With this being an mSATA product we don't get any external casing, just a simple information sticker on the product. The PCB measures 50.8x29.8x3.6mm and weighs 9g which means minimal weight added to our system. In terms of power use the drive, under load, will use around 0.2w and it can resume from low power states in around 100ms.
Plextor use four MLC NAND Flash chips which are branded Toshiba and on the reverse side we have a single Hynix DDR3 cache chip. The other major component of note is Marvell's 88SS9187 controller, the same as we found on their desktop M5 Pro drive.
The Marvell 88SS9187/M5M features double data protection which confirms that each piece of information is correctly stored using 128-bit error correction. This is then backed by a Robust Data Hold-Out Algorithm in Plextor's firmware for enhanced results. Plextor also note that the controller is one which supports AES 256-bit, certified by the US government.
To ensure reliability Plextor have an enterprise level Zero Error Standard which requires 400 units surviving 500 hours of testing in their facilities under strenuous tests. The before each drive leaves the factory it must pass a burn in test along with accelerated operating simulation. Tests such a 48 hours of constant read/write, cold/warm boots and hibernation (4000 times) are part of the reason that Plextor offer a 3-year warranty.
Finally, in terms of official speeds, Plextor rate the M5M for up to 540MB/s read, 430MB/s write (256GB) with 80,000IOPS read/ 77,000IOPS write. TRIM, garbage collection and Marvell Instant Restore Technology is of course supported and Plextor advertise their long term speed maintenance as "TrueSpeed".
