Thursday, January 4th 2024

Legendary PC Storage Brand Plextor to Shut Down

by
AleksandarK
 Discuss (41 Comments)
Plextor, one of the most iconic names in PC storage once known for high performance and quality, has announced it will cease operations. Parent company Kioxia has decided to retire the Plextor brand name for solid state drives (SSDs). Instead, it will market products under its Solid State Storage Technology Corporation (SSSTC) brand going forward. The move comes after Kioxia acquired Plextor and its parent company Lite-On's SSD business back in 2019. Since then, Plextor has struggled to keep pace with new storage technologies. With PCIe Gen 4 and PCIe Gen 5 SSD controllers coming to market, Plextor failed to adopt the new Phison and InnoGrit platforms, instead sticking with Marvell controllers, lagging behind at that time.

Now, SSSTC and Kioxia will strictly focus SSD sales on the enterprise, data center, and industrial segments rather than the consumer market. The Plextor website is already redirecting to SSSTC.com, which no longer lists any drives for client PCs. While current Plextor SSD owners will continue to receive warranty support and RMA services, no new Plextor drives are expected to be released. The company had a history stretching back over 30 years of making top-performing optical disk drives and SSDs. Similarly to OCZ after its acquisition by Toshiba, the Plextor name will now fade into history. But in the fast-moving storage business, companies live and die by their ability to adopt cutting-edge technologies. Hence, companies are always on the edge of their seats, trying to survive.
Sources: HKEPC, via Tom's Hardware

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41 Comments on Legendary PC Storage Brand Plextor to Shut Down

#26
Voodoo Rufus
I have a few of their late model DVD-RW drives in service, and they have served me well without issue. Sad to see them go, but it's understandable.
Posted on Reply
#27
TheLostSwede
News Editor
This Plextor is not Plextor Japan though, this is the company that Lite-On bought from Plextor Japan.
The company that made the Plextor optical drives are still around.
www.aspina-group.com/en/

Owned plenty of their optical drives over the years and a few of the Lite-On made SSDs that weren't half bad at the time.
Posted on Reply
#29
Sabishii Hito
TheLostSwedeThis Plextor is not Plextor Japan though, this is the company that Lite-On bought from Plextor Japan.
The company that made the Plextor optical drives are still around.
www.aspina-group.com/en/

Owned plenty of their optical drives over the years and a few of the Lite-On made SSDs that weren't half bad at the time.
Yep, the last true Plextor drives were the PX-755(S)A and PX-760(S)A. Still have multiples of each along with various PX-716 models as I was an ODD enthusiast.
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#30
Minus Infinity
SSSTC just rolls off the tongue. Seriously couldn't they come up with something better as a name to carry forward.
Posted on Reply
#31
bug
Minus InfinitySSSTC just rolls off the tongue. Seriously couldn't they come up with something better as a name to carry forward.
It really does. Only not in English, but in Parseltongue.
Posted on Reply
#32
TheLostSwede
News Editor
Minus InfinitySSSTC just rolls off the tongue. Seriously couldn't they come up with something better as a name to carry forward.
It's short for Solid State Storage Technology Corporation, which you're free to use instead.
Posted on Reply
#33
Waldorf
@Zareek
except once the Hitachi/LG DVD burners started getting past 4x, and able to "rip" stuff (e.g. navi disc) the same way Plextor could,
all while costing less, i didnt care anymore (if they were the best).
Posted on Reply
#34
Minus Infinity
TheLostSwedeIt's short for Solid State Storage Technology Corporation, which you're free to use instead.
No thanks.
Posted on Reply
#35
mahirzukic2
Ferrum MasterAn article failing to tell what's what. They are first known for making CD/DVD drives including Lite-On, as transforming companies, as nobody needs CD/DVD medium anymore, failed to get into the train. The whole SSD story is just the end.
I was thinking the same. They were not known for the PC Storage which is more directed to HDDs and SSDs, but specifically CD/DVDs and the related tech.
Posted on Reply
#36
dir_d
Plextor, the first DVD+-R Writer i bought to burn Sega DreamCast Games
Posted on Reply
#37
Unregistered
Ferrum MasterAn article failing to tell what's what. They are first known for making CD/DVD drives including Lite-On, as transforming companies, as nobody needs CD/DVD medium anymore, failed to get into the train. The whole SSD story is just the end.
Dito. Seeing the title: "Legendary PC Storage Brand Plextor" was so confused - as if this news came from a parallel universe - where Plextor was the equivalent of Seagate or Western Digital.:wtf:
#38
57er6uigyuholn
In the 90s I had a super-expensive Plextor CDRW drive, one of the first with buffer underrun protection (BURN-proof) that would eventually become commonplace. It failed in under two years. I was not impressed. Come to find out they've been a zombie brand since then.

I'm sure we will soon see Plextor branded trash SSDs and USB sticks from china soon.
Posted on Reply
#39
GWARslave119
bobbybluz20 years ago Plextor was THE optical drive to have. Along with excellent drives their PlexTools Professional software suite was a must as well. It was so good no competitor even offered anything like it as far as I know. I still have two fully functional Plextor DVD burners in my "museum piece" rig that's stashed away; a PX-708A (I think that was the last unit actually manufactured by Plextor) and a PX-716A (The first actually made by Lite-On?). Remember this was back in the PATA days when those drives cost $200-300. I also still have a couple of SATA PX-880A/890A's in working PC's but they're slowly dying. Those are also just rebadged Lite-On's. Another once top of the line brand name is now a causality of time, technology and possible bad management. R.I.P.
Oh yeah, if you wanted to burn your Dreamcast games without ending up with tons more coasters than you already did, that $200 cd burner was the way to do it, along with Discjuggler ;p
Posted on Reply
#40
Redwoodz
Z-GT1000Plextor, Liteon, Soltek, Epox, Abit, Aopen, Leadtek...is sad when all this great old days companys have the same end
Aopen still making somethings.

Techies these days will never know the thrill of researching and comparing 10 different brands of motherboard for the same socket.
Off the top of my head....
Abit, Aopen, Asus, ASRock, BFG, Chaintech, DFI, ECS, Foxconn, Gainward, Jetway, Leadteck, MSI, Soltech, Tyan. Sigh.
Posted on Reply
#41
Voodoo Rufus
RedwoodzAopen still making somethings.

Techies these days will never know the thrill of researching and comparing 10 different brands of motherboard for the same socket.
Off the top of my head....
Abit, Aopen, Asus, ASRock, BFG, Chaintech, DFI, ECS, Foxconn, Gainward, Jetway, Leadteck, MSI, Soltech, Tyan. Sigh.
I have a few of those on eBay saved searches....

Aopen ax8bc pro ii being one of them.
Posted on Reply
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