Whenever you buy yourself a new ultrabook you know that the storage device that hides away out of sight is not the quietest and fastest that it could be, but there are ways in which you can rectify this issue. The new Plextor M5M mSATA SSD series for 2013 is designed to give your ultrabook the ultimate upgrade, although you’ll have to pay the price for the privilege.

The M5M series will come with a choice of three storage sizes, 64GB, 128GB and 256GB, each of these will achieve read speeds of 540 MB/s. However write speeds vary on the model, these are 160 MB/s, 320 MB/s and 430 MB/s, in that order. When SSDs were fist launched their time before they failed were not that great, but you’ll be pleased to know that these new models will offer at least 2.4 million hours of use before they go to silicon heaven.

Plextor’s M5M mSATA SSD series price range has not been announced just yet or a release date either. However, we don’t expect these drives to be cheap when you consider their specs along with the impressive security features as well. The M5M mSATA series will come with Plextor’s True Protect Technology, which offers enterprise grade protection for your storage device, this high level of data protection has 128-bit error correction along with exclusive firmware to go with it.

While some of you may not have heard of Plextor before just know that these are one of the most reliable brands for SSDs on the market, and while the company has yet to offer details of the M5M mSATA on their website, you could consider the M5P series for now. However, this is only meant to support the storage devcie that you currently have in your ultrabook and not as an upgrade option. (Image thanks to AnandTech)

As reported by Jamie Pert previously the device is extremely light weight, yet remains strong looking enough in its ‘aircraft aluminum’ casing. It weighs about a 1/3 of a pound, just 162g and thanks to its USB 3.0 cable there is no need for a power cable adding to its weightlessness.

As it will be powered through USB connection the connectivity will be instant making it practical as well as being preloaded with Plextor software on its speedy HDD allowing readily set up system interface.

Geeky Gadgets who also report the PX-PH750U3, will let users optimize its write and read speeds using the Turbo HDD feature and will also be able to restore and backup with FNet PC Clone EX. Check out what else the devices feature by clicking the links above.

Plextor are also responsible for the PX-L611U, portable DVD writer which was announced last month. RegHardware has a full list of details about the slimline USB devices and also say they will be available for $49. What do you think of these Plextor drives? Are the prices reasonable? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Plextor will retail the device in two models, the difference between each being their storage capacity, the PX-PH750U3 model will have 750GB of storage and will retail at around $195 (£120) and the PX-PH500U3 – which has a reduced but still very large capacity of 500GB will retail at around $146 (£90).

The HDD comes with on-board software which makes it compatable with different system setups and also comes equipped with Turbo HDD utility which makes reading and writing to the computer super-fast while backup and restore is made simple with FNet PC Clone EX and to top it off you even get a little leatherette case to keep it safe in.

The 750GB model will come a little later in April however the 500GB model comes to European shelves in March. The implementation of USB 3.0 means that users should see rapid speed increases from USB 2.0 devices, some have rated 3.0 to be 10X faster than 2.0, which is a staggering statistic which makes this HDD seem very attractive for anyone looking for a portable hard drive at the moment.

Do you think the USB 3.0 is worth the price or do you think a cheaper 500GB alternative with USB 2.0 is better value for money?

These SSDs are the 64GB PX-64M1S and the 128GB PX-128M1S, both of which are 2.5 inch drives that utilize Marvell controllers along with non-volatile NAND flash memory.

Performance-wise the 64GB model is said to offer a maximum read speed of 110MB/s and a maximum sequential write speed of 65MB/s. The 128GB model is said to offer a maximum read speed of 130MB/s and a maximum sequential write speed of 70MB/s.

The 64GB model is currently selling for $225, whereas the 128GB model is selling for $400, both drives come with Acronis True Image which usually costs around $40.

Source: SlashGear