SanDisk Extreme II 240 GB SSD Review

It has been a while since I have had the opportunity to review a SSD, and never have I reviewed a SanDisk SSD before. Normally SanDisk tends to play in the OEM arena including laptops and such, but since their Extreme SSD and now, what we have for review, the SanDisk Extreme II, they are broadening their horizons and continuing their drive in to the performance segment. We will dissect the drive and see how it does against some more, familiar to the performance market, drives.

Specifications

We will start out this section with the specifications of the drive straight from SanDisk. This line is offered in flavors from 120 GB to 480 GB and is built using SanDisk’s own 19 nm ex2 ABL MLC, Toggle NAND. As expected, it sits on a SATA3 (6 GB/s) interface. SanDisk is using a Marvell 88SS9187 controller (also found in Plextor M5 Pro/Extreme SSD) with their own firmware to drive it all. It seems like more and more SSD manufacturers are taking their firmware into their own hands, and usually this is a good thing! Not give anything away but I will tell you it’s a good thing in this case.

As far as performance goes, SanDisk shows 550/510 (sequential read/write) with 95K/78K IOPS. So you can see it’s up there with the best of them. This is nice to see out of SanDisk as usually their drives were OEM based without too much performance in mind (pre-Extreme series). Power consumption at maximum is a paltry 5 W when writing and 0.22 W at idle. They have a 2M hour Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF) and an 80 TB Write expectancy. 80 TB doesn’t seem like much, but this is a metric that I do not have anything else to compare to either. All this is supported by a strong five year warranty on the product, which is pretty significant as most drives are three years.

Specifications (Courtesy SanDisk)
Specifications (Courtesy SanDisk)

Some other high level features of this drive (from the SanDisk Technical Guide):

  • ‚Launch applications faster and enjoy quicker system boot
    ups/shut downs
  • Low power consumption for cooler operation and extended battery life
  • Noise reduction for quiet drive operation
  • Durable stainless-steel casing
  • Available capacities: 120 GB, 240 GB and 480 GB
  • Warranty: 5-year limited
  • NCQ support up to queue depth = 32
  • Advanced Flash Management (nChace, Dynamic and Static Wear-leveling, Bad Block Mgmt, Garbage Collection)
  • Advanced Features (Tiered caching, Multi stream, Minimal write amplification)
  • Support for Thermal throttling (performance throttled in case it breaches set temperature)

To get into more detail on the Advanced Flash Management, it is a feature implemented to improve random write performance. As a lot of us probably know, a modern OS deals with lots of small files with the majority being around 4k in size. That conflicts with the physical block structure for newer flash technologies. To help minimize that gap, SanDisk uses three ‘storage layers’:

  1. Volatile cache (DDR DRAM cache)
  2. nCache (non-volitile flash write cache)
  3. Mass storage (MLC NAND flash)

The nChace is used to, “accumulate small writes (called segments) at high speed and then flush and consolidate them to larger MLC sections of the NAND Flash memory array.” As described below this is like a layer of SLC on top of the MLC to help keep your most common 4k files up to speed so to speak. Below is a diagram of their setup.

Diagram (Courtesy of SanDisk)
Diagram (Courtesy of SanDisk)

The SanDisk 240 GB SSD

Retail Packaging and Drive

In our first look at the packaging we see a pretty large box. I have to imagine this isn’t what you will be picking up off the shelves as it comes with its marketing goodies (tiny USB stick). Regardless, it is what I have in hand. You can’t quite tell the size in the first picture, but opening it up in the second reveals its size against the SSD in the box.

Sandisk Extreme II SSD - Box
Sandisk Extreme II SSD – Box

Its in There
It’s in There

Next we see the drive close up, a typical 2.5″ SSD in black. The sticker on the front describes what it is, the SanDisk Extreme II Solid State Drive. Flipping it over reveals more information about the drive like its capacity (240 GB), Interface (SATA3), the voltage it runs off of (5 V), and of course the identifying serial numbers. We see mounting holes are available as expected and are on the side as well. What you don’t see here are screws to take this thing apart so I can show you the internals… where the heck did that go?

Sandisk Extreme II SSD - Front
SanDisk Extreme II SSD – Front

Rear
Rear

Alt. 1
Alt. 1

Alt. 2
Alt. 2

 Drive Internals

Ahh ha! They hid them underneath the sticker on the backside of the drive. Basically, you have no chance to open it up and then expect to return it. It will be incredibly obvious that it was messed with since you have to remove all four corners to get this apart. But, we don’t care about warranties here, so I opened this thing up with reckless abandon! Ok, that isn’t true, I was gentle.

