SanDisk Extreme SSD - 240GB

A SATA 6GB/s SSD is a must for high-performance PCs. With read/write speeds greater than 500MB/s, these tiny storage devices are more than five times faster than conventional hard drives. The advantages of using SSDs are speedy booting and shutdown of the operating system, snappy application/game loading and little time required to save large files. SSDs are also more reliable than hard drives due to the absence of moving parts, and they consume significantly less power. However, all of this comes at a premium price, which is quite justified.

Prices of SSDs, especially those with capacities up to 120GB, have fallen in the past few months. A 120GB SandForce-driven SATA 6 GB/s SSD now costs around Rs. 8,500, while low capacity SSDs (up to 60GB) cost less than Rs. 5,000. The prices of high-capacity drives (240GB and above) have also dropped, but they are a bit expensive at an average price of Rs. 16,000.

Rear panel

Features

SanDisk entered the SSD segment with the Ultra series, which featured a SATA 3GB/s interface. Its latest offering is the Extreme series, which is aimed at enthusiasts. Not surprisingly, it features a SATA 6Gb/s interface and uses a SandForce SF-2281 controller and SanDisk’s own 24 nm Toggle Mode MLC NAND flash memory. We tested the 240GB variant of the SanDisk Extreme series.

Like its Ultra series, SanDisk has gone in with the black and red theme for the Extreme series. Turn the SSD over and you’ll find a big sticker with details such as the exact model number, serial number, manufacturing date, capacity etc. The aluminium shell is black with matte finish. Going by the looks, it does seem that this SSD packs some serious meat. 

Many SSDs such as the Intel 520 series, Kingston HyperX and OCZ Vertex 3 come with a mount adapter for installing the drive into a 3.5-inch bay of a desktop PC case. The SanDisk Extreme doesn’t bundle anything.

Extreme!

The SSD is backed by a three-year warranty and comes in two capacities – 120GB and 240GB. We pitted our test SSD against the Intel 520 series (240GB) and ADATA XPG SX900 (256GB). Before delving into the numbers, here are the tech specs. 

Specifications

Capacities

    120GB (SDSSDX-120G-G25)

        550MB/s read, 510MB/s write, 23K random read IOPS, 83K random write IOPS

        MTBF - 2.5 million hours

        Power: 0.6W Active, 1.8W Max Operating, .6W Idle, .4W Slumber

    240GB (SDSSDX-240G-G25)

        550MB/s read, 520MB/s write, 33K random read IOPS, 83K random write IOPS

        MTBF - 2 million hours

        Power: 0.5W Active, 1.9W Max Operating, .5W Idle, .3W Slumber

Test Rig

Processor: Intel Core i7-2600k

Memory: 8GB G.Skill DDR3-1866

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-UD5H

Graphics card: AMD Radeon HD 6870

SSD: Plextor PX-256M2S

Power supply: Corsair Silent Pro Gold 800W

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit

Score Sheet

Performance

We used the following software to assess the read and write speeds of the drives:

1. IOMeter: We configured the test to read and write 4K, 64K and 256K chunks of data, which is the most stressful. Here, all the three drives performed almost similarly, except for the 64K and 256K read tests where SanDisk Extreme was faster by around 40MB/s than the rest. However, the SanDisk Extreme’s write speeds were the lowest for the same test.
   In the next test, we measured both sequential and random read and write speeds, using 2 MB (for smaller files such as MP3 and photos) and 256MB (for larger files used by games, videos, audio, etc.) chunks of data. Here, the max read and write speeds were 512MB/s and 182MB/s, respectively. Again, SanDisk logged the highest read speeds, but lagged behind the rest in the write test by a large count.
2. CrystalDiskMark: In this test, the software was set up to read and write 500MB of data. The results here were no different than in IOMeter. The sequential read speed of the SanDisk SSD was 473MB/s, which was very close to that of the Intel SSD 520 and ADATA XPG SX900. However, the write speed was the lowest at 292 MB/s – 10MB/s slower than Intel SSD 520 and 32MB/s slower than ADATA XPG SX900.
3. ATTO Disk Benchmark: There wasn’t much difference in the read and write speeds between the three drives in this test. At a read speed of 533 MB/s and write speed of 558 MB/s, SanDisk Extreme was the second fastest.
4. SiSoft Sandra 2012: Here, the SanDisk Extreme logged the lowest drive score – 458MB/s which is a good 50MB/s lower than the others. The read and write speeds logged were 504MB/s and 282MB/s, respectively. The highest score was logged by ADATA XPG SX900 – 530MB/s read and 504MB/s write.

Verdict

The MRP of the 240GB SanDisk Extreme SSD is Rs. 32,249, but it’s available for Rs. 22,500 in the market. It’s slightly costlier than the 240GB Corsair Force GT and priced similarly to the Intel 520 series. The ADATA XPG SX900 is also priced around Rs. 20,000. The SanDisk Extreme SSD is faster than its competition when it comes to read speeds, but its write speeds take a slight hit. If you’re looking for a high capacity SSD with blazingly fast read and write speeds, this drive is an excellent option. Highly recommended!