The company says that the update turns the typical M5 Pro into the new M5 Pro Xtreme model delivering random read speed of up to 100,000 IOPS. The firmware update also improves maximum random-write speeds of 88,000 IOPS. Sequential read and write performance is also improved.

After the firmware update, Plextor promises that sequential write speeds will be 470 MB per second with sequential read speeds of 540 MB per second. The firmware update allows the drive to retain the features that make it a professional level SSD. Those features include calculated mean time between failures of 2.4 million hours.

The SSD uses the company’s enterprise-grade deal-stage data debugging feature with 256-bit AES full drive encryption. The full drive encryption protects all data stored on the drive from access by unauthorized users. The SSD also uses the latest Marvell 88SS9187 controller and features 19 nm toggle NAND from Toshiba.

Three capacities of the drive will be offered: 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB. The 64GB model will cost around £78 (~$122), the 128GB drive will be £126 (~$197), and the 256GB will command a £220 (~$345) price tag. Plextor will also be offering its PlexTools software for free, allowing customers to upgrade firmwares when there are updates, plus monitor the drives for any problems.

Plextor say that the drives should be available to buy towards the end of July from various retailers. If you’re in the market for a new solid state drive or you’re making the jump for the first time, maybe give these a look.

The M2P SSDs come in 128GB and 256GB flavors and are the second series of SSDs that Plextor has announced this year. The SSDs have random read speed of 70,000 IOPS and a random write speed of 65,000 IOPS. The controller chip inside the SSD is a Marvell 88SS9174 and the SSD supports SATA III 6Gb/s interfaces.

Plextor claims that the SSDs have the lowest average annual failure rate in the industry. The SSD bundles come with free upgrade software and a 3.5-inch bracket for putting the SSD inside a desktop. Plextor will be launching the M2P line in the UK this month with the 128GB version selling for about £200 inc VAT and the 256GB version selling for £383 inc VAT.

The small yet sturdy looking hard drive is encased in ‘aircraft aluminum’ and has no need for an external power adapter since it will be powered via the USB connector. Plextor has also preloaded some software onto its speedy new hard drive making it ready to interface with different system setups. Users will be able to maximize read and write speeds with the Turbo HDD utility and can backup and restore their data with FNet PC Clone EX.

Plextor plans to release a 750 GB version as well, the PX-PH750U3 sometime in April. The 500 GB PX-PH500U3 will be on sale in Europe starting in March for £90 and the 750 GB version can be yours for £120.

[via GeekyGadgets]

Sequential write speeds up to 330MB/s are supported, and Plextor throw in a copy of Acronis True Image for easily cloning your existing drive.

The three drives – 64GB ($179.99), 128GB ($329.99) and 256GB ($699.99) – are available in the US today, and will drop in Europe come March 2011.

Press Release:

Plextor’s New SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Drive Available Now

Plextor’s M2 Series SSD is one of the first to support SATA 6Gb/s and one of the fastest SSDs in the market

(Fremont, CA – February 8, 2011) – Plextor LLC (www.plextor.com), a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment, announces the immediate U.S. availability of its new M2 Series SSD. Supporting the latest SATA 6Gb/s, the M2 Series SSD is currently one of the fastest SSDs available in the market.

Utilizing a Marvell 88SS9174 controller, this 2.5 inch SSD is available in three capacities: 64GB, 128GB and 256GB. The 128GB and 256GB models each provide sequential read rate up to 480MB/s and sequential write rate up to 330MB/s, allowing users to read and transfer data much faster compared to other SSDs with SATA II interface.

“Plextor is pleased to continue building its presence in the SSD market by offering a new and faster generation of SSD,” said Kathy Huynh, Product Marketing of Plextor. “The M2 Series SSD is ideal for any demanding gamer, system integrator or user who demands dependability but won’t sacrifice speed.”

By incorporating Plextor’s Instant Restore technology and Dynamic Wear Leveling algorithm along with Windows 7 TRIM command support, the M2 Series SSD is able to manage memories ever so efficiently to overcome the performance loss typically associated with prolonged usage.

Also featured is a 128MB DDR3 cache buffer, resulting in even faster response times for consumers. The large cache also helps ensures each drive will provide reliable and sustained performance over time.

With a MTBF rate beyond 1.5 million-hour, the M2 Series SSD comes with Plextor’s three (3) year warranty and is bundled with Acronis True Image software which gives users instant tool for disk cloning and backup.

The M2 Series SSD is available now with the following MSRPs: 64GB ($179.99), 128GB ($329.99) and 256GB ($699.99).

There’s also optional 256-bit encryption and a “Snapshot Backup Utility” which can apparently grab an image of the current data setup for restoring should the active copy subsequently melt. Plextor is also talking up the PX-NAS4′s eco-credentials, saying it uses 60-percent of the power of a typical NAS (58W in full access mode; 25W in standby). It will go on sale at the end of the month, priced at $399.99 drive-free.

Press Release:

New PX-NAS4 Network-Attached Storage from Plextor

Plextor announces a new four-bay, 8TB NAS device

(Fremont, CA – November 17, 2010) – Plextor LLC (www.plextor.com ), a leading developer and manufacturer of high-performance digital media equipment, announces the PX-NAS4, its latest network-attached storage (NAS) device. The PX-NAS4 offers an exceptional performance, massive storage capacity, high data reliability and security, and low power consumption, making it a perfect solution for today’s small and medium sized business environment.