So, inside we can see the Marvell controller, and some other IC’s which will be described a bit more below. What is new to me is to see thermal pads on all the IC’s. Normally it’s only on one item (the controller) and the NAND is left alone, but SanDisk has taken the liberty to put them on all of them. This helps keep the parts running cooler and uses its the aluminum chassis to assist with heat dissipation. This drive has thermal protection in it as well, so you should have a fair amount of headroom before that kicks in.

Where are the Screws?
Where are the Screws?

Open Sesame!
Open Sesame!

Below we can see the IC’s used. As mentioned above, the controller is the Marvell 88SS9187 using in house created firmware followed by the SanDisk NAND, and the Hynix cache IC.

Marvell Controller - 88559187-BLD2
Marvell Controller IC – 88SS9187

SanDisk IC - 3013D2M1P5
SanDisk Memory IC – 3013D2M1P5

Hynix Cache IC - 45TQ2G530FR
Hynix Cache IC – 45TQ2G530FR

Test Setup

The full test bed for this review is as follows:

CPUIntel i7 3770K @ 4 GHz
RAMKingston HyperX Predator DDR3-2666 (@ 2133 MHz)
MBAsrock Z77 OC Formula
SSDSanDisk 240 GB
OSMicrosoft Window 7 Professional x64

There are several SSDs for comparison today; Kingson’s HyperX 3K 240 GBCrucial’s M4 256 GBAdata’s XPG SX900 128 GB , OCZ Vertex 4 256 GB (1.5 FW), and OCZ Vector.

Test Method

Before each test, the drive is Secure Erased (SE) to ensure optimal results. As you beat on a drive with benchmark after benchmark, performance can lower significantly until the drive runs its TRIM and GC functions… we don’t have the time to wait, so we SE the drive and it comes out factory fresh!

  • Crystal Disk Mark – Run three times, Default settings
  • AS SSD – Run at default settings
  • ATTO – Run with default settings outside of the Queue depth of 10
  • IoMeter 2010- Ran manually

Performance

Crystal Disk Mark

In this test we use the Random (default) testing to show us what the drives are all about. In this testing on my benchmarking PC, we see the Sequential Reads and Writes coming in at 490 MB/s and 500.3 MB/s respectively. For reads that puts it behind the formidable OCZ Vector, and HyperX 3K. Writes show the same placement, but the HyperX 3K drops off here so 2nd place is the Vertex 4. A good showing here.

For the 512K R/W’s the SanDisk puts up 420 MB/s in reads and 480 MB/s in writes, putting it again in the middle of the pack.

Moving on to 4k, the reads show this drive edging out the entire field, and falling to middle of the pack in the write test, just behind the Vector/Vertex 4 again.

Last up on this chart are the 4k QD32 tests coming in at 335 MB/s and 325.9 MB/s, reads and writes. Here again it falls slightly behind the Vector and Vertex4 by a small margin.

Crystal Disk Mark (Random)
Crystal Disk Mark (Random)

AS SSD

Here again we start with sequential reads and writes. The SanDisk offering hit 500 MB/s reads and 459.6 in writes, placing it 3rd in our comparison and a little behind the Vector and HyperX 3K. In the 4k reads we are seeing the Extreme II match the Vertex 4 at 30.6 MB /s, while the writes fall surprisingly to the lower end of this test. Moving on to the last section of this benchmark, the 4k 64Thrd, the SanDisk offering bounces back to tie the Vector for first place here, while being slightly behind it in the writes.

AS SSD
AS SSD

Next up in AS SSD are the Access Times. This metric tends to vary a bit so I don’t put too much stock in it. That said, a middle of the pack and 2nd place showing here… nice!

AS SSD - Access Times
AS SSD – Access Times

As far as the overall score of 1037, the drive sits squarely behind the Vector and Vertex 4, but miles ahead of the rest of the pack.

AS SSD - Scores
AS SSD – Scores

ATTO Disk Benchmark

For most (all?) companies that sell SSD’s, this is the benchmark that comes the closest to the SSD’s speed ratings. While it only shows a best case scenario with highly compressible data, it’s still a benchmark we want to use.

With the SanDisk offering, we can see the drive hitting its rated speed at the high end, and even a bit more, so that is good. Checking out the lower end of things, where the drives will differ, we see the Extreme II beating out the competition from 16k on down, even besting the Vector in 4k reads! This drive seems to love those 4k reads!

ATTO - Reads
ATTO – Reads

For the writes portion, we see the same behavior in the large segments, eclipsing its rated numbers. However, when we move down to writes, the story looks remarkably similar to the results in other applications with the SanDisk Extreme II falling just behind the Vector and Vertex 4 in 4k writes and beating out the rest of the field quite easily.

