Extreme II 120GB

The 120GB Sandisk Extreme II proved to be a disappointment. I was expecting the same blistering performance as I saw on its larger 240GB sibling but that proved not to be the case. Comparing the 120GB and 240GB Extreme II's reveals that the larger 240GB version has peak speed ratings that are approximately 35% faster that the 120GB Extreme II. The main weakness of the 120GB Extreme II is its sequential write speed which is just 305 MB/s vs 492 MB/s on the 240GB version. Reduced write ability at lower capacities is explained by fewer NAND modules which reduce a controllers ability to parallelize slow write operations across different memory banks. Overall the Sandisk Extreme II sits amongst the bottom 20% of performers in the 120-128GB capacity category. Several of the drives in the group test have comparable performance at both the 120 and 240 GB capacities, those drives are the ones to go for. ^{[Feb '14 SSDrivePro]}