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Plextor was a name to be reckoned with in the time of CD and DVD roms, but now they are introducing something that is a totally different from their field, so they are new on the SSD market, but contrary to people’s expectations, they made a top of the line drive that is maxing out on all of the specs. Before this version Plextor has introduced their M3 series that had lower specifications, but now they are aiming for the top with the M3 Pro series.

The Pro series use the same Toshiba NAND chips and Marvell 88SS9174 controller as the previous M3 series, but with a difference in the firmware that gives it the needed boost. The Pro series doesn’t have a 64GB version, because it has a lower performance, due to the lower number of (NAND die in a package), so that version has been discontinued in this lineup.

When we are talking about performance, the M3 Pro is much faster than its predecessor. This speed is mostly visible in random and sequential writing. Just to compare, the 128GB M3 model can achieve speed of 210MB/s, as well as random write with max 50K IOPS. These numbers are greatly exceeded in the Pro series, providing about 70% faster times when doing a sequential write and achieving speeds of 350MB/s and 36% percent faster in the random writing and achieving 69K IOPS. These differences are also huge in the other models of the Pro series.

The Pro series is represented by three versions – (PX-128M3P) a 128GB model with a price tag of $180, which is even lower than the previous 128GB M3 model, which has a price of $200, making it a best buy. The second one is – (PX-256M3P) a 256GB model with a price tag of $300 and the biggest one (PX-512M3P) a 512GB model that has a price tag not affordable by many, which is $680. These drives are ranking as top models, going back to back with the strongest players.