Sandisk Extreme 120GB review

Sandisk is a big name in flash memory, but this is the first of the company’s SSDs we’ve seen. Capacities are currently limited to 120GB and 240GB, with a 480GB version arriving later in the year. We’ve reviewed the 120GB version, which costs £144 and £1.21 per gigabyte – good value compared to our current favourite, the

The Extreme performed well in our file transfer tests. It wrote large files at 180MB/s and read them at 352MB/s, with the first score faster than Patriot’s disk and the second only slightly slower. In our small file tests it wrote at 72MB/s and read at 55MB/s, which is around 3MB/s slower than Patriot’s disk in both benchmarks.

These scores are slightly above average, but there are quicker drives available; Samsung’s 830 Series disks are particularly quick, with the 512MB version writing large files at 379MB/s, around twice the speed on offer from the Sandisk Extreme.

There aren’t any accessories in the box. If you want to install the Extreme in your PC you’ll need a case with a slot for a 2.5in disk, or you’ll have to buy a mounting kit to fit 2.5in disks in a 3.5in slot, such as Akasa’s AK-MX010V2 (£6 from www.dabs.com).

That’s a minor complaint, though. The Extreme is a moderately quick disk at a good price, if just pipped by Patriot’s Pyro SE for performance.