PlexTurbo
Plextor's RAM-caching technology is called PlexTurbo. It works by using the system's memory pool as a fast cache, but compares data in the RAM cache and drive to ensure nothing is duplicated. Plextor says that using hot data, kept in an off-drive cache, prevents unnecessary writes and helps protect against data loss if the system crashes.
Other companies also use RAM-caching technology to boost speeds for frequently-used data, with Samsung's RAPID mode being the obvious comparison. The mechanism by which the two work is slightly different, but both aim to increase throughput.
PlexTurbo in action on the right
We're looking at a peak read speed of almost 4GB/s and write speed of 4.3GB/s, circumventing the limitations imposed by the SATA interface. Benchmarking the drive in PlexTurbo mode shows improvements in straight-line speed used in CrystalDiskMark and ATTO but less of a gain in Iometer and PCMark's extended tests.
Looking across to the Samsung drives in RAPID mode, the Plextor is a little slower in sequential tests but a touch faster when smaller files are moved around in a random fashion.
Appreciating this piece of software is free and improves performance in every benchmark, we believe it should be left on as default.