The Plextor M8Pe (512GB) SSD Review
by Billy Tallis on December 14, 2016 9:00 AM ESTAnandTech Storage Bench - The Destroyer
The Destroyer is an extremely long test replicating the access patterns of very IO-intensive desktop usage. A detailed breakdown can be found in this article. Like real-world usage and unlike our Iometer tests, the drives do get the occasional break that allows for some background garbage collection and flushing caches, but those idle times are limited to 25ms so that it doesn't take all week to run the test.
We quantify performance on this test by reporting the drive's average data throughput, a few data points about its latency, and the total energy used by the drive over the course of the test.
The Plextor M8Pe isn't breaking any records on The Destroyer. Its average data rate is slower than Samsung's PCIe SSDs and the OCZ RD400, but it does beat the Intel SSD 750 and is about 75% faster overall than the fastest SATA SSDs. The heatsink on the M8PeY only provides a very slight performance boost.
The average service times of the M8Pe are on par with the OCZ RD400 and the Intel SSD 750, and substantially worse than Samsung's PCIe SSDs. The differences are minor in comparison to the huge latency advantage they all enjoy over the best SATA SSDs (and Intel's TLC-based SSD 600p).
The frequency of high-latency outliers places the M8Pe in the second tier of drives. Samsung's PCIe SSDs have few or no operations take more than 100ms and the smallest percentage of operations that exceed 10ms. The M8Pe scores similarly to the Intel SSD 750 and OCZ RD400.
The Intel SSD 600p is the only thing keeping the M8Pe from taking last place for power consumption among M.2 PCIe SSDs. The M8Pe uses significantly more power than the OCZ RD400, which itself is more power-hungry than Samsung's SSDs.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
64 Comments
View All Comments
TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, December 14, 2016 - link
The add-in PCIE card appears to be the best thing about the SSD. Just looking at how much faster the drive was with the heatsink, makes me want the PCIE card but with a 960 EVO or PRO in it.BrokenCrayons - Wednesday, December 14, 2016 - link
I'm hoping that PCIE slot storage takes off. Now that we've largely eliminated optical drives and floppies have been dead for ages, it's only a matter of time before we can shed conventional hard drive bays from computers too. Yeah, I know some small form factor systems have already reached that point (which is pretty cool) but it'd be nice to see that become the norm in mainstream systems as well. There's nothing more annoying than a huge, clunkly computer case and once 3.5 and 2.5 inch drives are gone, the only thing holding us back will be graphics adapters.XabanakFanatik - Wednesday, December 14, 2016 - link
Someone already makes a pretty nice looking heatsink card that looks like it wouldn't block much of the video card above it. I think I'm going to get one for my 960 Pro.http://preview.tinyurl.com/h2435pf
fanofanand - Wednesday, December 14, 2016 - link
This review is a terrific reminder of just how bad the 600p sucks. Nice write-up Billy, very informative.Bullwinkle J Moose - Thursday, December 15, 2016 - link
NoFanOfAnandHorrible Review
Many of you think I'm a Troll but can you answer 3 simple questions from the data provided?
1. What is the average Read Speed in MB/sec for a 100GB file of Non Compressible Test Data?
2. What is the average Write Speed in MB/sec for a 100GB file of Non Compressible Test Data?
3. and most importantly, what is the average Copy and paste speed in MB/sec for a single 100GB non compressible test file when copying and pasting to the same drive?
Can you answer these simple questions?
Billy?
BrokenCrayons - Thursday, December 15, 2016 - link
"All of you know I'm a Troll but can you answer 3 stupid questions..."Fixed that for you. :3
Bullwinkle J Moose - Thursday, December 15, 2016 - link
Good try Crayon but you're zero for threeAnyone else wanna try?
Cmon, isn't there anyone here smarter than a fucking crayon?
BrokenCrayons - Thursday, December 15, 2016 - link
I've gotten far enough under your skin that you're keeping imaginary score to feel better.Holliday75 - Thursday, December 15, 2016 - link
I don't remember Bullwinkle being such a jerk. He was a nice moose.BrokenCrayons - Thursday, December 15, 2016 - link
He was a nice moose, but I admit I liked the squirrel with the flying helmet a bit more. :3