NVMe SSDs are becoming more and more common. With the growth of more PCIe lanes directly wired to the CPU, it’s no surprise that many people will go for the speedier route of PCIe NVMe SSDs. Let’s take a look at the Plextor M8Se NVMe SSD – specifically the 256GB Plextor M8SeGN that I have here. It’s an M.2 form factor NVMe SSD and no heatsink.

The Plextor M8Se is a family of SSDs, each varying from each other. We’ve covered the differences initially, but here’s a quick rundown on its differences:

• M8SeG – M.2 with heatsink
• M8SeGN – M.2 without heatsink (the one I’m reviewing here)
• M8SeY – PCIe Gen. 3 x4 card

Let’s proceed with the review of the Plextor M8SeGN.

Unboxing

The M8SeGN comes in a rather plain and simple box. The included features were stated clearly, and kept everything very clean, in my opinion.

Opening up the box reveals a large plastic clamshell that holds the M.2 NVMe SSD at the center, alongside with a screw beside it. That’s all you’ll get from the box – literally. No manuals, nothing. I mean, what else do you expect, actually? Most of us are not even going to look at the user manual for an SSD.

Design

Quick one here – the Plextor M8Se – particularly the M8SeGN – has a dark green PCB with components occupying the entire length of the M.2 2280 NVMe SSD.

By the way, M.2 2280 means it’s using the M.2 interface and has a physical dimension of 22mm x 80mm. By using the M.2 2280 form factor, the heatsink-less Plextor M8SeG NVMe SSDs will fit into many motherboard’s M.2 slots without any issues. However, I can’t say the same for Plextor M8SeG that has a heatsink – placing the Plextor M8SeG onto motherboards with its M.2 slot underneath the PCIe x16 slot might cause interference with the dGPU heatsink or shroud.

Specs

As per the datasheet provided for the Plextor M8SeGN PCIe Gen. 3 x4 NVMe SSD, here is the list of specs. The specs listed here are pretty similar if not identical with the M8SeG and M8SeY, with the most prominent difference being the physical dimensions and form factor.

Plextor M8Se Series PCIe Gen 3 x4 NVMe SSD
Specification
Model	PX-128M8SeGN	PX-256M8SeGN	PX-512M8SeGN	PX-1TM8SeGN
Capacity	128 GB	256 GB	512 GB	1 TB
Cache	512MB LPDDR3	512MB LPDDR3	1024MB LPDDR3	2048MB LPDDR3
Controller	Marvell 88SS1093
NAND Flash	TOSHIBA 15nm Super High Performance TLC
Performance (Under Windows NTFS)
Sequential Read Speed (MB/s)*	Up to 1,850	Up to 2,400	Up to 2,450	Up to 2,450
Sequential Write Speed (MB/s)*	Up to 570	Up to 1,000	Up to 1,000	Up to 1,000
Random Read Speed (IOPS)*	Up to 135,000	Up to 205,000	Up to 210,000	Up to 210,000
Random Write Speed (IOPS)*	Up to 80,000	Up to 160,000	Up to 175,000	Up to 175,000
Environment and Reliability
Power Requirement	DC 3.3V 3.0A (Max.)
Temperature	0°C ~ 70°C / 32°F ~ 158°F (Operating)
MTBF	>1,500,000 Hours
Endurance (TBW)	80	160	320	640
Warranty	3 years
Compatibility
Operating System Supported	Microsoft Windows 8.1, 10/ Linux OS
Agency Approval	UL, TUV, FCC, CE, BSMI, VCCI, RCM, KCC, EAC, ROHS, WHQL
Command Set Support	TRIM, S.M.A.R.T, IO queue, NVMe command
Interface	M.2 PCIe Gen 3 x4 with NVM Express
Firmware Upgrade	Supported
Form Factor and Connectors
Form Factor	M.2 2280
Power Connector	M.2 connector for DC 3.3V input
Data Connector	M.2 Connector
Dimension and Weight
Dimension (L/W/H)	80 x 22 x 2.3 mm / 3.15 x 0.87 x 0.09 inch			80 x 22 x 3.65 mm 3.15 x 0.87 x 0.15 inch
Weight (Max.)	10g / 0.35oz
Package Content
Drive	128GB / 256GB / 512GB / 1TB SSD

