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The M5Pro Xtreme comes in a shiny, 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 and True Protect technologies and the ability to reach 100,000 IOPS. 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 and warranty card. Unlike the M5 Pro, the M5Pro Xtreme does not come with a CD containing NTI's SSD Utility Suite. Instead, Plextor has provided installation keys for NTI Echo and Backup Now EZ, as well as a link where both programs can be downloaded.
Physical Features:
Like Plextor's previous SSDs, the M5Pro Xtreme 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 reduced the M5Pro Xtreme's height from the standard 9.5mm down to 7mm. While that doesn't sound like much, this ultra-slim form factor lets you install the drive in ultrabooks as well as standard laptops and desktop PCs.
Like the M5 Pro, the M5Pro Xtreme uses Marvell's new 88SS9187 "Monet" controller. The 88SS9187 is powered by a dual-core Marvell 88FR102 V5 CPU and supports up to eight NAND flash channels. The controller also features a high-performance ECC engine with adaptive read and write scheme as well as on-chip RAID functionality.
The biggest difference between the M5 Pro and the M5Pro Xtreme is the PCB design. Where the M5 Pro uses the "M3S" PCB that was first introduced in Plextor's M2P series, the M5Pro Xtreme is based on the new "M6S" PCB. Instead of NAND flash in a BGA (Ball Grid Array) package, this new design supports TSOP (Thin Small-Outline Package) where the pins are located along the two shorter edges. According to Plextor, heat dissipation is better with TSOP so thermal pads are not needed.
For the PX-256M5Pro Xtreme, Plextor has opted to use Toshiba's 19nm TH58TEG7DDJTA20 Toggle Mode NAND flash chips. Looking at the pictures above, you can see that there are eight of these chips on either side of the PCB. The drive also has two 256MB Nanya H5TQ2G63DFR-PBC DDR3 memory chips that are used for caching and garbage collection.
