Plextor's latest offerings for M.2 SSD

Plextor, the world-leading brand of Solid State Drives (SSD), proudly introduces its latest M.2 Solid State Disk lineup to deliver high performance storage to the new generation of M.2 compatible motherboards. The M.2 is one of the latest interfaces for SSD formerly dubbed as the "Next Generation Form Factor" (NGFF) by Intel. Currently, you can find this interface on the latest motherboards featuring X99 and Z97 chipsets.

The M.2 interface, established initially by Intel, only had the electrical and hardware levels defined. In other words, Intel only specified the socket interface and the electrical specifications for M.2, leaving the design of the signal level open to developers depending on product type and needs. This means that many products, be it wireless network card, USB3.0 expansion card and even SATA6G Adapter, will be able to take advantage of the M.2 interface. This should explain why Intel has originally referred to M.2 as NGFF (Next Generation Form Factor). It is also worth noting that the current SATA interface has faced its bottleneck; the 6Gb/s (capping at roughly 570MB/s) transfer rate of the SATA III interface has long been the nightmare in terms of performance for SSD products by all manufacturers. Data transfer rate has been the greatest obstacle that has stood in the way of performance improvement for numerous SSD products but it would be unfair to point the finger at the SATA IO as the main culprit of the problem. Relevant technologies simply have advanced too fast for specifications to catch up.

The removal of the data transfer speed cap has been one of the key factors that led to the creation of the M.2 interface. The greatest strength of M.2 interface lies in its support of data transfer speed that is two times as fast as PCIe 2.0 (the theoretical transfer speed for PCIe 2.0x2 is at 1GB/s, which is twice as fast as the current SATA III interface), making it a prime candidate as the dedicated interface for high-speed SSDs. This also means that we will soon see an assortment of SSD with M.2 interface available in the market. That said, in order to ensure compatibility with current-gen products, M.2 has been designed to be compatible with SATA signal. In other words, SSD with M.2 interface will come in two flavors: support for PCIE signal interface and support for SATA signal interface. With PLEXTOR's product lineup, the former would be M6e (currently unparalleled in terms of performance) and the latter would be M6G (also with M.2 interface). As far as speed is concerned, PCIE interface is still superior.

Plextor's M6e M.2 PCIe Gen2 x2 is an ultra-fast SSD using the latest generation of components and a native PCIe interface for extremely high performance. Perfect for ultra-thin notebooks and motherboards supporting 2280 sized form factors, gamers and high-power users will appreciate the responsiveness and ultra-fast loading times the powerful M6e M.2 delivers.

No matter how outdated your PC may be, you can still experience the blazing speed that M.2 interface has to offer as long as your system has the PCIe interface. You won't be able to use devices with the M.2 interface directly on your older PC, but with Plextor's M6e PCIe SSD, you can plug it directly to your PCIe port and enjoy the incredible performance and benefits of today's newest technologies.

Plextor’s M6G series, including M6G-2280, M6G-2260, and M6G-2242, is a line-up of M.2 form factor SATA III SSD in various module lengths and capacities to bring the exciting benefits of fast SSD performance to a desktop or notebook with an unoccupied M.2 slot. The M.2 form factor makes it the perfect way to add the uncompromising performance of a Plextor SATA SSD directly to your motherboard.