Testing Setup

Test hardware configuration
CPU Cooler	Noctua NH-U12S/Noctua NH-D15
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 1700
GPU	MSI GEFORCE GTX 1060 3GT OC
Motherboard	ASRock Fatal1ty X370 Gaming K4
Memory	Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 16GB
Primary Hard Drive	Plextor M8SeGN
Power Supply	SilverStone ET-650B 650W
Chassis	BitFenix Aurora
Fans	Noctua NF-F12
Others	SilverStone LS02 RGB LED Strip

Benchmarks

Plextor claims that the M8SeGN that I’m benching here has a theoretical limit of up to 2,400MB/s sequential read speed and up to 1,000MB/s sequential write speed. To quickly verify this claim, I launched CrystalDiskMark and tried it out.

The performance claimed by Plextor is true – it did reach 2,400MB/s and 1,000MB/s on both sequential read and write speeds respectively. Great!

As for the random 4K read and write speeds with a queue depth of 32, the Plextor M8Se scored about 360MB/s read speed and about 260MB/s write speed.

Then comes ATTO Disk Benchmark. The scores on this benchmark are pretty good overall, but its speed tapers off ever so slightly when larger block-sized files are tested.

Thermal throttling?

This is a concern that is thrown all around the NVMe SSD scene. I get it – there are NVMe SSDs that thermal throttles just like your CPU and GPU. When it gets too hot, the clock speeds go down – and in the case of NVMe SSDs, the IOPS drops and both read/write speeds drop. Does it happen to the Plextor M8Se SSD – specifically the M8SeGN that I have here?

No – not exactly, unless I intentionally cause it to thermal throttle with an unrealistic workload. I did try to mess things up by stressing the Plextor M8SeGN, and here are my findings. I suppose these findings are applicable to the entire Plextor M8Se family of NVMe SSDs too.

• Continuously looped CrystalDiskMark on 9 passes of 32GB test size while running Dota 2.
• Specs say that its operating temperatures are from 0°C to 70°C. It can reach 75°C before thermal throttling.
• Once thermal throttling happened, Dota 2 starts stuttering.
• The temperature never exceeded 76°C.
• Performance recovered instantly after the benchmark was ended.

Particularly for my setup, the Plextor M8SeGN idles at around 52°C and goes up to about 57°C under my usual workload, and can reach about 64°C while gaming. I can only predict that both the M8SeG (M.2 with heatsink) and the M8SeY (PCIe card) will have better thermals than this M8SeGN barebones version.

Wrapping up the Plextor M8Se review

The Plextor M8SeGN that we’ve got here has what we presume is the lowest price amongst the Plextor M8Se family of NVMe SSDs – which is understandable as it is pretty much the barebones version.

While the Plextor M8SeGN is the barebones version with maximum compatibility, its real use case scenario temperature is still way lower than its maximum operating temperature when air coolers are used. If you use a beefier air cooler or have some airflow through or nearby the SSD, it’ll greatly improve your temperatures – but that’s a story for another time.

Overall, the Plextor M8Se PCIe Gen. 3 NVMe SSD – specifically the M8SeGN – gets a big thumbs up. Don’t let its lack of “cool aesthetics” fool you.

The Plextor M8SeGN that I have here is available from 128GB to 1TB – just like all of the other variants in the M8Se family of NVMe SSDs. Though, for both the M8SeG and M8SeY variants, I can only find them at Newegg.

As for the price, it’s as listed below.

• 128GB, MSRP USD$109 ($0.8515625/GB)
• 256GB, MSRP USD$179 (0.69921875/GB)
• 512GB, MSRP USD$329 (0.642578125/GB)
• 1TB, MSRP USD$599 (0.584960938/GB)

All in all, the Plextor M8SeGN, in particular, is of fantastic value for the 256GB variant and above.

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