ATTO - Writes
ATTO – Writes

IOMeter

Last up in our benchmarks is IOMeter. Here we run each of these set manually instead of any .icf files or the included profiles. The SanDisk Extreme II managed to come in second here with the 2MB Writes and Reads at 515 MB/s and 539 MB/s respectively, only losing out to the Vector.

For the 4k writes and reads, we find another similar story in that it performs quite well but just a bit behind the OCZ SSDs.

IOmeter
IOmeter

Final Thoughts & Conclusion

I have to admit coming in to this review I had my doubts about the performance of this drive for some reason, but I can safely say it proved me wrong. While it wasn’t class leading, it was certainly in their ballpark across the board. That brings me to the next talking point, pricing. This drive at Newegg.com is $229.99 which puts it well below the Vector and Vertex 4 ($40/$30 less respectively) and $10 below the, not included in this testing but similar performing to all here, the Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB. So the unit is priced well  for its performance and capacity among its peers.

So to wrap this all up, we have a very fast drive sporting a five year warranty with a price point that is spot on in today’s SSD landscape. The SanDisk Extreme II should be one of the top choices on your list for high performance SSDs. As you all expected after reading the conclusion, this product is Overclockers.com approved!

 Overclockers_clear_approved

– Joe Shields (Earthdog)

About Joe Shields 326 Articles
Joe started writing around 2010 for Overclockers.com covering the latest news and reviews that include video cards, motherboards, storage and processors. In 2018, he went ‘pro’ writing for Anandtech.com covering news and motherboards. Eventually, he landed at Tom’s Hardware where he wrote news, covered graphic card reviews, and currently writes motherboard reviews. If you can’t find him benchmarking and gathering data, Joe can be found working on his website (Overclockers.com), supporting his two kids in athletics, hanging out with his wife catching up on Game of Thrones, watching sports (Go Browns/Guardians/Cavs/Buckeyes!), or playing PUBG on PC.

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Avatar of NeonCancerCandy
NeonCancerCandy

Member

461 messages 0 likes

i have the 120gb extreme 1.

i ran ATTO just to compare and the extreme II is faster at 64k and below. after that they match up pretty closely.

crystal mark the extreme 2 shows a lot better. here were my results if interested.
Read/Write
SEQ: 506.1/132.3
512k: 412.6/132.1
4k: 35.78/74.01
4k QD32: 216.8/116.2

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Avatar of ilovecats
ilovecats

Meow

120 messages 0 likes

I'm interested in seeing a comparison of the very latest SSD's, including this and the newly released Seagate 600 series.

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Avatar of dostov
dostov

Overclockers.com Reporter

601 messages 0 likes

Nice review Earthdog! And solid product from SanDisk! :thup:

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Avatar of dejo
dejo

Senior Moment Senior Member

4,166 messages 77 likes

nice review Joe. I have a Sandisk extreme usb flashdrive that I wouldnt trade for any other model, that thing is stinking fast. Sandisk is making some strides for sure

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t
tsh

New Member

1 messages 0 likes

Write Expectancy

You mention an 80TB Write Expectancy. Where did you get this info? I cant find it on any of the SanDisk docs. And what does it mean? The long-term writeability of these things scares me. They are touted as a replacement for a PC's normal hard-drive, but has anyone tried writing 80TB of data in random amounts, to random locations on one of them? And how long is it, under normal use, before 80TB actually gets written? Do we know how much behind the scenes writing goes on in the creation of temporary files, web caches, cookies etc.

I believe also, it isnt the quantity of data that matters, but the number of times a particular block of disk is erased (they have to be erased in order to overwrite 1's with zeros). So thousands of tiny writes may be much worse than a few giant ones, if they happen to hit the same area of disk.

I'm not knocking the devices, I just dont think we are being given the whole picture. Maybe a review is an opportunity to run one of these to 'write destruction' and see just what it does.

As I've heard said before 'we can now lose more data faster than ever...'

Cheers,
Terry

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Avatar of EarthDog
EarthDog

Gulper Nozzle Co-Owner

76,352 messages 3,106 likes

Welcome!

That was in their marketing materials I received IIRC.

There is testing all over the web on this type of drive (with MLC NAND) that have beat up a drive writing TB's of data at a day to see when they die. The results are quite positive from the couple I have seen, and some were even on TLC (lower write expectancy) too.

As far as temp/page files... that worry was around a few years ago when SSD's were in their infancy, but it hasn't been an issue. To move your pagefile or temporary internet files off your SSD is being overly paranoid.

As always, a proper backup procedure mitigates any issues.

Let me gather a link or two of that testing...(for reference, I googled "SSD write testing")

http://techreport.com/review/25320/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-22tb-update
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6459/samsung-ssd-840-testing-the-endurance-of-tlc-nand
http://us.hardware.info/reviews/417...0-250gb-tlc-ssd-updated-with-final-conclusion

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