Author's Note: The original review can be found at my blog - Plextor M9PGN Plus Review @ JayceOoi.com.

Introduction
Meet the fastest SSD from Plextor yet. Up to 3,400 MB/s sequential read and 2,200 MB/s sequential write with random read/write speeds up to 340,000/320,000 IOPS. It is loaded with industry-leading controller - Marvell 88SS1092 and 96-layer KIOXIA BiCS4 3D TLC NAND Flash. Plextor M9PGN Plus M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe Gen 3×4 SSD is one of M9P Plus series. How does it perform? Read on to find out...

Special Thanks
This review is possible thanks to below companies. Be sure to check them out too...

• Plextor for this 512GB Plextor M9PGN Plus PCIe M.2 SSD

Package Content & Design
Plextor M9PGN Plus by Lite-On comes well-projected in a colourful packaging. And it comes with 3 different capacities - 256GB, 512GB and 1TB. It offers guaranteed MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) of no less than 1.5 million hours and a 5-year service warranty. By the way, there are another 2 models - M9PY Plus and M9PG Plus that comes with high-performing thermal heatsink. Do check them out too.



Yes, there is quick installation guide (in multiple languages) for those who are new on installing SSD on their own. For PC expert, you don't need it at all.



Let’s have look on the physical outlook of the M9PGN Plus itself. Solid build quality as you can expect from Plextor. Ultra compact dimensions are perfect for Ultrabooks and thin, light notebooks. And virtually does not add any weight to your laptop with just 10g. Of course, it is usable on desktop PC as well.

Performance Result
Plextor M9PGN Plus is perfect for work, entertainment and extreme PC gaming thanks to the latest high-performance BiCS4 96-layer 3D NAND flash that offers increased data density, better endurance and integration of the new generation pre-load technology. It is also loaded with exclusive PlexNitro, smart cache technology to deliver awesome results. Just refer to below synthetic benchmark results to know more about its performance.





3419 MB/s sequential reading and 2232 MB/s on writing in CrystalDiskMark sequential Q8T1 test. M9PGN Plus performs just as fast as specifications no doubt. For IOPS, random read speed is faster than specs a lot while write speed is slower a bit. As usual, the results will vary according to hardware, software and overall system configuration.





ATTO Disk Benchmark 4.01 gives slightly slower results when compared to CrystalDiskMark 7.0.0. But this is expected as other SSDs are also facing the same slowness.





AS SSD Benchmark performance is about the same as ATTO. You can refer access time scores here now on top of the usual sequential performance and IOPS.



No surprise on Anvil’s Storage Utilities result. Almost like AS SSD Benchmark.



600 MB/s constant writing speed after cache buffer ran out. Based on the tests, M9PGN Plus performs at maximum writing speed on below 30 GB file. That’s perfectly fine for daily use unless you copy a lot of big size files. Note – 65GB file is being used here.



57X faster than 7200RPM hard drive. Yes, that’s the PCMark 8 storage bandwidth test tells us. The best SSD that I have tested so far. FYI, my 3TB HDD scores 11.20MB/s only on bandwidth test and needs 3 hours+ to finish all the tests. M9PGN Plus takes much lesser time as you as can. Rest assures that Windows PC boots up, applications and games loading is much faster then.

Advantages

• Up to 3419 MB/s read & 2232 MB/s write
  
• Ultra-high IOPS
  
• Shock & vibration-resistant
  
• Excellent build quality
  
• 5 years warranty
  
• Value in price

Limitations

• Slower writing speed after cache buffer ran out

Conclusion
As a video editor and gamer, Plextor M9PGN Plus does really give the best performance that I need. Ultra-fast! Period. Value in price yet packed with high performance. Perfect for both laptop and desktop.