Product Listing

Plextor M5M mSATA SSD (128GB) - Small Wonder

By Kenny Yeo - 22 Feb 2013

Conclusion

A Compact Speedy Drive

In terms of storage technology, the traditional mechanical hard drive has seen little progress in recent years, only larger capacities, lower costs and marginal speed improvements. While the head honchos at companies such as Seagate and Western Digital are quick to point out that traditional mechanical hard drives still have a place in the future, recent price drops and advances in SSD technology over the past few years will have consumers believing otherwise.

And if the Plextor M5M mSATA SSD is anything to go by, it seems like storage, as we know it, is about to get a whole lot smaller. Despite being just a fraction of the size of your typical 2.5-inch SSD - just slightly more than 20% in terms of surface area - the Plextor M5M performed admirably and was quite comparable, though slightly slower, to Plextor’s flagship M5 Pro drive. Against the other high-end 2.5-inch form factor drives such as the Intel SSD 520 Series and Transcend SSD720, the Plextor M5M more than held its own, trumping them in benchmarks such as AS SSD and Iometer.

If one needs any proof that storage is about to get a whole lot smaller, one only needs to look at the Intel SSD 520 Series mSATA SSD which was tested here. Admittedly, it’s not as quick as the full fat 2.5-inch form factor Intel SSD 520 Series, but it was no slouch either and we think users would be hard pressed to notice the difference in real world usage scenarios.

The Plextor M5M proves that sometimes, good things do come in small packages.

In terms of pricing, the 128GB Plextor M5M drive comes in at around US$109, this makes it more affordable than 2.5-inch SSDs with similar capacities - the Intel SSD 520 goes for around (US$144), while the Transcend SSD720 costs (US$124). More importantly, it is priced significantly lower than its key competitors in the mSATA SSD market. The 120GB variant of the recently released Intel SSD 525 mSATA drive costs around US$169, while drives from ADATA, Crucial and OCZ are retailing for around US$120.

All things considered, the Plextor M5M offers pretty impressive performance despite its small form factor and comes attractively priced too. At the present, there’s little in the way of variety for those looking for a high-end mSATA SSD to upgrade to, so the Plextor M5M comes with our hearty recommendation.

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8.0
  • Performance 8
  • Features 8
  • Value 8.5
The Good
Good performance on AS SSD and Iometer
High-end Marvell controller and NAND memory chips
Well priced
The Bad
Erratic performance on HD Tune, PCMark 7 and PCMark Vantage
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