Review: SanDisk Extreme Pro (480GB)

Conclusion

It's particularly robust when in a well-used state, keeping performance high and consistent when compared to cheaper drives.

Not all solid-state drives are created equal. SSDs using cheaper NAND memory and controllers - value drives - focus on sequential speed as the headline-grabbing figures. Premium consumer drives exhibit similar out-of-the-box figures but, crucially, offer up much better long-term performance and consistency. It's these two facets that you're paying for.

An illustration of a quality SSD is the just-launched SanDisk Extreme PRO available in 240GB, 480GB and 960GB capacities. It's particularly robust when in a well-used state, keeping performance high and consistent when compared to cheaper drives.

The reviewed 480GB SSD attracts a 50 per cent pricing premium over, say, the Crucial MX100. Whether it is worth it, with knowledge of the reduced capacity due to overprovisioning and nCache technology, depends entirely how much you value this long-term consistency that is the best we've seen from a consumer drive.

SanDisk has succeeded in the aim of creating a top-tier consumer drive. We reckon the Extreme PRO is definitely worth considering for users who want reliable and consistent service backed by a 10-year warranty.

The Good

Great performance in a used state
Very consistent numbers
10-year warranty

The Bad

Price could be an issue

HEXUS.awards

SanDisk Extreme PRO 480GB

HEXUS.where2buy

The SanDisk Extreme PRO 480GB SSD is available from Scan.co.uk.

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So is this a Samsung 840 Pro beater ? and if so I wonder how it'll compare to the slightly overdue Samsung 850 Pro !

This is exactly what we need with SSDs. Decent ‘used’ performance and a good warranty
(10 years really is excellent)!

They're clearly targeting Sammy and Intel with these drives. Hopefully, we'll see a fall in prices as they compete :D

I still don't understand why if SATA is the bottleneck, they don't make more of these drives PCIe or other connectors. Those that do seem to ask for a ridiculous premium (even the non-enterprise models), but often aren't making use of the extra bandwidth (small drives with low-ish read/writes that would not have been bottlenecked). Is there a technical reason why this is difficult/expensive?

Also M2 - is it any faster than dual SATA that it seems to replace on some boards that have it? Is there a technical reason (other than current models only having one) why you couldn't connect an SSD to 2 SATA ports nd double the bandwidth available?

Apologies for all the questions.

Tpyo
I still don't understand why if SATA is the bottleneck, they don't make more of these drives PCIe or other connectors. Those that do seem to ask for a ridiculous premium (even the non-enterprise models), but often aren't making use of the extra bandwidth (small drives with low-ish read/writes that would not have been bottlenecked). Is there a technical reason why this is difficult/expensive?

As I understand it, the SATA “limitation” is only if you look at theoretical performance not actual. Although I've seen some posts elsewhere claiming that real-world (/delivered) performance on the top-of-the-line single drives is now getting pretty close to the interface limit. Definitely agree though that PCIe connection would make a heck of a lot of sense for those rich kids with RAID0 SSD setups.

Downside is that PCIe slots are under pressure for other things, and heaven help you if you've got one (or worse, two) of those large graphics cards that overhang the neighbouring slots and reduce your slot count even further.

Was looking at mSATA drives (for a bit of iPod hackery in the autumn) and was gob-smacked to see that apparently these SSD's are apparently drawing more power than the conventional 1.8“ HDDs. Goes counter to the ”SSD's draw less power than spinning rust drives" wisdom.

DemonHighwayman
So is this a Samsung 840 Pro beater ? and if so I wonder how it'll compare to the slightly overdue Samsung 850 Pro !

I'm also interested in how these compare to the Samsung drives since I've got a mix of 830's and 840EVO's here, (no PRO drives). That said, Sandisk's pricing looks pretty good, and that 10 year warranty is a big plus point in my book unless there's some kind of weird constraints applied. I've already had to use Sandisk's warranty service this year for a failed micro-SD card and the experience was as pleasant/trouble-free as those kind of activities can be.

Roughly 50p/GB for that top drive has got me thinking that I might be able to go totally-SSD at some early point next year.

So…main plus of opting for this over a cheaper MX100 is the consistency over time and the warranty?