that would write the copy protection to the new media?
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    Quixit, I get that. It is just me reminiscing about the good ol days.

    17039993 said:
    When Plextor handed over burner manufacturing to LiteOn things went down hill. You could buy the same model with LiteOn branding and flash it to the Plextor firmware and same a few dollars. I still have all of my Plextor hardware going back to the old SCSI 50-pin units.

    Remember bit to bit copying that would write the copy protection to the new media?

    I do. Was one of the things that made Plextor great, as well as their very fast burning speeds. They were able to burn more reliably at higher speeds than the competition which is what made them truly great.

    It is too bad that their new field is not the same, I would buy a Samsung Evo or Intel SSD over this any day.
    Reply
  • qlum
    We use quite a decent amount of them at work as the 120gb ones are quite cheap and at their price you otherwise only get old low end models you generally don't want.
    Reply
  • kalmquist
    I agree that the M6V is too expensive. (As I write this, the 256GB model is $97 on Amazon.). The 240GB Sandisk Extreme Pro, which outperforms most other SATA SSD's at high queue depths and has a 10 year warranty, is now $95 on several sites (including Amazon). The 256GB Mushkin Reactor, which uses the same controller as the M6V, is selling for $80 on Newegg, and that's high because the 250GB Samsung 850 EVO is selling for $78.
    Reply
  • Nintendork
    For consumer grade use, high queu depths means nothing, most the use as an OS-gaming drive revolves around QD 1-4.

    The 850EVOs offer twice the total written capacity (and it can be more than that).
    Reply
  • TbsToy
    Oh boy, another questionable sata SSD to chase around:)!
    Walt Prill
    Reply
  • mapesdhs
    Yet another pointlessly expensive lesser grade SSD. The 256GB M6V is 81 UKP here, whereas the 850 EVO 250GB is less than 60. Why on earth would anyone buy an M6V?

    Ian.

    Reply