Plextor was one of the first SSD manufacturers to bring M.2 SSD modules to the market, catching a march on competitors and offering early adopters of the standard an outlet for the needs. Their M6e comes in 128GB, 256GB and 512GB flavours with each adhering to the 80mm form factor, making it compatible with the majority of Z97 mainboards that include either surface-mounted M.2 slots.

Plextor don't just cater to the new motherboards however - each M6e also includes a full height PCIE bracket for the M.2 drive, making it compatible with any motherboard that has a spare 4x PCI-E slot. The full-height bracket also includes three indicator LEDs detailing SSD status.

The M6e utilises a Marvell® 88SS9183 dual-core server-grade controller, synchronous Toshiba Toggle NAND flash, and has firmware developed and tested by Plextor's in-house team. Said controller makes use of two PCI-Express 2.0 lanes, allowing it to reach speeds of up to 770MB/s and approach the heights of the much more expensive dedicated PCI-Express card-based SSDs such as the OCZ RevoDrive. Other M.2 drives tend to use legacy SATA, hence capping out at ~550MB/s.



Installation of the M6e is supremely straightforward as you would expect and leaves no trailing wires. In fact the only aesthetic downside is the green PCB on both bracket and module; hopefully black PCBs from Plextor and other manufacturers will be a high priority in the future.

As an AHCI SSD the M6e is directly bootable and will not require drivers with supporting motherboards (including the vast majority of Intel 9-series and 8-Series motherboards). As you would expect TRIM, S.M.A.R.T. And NCQ are all supported, as is both Legacy and UEF boot for high-speed start up.

Technical Specifications