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Plextor M3, Pro vs Vanilla

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outputrotation

n00b
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Nov 16, 2008
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Plextor just came out with a 'pro' version of their M3. The 256 Pro is $389 vs $349 for the vanilla.

Anyone know if the $40 difference is worth it?

I think my third choice would be the Corsair Performance pro but I haven't decided on anything yet
 
It doesn't look like a huge difference, mainly sequential writes. Though I'm not sure the true hardware difference and would be curious as well.

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Same Toshiba toggle nand and Marvell controller, but I've read the Pro has different firmware. If you're not in a hurry, I'd wait til one of them drops closer to $300. Picked up my M3 for $290...

AS SSD of my M3 benchmarked as OS drive (Never benched clean)

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Edit: LOL You want it for $290? Thinking about getting a Samsung :)
 
MissJ84 said:
Same Toshiba toggle nand and Marvell controller, but I've read the Pro has different firmware. If you're not in a hurry, I'd wait til one of them drops closer to $300. Picked up my M3 for $290...

AS SSD of my M3 benchmarked as OS drive (Never benched clean)


Edit: LOL You want it for $290? Thinking about getting a Samsung :)
Click to expand...

I dig the Sammys, but the Marvell controlled drives are all-around excellent. Sadly, the Plextors have next to no useful SMART data, so that's a deal breaker for me. The M4/Corsair/Plextors are universally excellent and don't really have any weak spots.

The M3s vs. M3p is more important at 128GB. It appears that the 128GB version of the M3P uses 32gbit devices than the M3s, which accounts for most of the performance increase. The M3P 128GB hits 350MB/s sequential writes while the 128GB M3S hits about 210MB/s. At 256GB they're practically the same. The 64GB M3S probably uses 32gbit devices.

FYI, some Toggle NAND comes in 32gbit flavors which means you need more of them to hit a given capacity level. So it costs more, but you get more NAND devices to exploit in parallel.

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Those M3S access times are just filthy hot. The Samsung doesn't fare as well, though it's still pretty damn good.
This is a 256GB 830 I'm using as a system drive.
 
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If vista_blista's post is accurate, IMO no it's not worth $40 at all. Really the difference between 355 MB or 415 MB per second for sequential transfers is negligible, I think it will only be noticeable if you are transferring movies and other big files, and in those situations, does it even matter to you?

Buy $40 worth of toilet paper instead. You can never have too much toilet paper... I found out the hard way. ;)
 
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