14 DAY TRIAL // Solid-state drives are pretty fast as it is, but the past month has seen the appearance of a pair of interfaces that push the boundaries of what is probable, and now it seems that Plextor has something even newer to showcase.
You see, while Plextor does have SATA Express and M.2 products, it has been working on something that can boost the prowess of “normal” SSDs as well. And by normal we mean solid-state drives that use the regular SATA II/III interface.
The company has formally introduced the PlexTurbo technology, which combines system RAM, the SSD DRAM cache, and SSD storage to increase read and write speeds.
PlexTurbo is a software application, but it's one of those things that do not, in fact, qualify as bloatware. It will genuinely boost system speed instead of cutting it.
Also, it promises to increase the life of the product, and to prevent data loss in case of power failure. In theory, NAND Flash has a very good ability to retain data when power disappears, but SSDs do use DRAM for cache, which doesn't have that advantage.
The first solid-state drive to benefit from PlexTurbo software is called Plextor M6 Pro, which “sets new standards for reliability, stability, and performance.”
Sure, to actually use PlexTurbo, you'll need to sacrifice some of the system RAM, but if you have an SSD, chances are your PC has more than the necessary amount of it anyway.
After all, solid-state drives are expensive, the sorts of things that only people with money will bother getting.
And there is a good chance that customers own, or will also get, an HDD, so that the Plextor M6 could be used only for the system files (Windows, Program Files, etc.).
In that situation, we can probably safely assume that the Plextor M6 Pro SATA solid-state drive will perform better than pretty much every other SATA unit out there.
The company has even tossed in the ultra-strict enterprise-grade Zero Error standard of 400 units surviving 1008 hours (up from 500 hours). A stress test never before applied to consumer SSDs.
Add to that the low power consumption owed to the DEVSLP mode and the new SSD definitely leaves the competition in the dust. Now if only we knew the exact transfer speeds and price, we would be able to get an idea of whether or not the Plextor M6 Pro really is all it's cracked up to be.
“We're pulling out all the stops for Computex this year. Not only are we launching the M6 Pro with PlexTurbo, but we've got excellent product offerings for every segment of the consumer market and advanced products that meet the specific needs of enterprise and IPC markets,” said Senior Sales Manager, Lear Wu.