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The PX-256M3S comes in a small, blue and black box. Along with a picture of the drive, the front advertises many of its key features including its 256GB capacity, SATA 6Gbps interface, True Speed technology and 5 year warranty. The back of the box provides a bit more information regarding its features, specifications and box contents. Inside, you'll find the SSD, a 3.5" adapter bracket, mounting screws, quick installation guide, warranty card and a CD containing NTI's SSD Utility Suite.
Physical Features:
Like Plextor's previous SSDs, the PX-256M3S is very well constructed. The drive's outer casing is made entirely out of metal. Along with it being strong and durable, it is very lightweight. On top of that, its brushed aluminum finish looks great.
Plextor has also placed thermal pads on the controller, NAND flash and DDR3 cache chips. These pads transfer heat away from the components to the outer casing, which then acts like a large heat spreader.
As I mentioned earlier, the PX-256M3S uses Marvell's 88SS9174-BKK2 controller chip. The 88SS9174-BKK2 can be found in a number of other high-performance SSD's including the Corsair Performance Pro and Intel SSD 510 as well as Plextor's own M2S and M2P series.
For the PX-256M3S, Plextor has opted to use Toshiba's 24nm TH58TEG8D2HBA8C Toggle Mode NAND flash chips. Looking at the picture above, you can see that there are eight of these chips on the top of the PCB. The drive also has two 256MB Nanya NT5CB128M16B-CG DDR3 memory chips that are used for caching and garbage collection.
