Internals, Testing Methodology and System Setup
Internals:
Prior to disassembly we looked at the back and were immediately disappointed:
Just like with the M6e PCIe edition, the socketed M.2 SSD can not be removed from the M6e Black without voiding the warranty – a major annoyance to anyone who later upgrades to a motherboard with an on-board M.2 socket. Removal of an M.2 device is absolutely a task that can be safely performed by a consumer, and this act should have no effect on the warranty status of that part.
After we void the warranty by removing the heatsink (another thing a typical user can do safely):
…we see a familiar sight, but with some additions. Note the SATA power connector (upper right) and activity LED pin header (lower right). These additions are optional, and the activity LED is far more useful than the SATA connector, as PCIe power alone is more than sufficient to drive the M.2 SSD. Here's a closer shot of that part:
…and a shot next to the original M6e for comparison:
Given that the M.2 SSD is an identical part, here are those 'internal' pics:
The M6e Black has the same Toshiba Toggle-Mode flash coupled to the same Marvell 88SS9183-BNP2 controller. The Black ships with a newer revision of the firmware, but an older M6e PCIe or M.2 can easily be flashed to this same version and should yield identical results.
Testing Methodology
Our tests are a mix of synthetic and real-world benchmarks. PCMark, IOMeter, HDTach, HDTune, Yapt and our custom File Copy test round out the selection to cover just about all bases. If you have any questions about our tests just drop into the Storage Forum and we'll help you out!
Test System Setup
We currently employ a pair of testbeds. A newer ASUS P8Z77-V Pro/Thunderbolt and an ASUS Z87-PRO. Variance between both boards has been deemed negligible.
PC Perspective would like to thank ASUS, Corsair, and Kingston for supplying some of the components of our test rigs.
| Hard Drive Test System Setup | |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-4770K |
| Motherboard | ASUS P8Z77-V Pro/TB / ASUS Z87-PRO |
| Memory | Kingston HyperX 4GB DDR3-2133 CL9 |
| Hard Drive | G.Skill 32GB SLC SSD |
| Sound Card | N/A |
| Video Card | Intel® HD Graphics 4600 |
| Video Drivers | Intel |
| Power Supply | Corsair CMPSU-650TX |
| DirectX Version | DX9.0c |
| Operating System | Windows 8.1 X64 |
- PCPer File Copy Test
- HDTach
- HDTune
- IOMeter
- YAPT
Would be nice to see what
Would be nice to see what real world gains you get from so fast drive .
Agreed. I have asked Allyn
Agreed. I have asked Allyn in the past to start looking at real world benchmarks on SSD’s. While the synthetic benchmarks are good at creating an objective analysis on the strengths and weaknesses between SSD models and manufactures, it begs the question, “So, what? How does that benefit me?”
As a data storage engineer for workstation and HPC environments, I have argued that consumers should first look at their drive size requirements for buying an SSD (due to high cost/GB) and THEN look at specific features and performance (power protection, onboard encryption, high IOPS, etc).
Right now you could buy an inexpensive and high end SSD and they will perform very similar in real world examples: OS boot times and application loading.
I believe it would benefit readers to show that while synthetic benchmarks can show improvements or deficiencies in performance, “fast” is fast enough and that drive size, features and pricing should be the real conclusive factor.
“Plextor also made the M6e
“Plextor also made the M6e available with a half-height PCIe interposer”
On the first page; I don’t think interposer is the right word. It is just an adaptor card. Is plextor calling it an interposer? Interposer has a specific meaning which I don’t think is (or should be) confused with package or pcb.
“An interposer is an
"An interposer is an electrical interface routing between one socket or connection to another."
That's exactly what it is doing – electrically connecting M.2 PCIe to a desktop PCIe socket. I believe a lot of people just want to call it an adapter, but some also call it an interposer. I started calling it that when Intel kept referring to mSATA to SATA adapters as interposers.
Thank you for clarifying.
Thank you for clarifying. There are always a lot of semantic difficulties that I do not wish to needlessly multiply. Do you take interposer to specifically mean pass-through? That is, not bridging or translating different interfaces.
I thought I heard you say in
I thought I heard you say in the podcast that it has a backplate, could you add a photo of the backplate? Thanks.
Oh and nice work, Allyn
No back plate, but maybe I
No back plate, but maybe I was referring to the 'black' PCB?
Heh, yeah you probably was,
Heh, yeah you probably was, my bad.
I always go for the aesthetic look of PCI-e cards, so I want a gorgeous backplate! lol. Right now, ASUS ROG is the most cool looking one although the logo is upside down, bah.
Aside from topic, but Allyn, you might be able to send the message. 😉 I have a gripe on PCI-e cards. I believe most people have tower case(s) and won’t see the card’s face anyway. Even if you have horizontal case, you have to choose which card to show (being the closest to the window). Manufacturers beginning to spice up the tops but they also need to focus more on the backplate! Just sayin.
I’m right there with you, and
I'm right there with you, and that's why I personally use one of those 'inverted' ATX design cases (all the cards are face up).
I’d sacrifice most of that
I’d sacrifice most of that speed for 2x or 4x the capacity.
So who exactly would buy this
So who exactly would buy this over doing a RAID 0 setup? Unless you are running a server requiring high I/O I’m not getting the value add for the enthusiast market…
For this particular Marvell
For this particular Marvell PCIe controller, it's sort of a wash. That's why I included a RAID-0 pair of SSDs as a comparison point. We need NVMe or faster AHCI PCIe SSDs to make it worthwhile over a simple SATA RAID.