Introduction

SanDisk entered the SATA III SSD market with great fanfare. The company is a pioneer in the flash market and even co-owns a NAND flash factory with Toshiba.

We've looked at the Extreme SSD 240GB on a couple of occasions while going through firmware revisions. At the same time we've tested the largest capacity size, 480GB and the 120GB model.

Today we're running the 480GB Extreme SSD through some tests and now that firmware R211 is public, we can tell you all about it.

Specifications, Pricing and Availability

SanDisk released the Extreme SSD in 60GB, 120GB, 240GB and 480GB capacity sizes. The performance changes a little with each capacity size with the 240GB model being the fastest. Today we're looking at the 480GB model and as you can see some of the performance metrics are down a bit when compared to the 240GB size.

One of the reasons SanDisk made such a splash with the Extreme SSD is the price. Google Shopping tipped up a low price for the Extreme SSD 480GB of just $359. This price blows the sweet spot of $1 per GB out of the water and makes this one of the lowest priced large capacity SSDs on the market today.

In order to get to such a low price point SanDisk made the Extreme SSD a no frills product. Unlike some other Team SandForce offerings, SanDisk didn't include a desktop adapter bracket or data migration software. At this price we aren't going to complain because the price is amazing. You also get a three year warranty.