I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the ongoing problem we've had with the M8Pe. When we received the drive last fall, I quickly realized that it was not performing as well as it should. Instead of being able to write at 1,300 MB/s, our test unit topped out at about 1,050 MB/s.
 Normal Performance |
 With Garbage Collection |
I knew that Plextor had run into some compatibility issues with the M8Pe and certain motherboards and chipsets so I tried a few other computers. This did not solve the problem, nor did switching the BIOS from legacy to UEFI or upgrading the OS and chipset drivers. I even went as far as to take the M8Pe off of the HHHL PCIe card and pop it into the M.2 slot on the motherboard, which had no effect.
Eventually, I reached out to Plextor and explained the situation to them. Initially, they thought the problem could be heat related, but with the M8Pe's massive heatsink and the extra fans I added, this was quickly eliminated. The theory then was that it was a problem with the drive's garbage collection algorithm which Plextor "improved" in the 1.02 firmware update.
While this theory made sense, the folks at Plextor had a hard time reproducing the problem. After much back and forth, I sent my review unit back to them. By pulling the the internal logs and running a trace on the drive, their engineers were able to determine that it was a garbage collection issue. For whatever reason, the algorithm was being triggered earlier than necessary and this was impacting the drive's write performance.
By this time, the holidays were upon us and I put the M8Pe on the back burner until Plextor could come up with a fix. In mid February, Plextor released the 1.05 firmware and I was surprised to see no mention of the garbage collection issue in the change log. Instead, it fixed an issue with the drive's sleep mode. I reached out to Plextor once again, asking where they were with the fix and they let me know that it was more difficult than they expected. However, they should have something soon.
Thankfully, I didn't have long to wait. In early March, Plextor let me know that they had the new firmware ready and wanted me to test it. While they didn't give any real specifics, the change log said the 1.06 firmware improved the background garbage collection algorithm. Initially, things looked good with the new firmware but after awhile, performance dropped off once again.
 Normal Performance |
 Garbage Collection Triggered |
The point where it drops off is fairly consistent. With HD Tune, it's after you write about 530GB worth of data. With Iometer, it was slightly less at about 524GB. Either way, the M8Pe's performance never recovered. At one point, I let the drive sit idle for an entire weekend and aside from a slight blip at the start of the benchmark, its write speed stayed at about 1,050 MB/s. Needless to say, the garbage collection algorithm still wasn't working as it should.
I am still working with Plextor on this problem but, after nearly six months, I'm starting to wonder whether this will, or even can, be fixed. I'm just hoping that the company's next PCIe SSD, the M8Se, does not have the same issues when it's released in June.
Final Thoughts:
By now, I've spent a lot of time with the Plextor M8Pe and, despite some of the issues I've had, I can't help but to like the drive. This gamer-oriented, PCIe SSD offers good performance, a bold, eye catching design and a massive heatsink to keep it cool during lengthy gaming sessions. Internally, the M8Pe is powered by Marvell's 88SS1093 controller and is available with up to 1TB of Toshiba's 15nm Toggle MLC NAND flash. Combine this with a NVMe 1.2 certified, PCIe Gen 3.0 x4 interface and you have an SSD capable of reading and writing at speeds well beyond that of a single SATA-based drive. In our sequential read and write tests, the M8Pe was able to read at speeds as high as 2,518 MB/s and write at speeds in excess of 1,206 MB/s. The drive also did quite well in our random write tests, producing more than 172,000 IOPS at low queue depths.
That being said, the M8Pe is not without its downsides. First and foremost, is the garbage collection problem, which still has not been fully resolved. Given, the M8Pe is still pretty fast with its write speed throttled back. However, this probably isn't going to sit well with the gamer or enthusiast who bought the drive because its rated write speed was higher than other PCIe SSDs. In addition to this, the M8Pe lacks any sort of hardware based encryption and is not supported by Plextor's PlexTool software.
The M8Pe is available now in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB capacities. Prices on Amazon currently range from $80 up to $480, with the 512GB HHHL version reviewed here going for about $300.
Highs:
- PCIe 3.0 x4 interface with NVMe protocol
- Equipped with Toshiba Toggle MLC NAND
- Available in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB capacities
- Good sequential and random read and write performance
- M.2 2280 and HHHL PCIe form factors
- Supports TrueSpeed and TrueProtect technologies
- Large DRAM cache
- Competitively priced
- 5 year warranty
Lows:
- Garbage collection problem limits maximum write speed
- Not supported by Plextor's PlexTool software
- Does not support hardware based encryption
