Specifications, Pricing and Availability

At CES 2012 Plextor announced a new PX-M3 Pro model with up to 540MB/s read and up to 450MB/s write speeds. The drive we are looking at today isn't the Pro model, but the PX-M3, sometimes called the S model for "Standard". The 256GB M3 has a read speed of 510MB/s and a write speed of 360MB/s. Performance varies based on the capacity size as you can see in the chart above, but we feel the 256GB model gives a good representation of the product line.

A few weeks ago we tested the Corsair Performance Pro 256GB and 128GB, both are based heavily off of the Plextor M3 Series, but do not use the cutting-edge 24nm Toshiba Toggle Mode flash. Plextor's M3 Series is the first consumer SSD we've seen with this new flash and as you can imagine, we are very excited to see how well it performs.

At the time of writing, Newegg had all four capacity sizes of the M3 Series in stock. The 64GB sells for 99.99, 128GB for 149.99 (after a MIR), 256GB that we are looking at today for 289.99 (after a MIR) and the large capacity 512GB for 649.99. The Pro model versions of these drives are not listed on Newegg or on Google's Product Search at this time.

Plextor included a premium accessory package with their M3 Series SSDs. You get a desktop adapter bracket, screws for mounting the 2.5" form factor drive in a 3.5" bay, software disk with a disk cloning and backup utility. Also included is a premium five year warranty which matches just a few other SSD manufactures warranties for the top warranty length offered.