Once again the balance of our results speak for themselves. The Plextor M6e excelled in sequential and randomised read/write despite the relative immaturity of both the platform and the interconnect, reaching a peak of 770MB/s read and 570MB/s write in our ATTO 1,024 tests which matches up extremely well with Plextors own claims for the device. The only slight hiccups in performance were HDTune results, a test which has been hard on all our previous candidates but for some reason hit the M6e particularly hard, and IOMeter results that were very good but not quite the highest ever performer. There was also a times significant variation in performance between M6e in M.2 and PCI-Express configuration particularly under heavy non-sequential workloads, potentially speaking to the Z97 platform's immaturity at this time.



In terms of raw throughput it is by some margin the fastest drive we have tested thus far, and will remain comfortably ahead of SATA III drives in the future. The performance of Marvell's 88SS9183 scales with capacity, and our 256GB model will also be surpassed by 512MB version for write rates well in excess of 600MB/s. All-in-all that's extremely impressive for a relatively new technology, and reflects well on Plextor's initial implementation.

For this performance you will however pay a premium, although it should be noted that the prices per GB of these drives wouldn't be blinked at this time last year. The inclusion of a PCI-Express bracket will also tend to add to overall costs – both in terms of raw materials and packaging – and so if M.2 demand peaks then 'just-drive' releases should reduce overall prices even without more competion. The new server-grade controller should also be substantially more durable than competing products, and Plextor back it up with a 5-year guarantee which is three more than most.

Plextor's M6e certainly gets our recommendation if you're in need of far faster speeds than current SSDs allow or a more streamlined system than would be possible with a relatively bulky 2.5” drive kicking around. The only drawback is one of aesthetics, and hopefully manufacturers will get cracking on a black PCB variant soon. It easy attains our Performance Award




As for M.2 in general, the standard is a significant step up from the mSATA solution and provides provably better performance than SATA 3. It's also very early days for the standard and much more remains the pipeline including NVMe, additional bandwidth and the potential for non-storage devices in the future. However it still requires appropriate controllers from the the likes of Marvell, Sandforce, LAMD and the diverse in-house solutions developed by some. By all accounts we will be waiting some time before these are likely to appear en mass, but Z97 finally provides a much needed universal platform.

So, who should be looking to upgrade to M.2? Well the obvious answer is those who demand the highest speed without looking for more exotic PCI-E solutions, but it's not limited to this rather small niche. Systems built within tiny form factors can now enjoy extremely fast storage without needing to take up space with a 2.5” drive or PCI-E slot, and that should immediately interest modders keen to show their skills as well as companies with off-the-shelf mini-PC lines. PCI-E-speed solutions also become available to MATX/Mini-ITX systems with all PCI-E slots already full, potentially improving the overall speed of small form factor dual-GPU PCs.

The large question mark having over M.2 is the eventual adoption of the SATA-Express connector, the alternate means of tapping into PCI-Express storage which also provides some measure of backwards compatibility to SATA 3. This competing method is at an earlier implementation stage than even M.2 however and also suffers from downsides related to the size of the connector and cable, whilst on the plus side having the benefits of greater user confidence in installing. At present both M.2 and SATA-Express only allow up to one drive each, so the benefits of most chassis being well set-up for multiple 2.5”/3.5” drives is irrelevant.

Presupposing that costs of high performance SATA 3-beating drives can be brought down M.2 is looking like an excellent standard for mainstream Z97 systems owned by those comfortable with installing such cards. Making use of one as the main system drive is something of a no-brainer, but SATA 3 will still have a place for legacy storage well into the future. SATA Express drives which use the wide connector by contrast may struggle to find a market.