SanDisk Extreme 120GB Solid State Drive Review

We were quite pleasantly surprised when SanDisk moved into the Solid State Disk market, as it was a new venture for them, but should have been one that paid off, and while they were late to the party, they have made up for it with no frills products that are cost-effective and do the job they set out to do, which is what we saw with the Ultra SATA II drive.

The Extreme SATA III drive we looked at today followed on this success but with faster speeds, even surpassing some other strong contenders on the way by utilising new technology with a tried and tested LSI SandFoce controller.

The thing we are most keen on with the range of SanDisk drives is the pricing structure as they really do appeal to consumers where they are most conscious; their wallets, and we know that’s an important factor in this current economy that we’re faced with.

Costs are kept down in a variety of ways, the first being the memory used, which is manufactured by Flash Forward; a company which is partly owned by Toshiba, and partly owned by SanDisk, giving SanDisk a certain edge when it comes to sourcing the NAND, as they can do it for the very best price possible, which can then be passed on directly to the customer. We also find the accessory package being one of the most sparse we’ve ever seen with no fancy sticker or adapter bracket, but with the majority of chassis coming supplied with 2.5″ adapters, why should SanDisk have to supply one also? The lack of these small, but novelty items allows for a cheaper overall price for consumers which is a big plus point in our books.

The combination of the SandForce SF-2281 and Toggle Flash NAND allows for great performance with all different sizes and types of data including compressible and incompressible, leading us to congratulate SanDisk on performing another fantastic Solid State Drive, considering this is a whole new market area for them, and so far they have the right recipe from the two drives we’ve seen so far.

With a price point of £115.34 from Scan, we find this to be one of the cheaper drives currently on the market, rivalling the OCZ Vertex 3, Corsair Force Series GT and even the Crucial M4 and Kingston HyperX drives, which are all great drives, but cost is everything if you can get similar performance.