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SanDisk Extreme 120GB SSD

Sata 3 Sandforce speedster

Up to the test

To get to its advertised 120GB capacity, the drive uses four of SanDisk’s own 05091032G, 32GB 24nm Toggle MLC NAND chips. All the flash memory sits on one side of the board, leaving the Sandforce controller on its lonesome on the other side of the PCB. Once formatted, the drives capacity drops to 111GB.

SanDisk Extreme 120GB SDSSDX-120G-G25 SanDisk Extreme 120GB SDSSDX-120G-G25

CrystalDiskMark and AS SSD benchmarks

In use the drive took just 11 seconds to get to the Windows 7 desktop after the motherboard BIOS had finished loading while duplicating a 40GB folder of mixed file types and sizes took 8m 45s. Loading a copy of Office 10 Professional took just 5m 30s from hitting the instal button to completion.

SanDisk quotes sequential read/write figures for the Extreme 120GB of 550MB/s and 510MB/s respectively. A quick test with the ATTO confirms these figures as the test gave up figures of 551MB/s for reads and 510MB/s for the writes.

SanDisk Extreme 120GB SDSSDX-120G-G25

ATTO test results

These figures prove that SanDisk have been doing their homework with the drive as it puts the Extreme 120GB firmly in amongst the fastest drives around at the current time. For instance, Intel’s new 240GB 520 drive produces read/write figures of 552MB/s and 519MB/s respectively.

CrystalDiskMark 3 Results

SanDisk Extreme 120GB SDSSDX-120G-G25

Longer bars are better

The figures for both reads and writes drop when the drive is tested with the incompressible data that both the AS SSD and CrystalDiskMark benchmark use. Yet in both benchmarks, the read performance holds up reasonably well, which is a good sign that the custom firmware is doing a good job – handling incompressible data is something that Sandforce controller often struggles with.

SanDisk Extreme 120GB SDSSDX-120G-G25

An empty toolbox, but a good price/performance match

While SanDisk backs the drive with a three year warranty, it doesn’t provide any tools to help keep its performance in tip-top condition. It's a shame, as two of its competitors bundle really good software tools with their drives – Samsung offers SSD Magician and Intel has the excellent SSD Toolbox.

Verdict


With a second generation of drives under its belt, the SanDisk Extreme SSD is really rather good, blending great performance with a price tag that’s not too eye-watering either. ®

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SanDisk Extreme 120GB SDSSDX-120G-G25

SanDisk Extreme 120GB SSD

Fast performing drive from one of the leading experts in flash media technology.
Price: £160 (120GB), £280 (240GB), £TBA (480GB) RRP

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