With dual LAN ports, the PX-NAS4 provides substantial bandwidth up to 2Gbps data access to support the increasing data demands and needs of small and medium-sized businesses. PX-NAS4 has the capacity to store up to 8TB of data across four hot-swap drive bays. Also, the PX-NAS4 has a storage expansion option available via built-in eSATA and USB ports which allow for the connection of additional external hard drives to meet continuous storage demand.

The PX-NAS4 offers the convenience of iSCSI, making its storage available as consolidated network storage over existing low cost networks. Valuable data stored in the PX-NAS4 is always protected with an advanced volume encryption using an AES 256-bit algorithm. PX-NAS4 is password-protected allowing only authorized users’ access.

“With today’s increasing amount of digital data, businesses need to save such data in a secure and accessible area,” said Clifford Sun, Senior Product Marketing Manager of Plextor, “Plextor is excited to offer our next phase of network-attached storage providing a reliable, secure and convenient storage solution for small and medium businesses.”

The PX-NAS4 offers multiple disk configurations: JBOD, RAID0, RAID1, RAID5 or RAID10, with a hot spare bay provided for immediate drive replacement if a drive fails (RAID 1 & 5 only). The PX-NAS4 also features Snapshot Backup Utility, a method of backup that takes a picture of the current state of the NAS, to protect and safeguard precious data.

A low-power consumption design makes the PX-NAS4 Energy Star compliant and reduces the energy demands to 58 Watts in full access mode (25 Watts in standby). The device requires only 60 percent of the power of a typical 200 Watt NAS, saving electricity and running costs.

The PX-NAS4 will be available end of November with an MSRP of $399.99.

Although the PX-B120U is only powered by its USB cable, that doesn’t mean you won’t get the full effect. The player is still perfectly capable of reading Blu-rays at 4X, and if you really want to watch other things, like an HD movie, you’ll be happy to know that there’s Cyberlink Power DVD software pre-installed, which means you can do just that. Furthermore, if you’re favorite movie hasn’t been released on Blu-ray yet, and you’ve only got it on a standard DVD, the external player will upscale it for you to a something-like HD quality.

The drive itself will read your Blu-ray from a top-load mechasnism. It only gets really interesting when you take a look at the price. For $100, you’ll be able to connect this and go (hopefully), which should make watching your favorite high definition flicks pretty simple. And while we have a price, it doesn’t look like the new model has been included on their site quite yet. So, hopefully that changes soon.

[via Electronista]

The new drives are the 64GB PX-64M1S and the PX-128M1S with 128GB of storage. Both of the SSDs use non-volatile NAND flash memory, just as all other SSDs do. Plextor uses Marvell controllers in the storage devices.

The SSDs are 2.5-inch drives with SATA II connectivity and come bundled with Acronis True Image software for backup and recovery. The 64GB SSD promises sequential read performance of 110MB/s and sequential write speed of 65MB/s. The 128GB drive offers up to 130MB/s read and 70MB/s write. The SSDs are available now with the 64GB version selling for $225 and the 128GB selling for $400.

Five new models have been added to the line up. For starters, there’s the PX-610U 8X Slim External USB Super Multi Drive. This drive is compatible with both PCs and Macs and acts as a portable DVD writer. It possesses an internal battery, so only one USB port connection is required for power and for the transfer of information.

The PX-B310SA is a 6X internal SATA and the PX-B310U is a 6X external USB. Both are Blu-ray combo drives and allow you to play Blu-ray movies, and burn music or movies onto CD or DVD.

The PX-850SA is a 22X internal SATA and the PX-850A is a 22X internal PATA. Both are super multi DVD±RW drives. They make it easy to burn media onto CD or DVD. All of the new models come with PlexUTILITIES, with one exception, the PX-610U for the Mac. The new software lets you view information about the drives and helps you destroy information on DVDs and CDs. Various diagnostic functions are also included.

The first drive, the 300, can also play both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. It can read each format’s discs at speeds of 6x for Blu-Ray and 3x for HD-DVD.

The second drive can do all of that, and write to Blu-Ray discs at varying speeds depending on the disc, those are as follows: BD-R (single or dual layer) at 4x, BD-R (SL LTH) at 2x, and BD-RE (single or dual layer) at 2x. No word on price, but they’ll be available at the end of this month.

[via nordichardware]

The aerial supplied with the PX-HDTV500U has to be one of the oddest I’ve seen; at first, I thought it was being photographed in front of the tuner’s retail packaging, but in fact it really does have an oblong mini-billboard apparently laced with some sort of flexible composite.  Plextor also include a remote control and software capable of viewing and recording TV.

“Plextor’s PX-HDTV500U Mini Digital HDTV Receiver is an excellent device for any road warrior, traveler, or student looking for a solution in the field of portable televisions. The simplicity and ease of use will most definitely have users falling in love with the idea of watching television on one’s computer”TabletPCReview

Check out the full review if you’re interested in mobile HDTV viewing.

Plextor HDTV500U review [TabletPCReview]

With all this noise about Sony getting their own Blu-ray DVD drives ready for the masses, it’s easy to overlook the other Blu-ray options available. Plextor has announced their first Blu-ray burner, the PX-B900A, an internal ATAPI drive for normal PCs. While no price has been announced yet (though it should come in lower than the price for a comparable Sony drive), the unit will be able to write to BD-R and BD-RE discs at 2x while also supporting DVD-RAM, DVD±R/RW, and CD-R/RWs. And for all you computer lovers, the drive comes in both black and white to match whatever fits your style. Look for the new drive to hit shelves this fall.

Plextor readies Blu-ray recorder [Reg Hardware]

-B.N.