In House Review - Plextor PX-256M3P 256GB Solid State Drive

[Ian]

CDRLabs has taken an in depth look at Plextor's new 256GB M3 Pro Series SSD, the PX-256M3P. Powered by Plextor's True Speed technology, this 7mm thick SSD uses high quality components like Marvell's server-grade 88SS9174 controller chip and Toshiba's 24nm Toggle NAND flash to deliver up to 540MB/s read and 450MB/s write speeds. The M3 Pro's highly optimized firmware also includes features like Instant Restore, Global Wear Leveling, and Bad Block Management to maintain original performance levels, even after intensive use and long periods of operation.


Plextor PX-256M3P 256GB Solid State Drive

[Scour]

Thanks for this review, Ian

Looks like a good SSD but is a bit expensive.

A question: Is there a software to manually TRIM this drive?

[Ian]

Yes, Plextor is definitely charging a premium for this drive. Aside from the low profile chassis, the components are nearly identical to the M3 Series. I'm still waiting for someone to figure out a way to cross flash the drives.

A question: Is there a software to manually TRIM this drive?

Plextor's PlexTool software just does a secure erase and you will lose your data if you do this. There's really no need to do this though as the TRIM and garbage collection functions are VERY good.

[Scour]

I thought the secure erase is only for Sandforce-drives because of it´s speed-probs if almost no space is free?

And TRim only works in W7, Vista and XP-users don´t have this feature

[Ian]

PLDS calls it pre-format or secure format, but its essentially the same as secure-erase on the SandForce and Samsung based drives.

Their garbage collection algorithm does a very good job so even if you are running XP, TRIM support probably won't be missed much.

[Scour]

Nice to hear, Thanks