Sandisk Announces Extreme 6Gbps SSD as Well As X100 SATA 3 SSD Series For OEM

We were right there to introduce Sandisk as being the first consumer available SSD in 2007 which, I guess you could say, made us one of the first to review SSDs as well.  We have come a long way since!

Here we are once again announcing Sandisks latest consumer release, the Extreme SATA 3 SSD, along with a new OEM line, the X100, which will include both 2.5″ and mSATA form factors for oem sales to start.  The X100 family will also be SATA 3 with transfer speeds that appear to be through a Marvell controller, contrary to the Extreme which appears to be ‘SandForce Driven’.

The Extreme, now available in capacities of 120GB and 240GB, is tagged as a performance drive. The 240GB version maxes out at 550MB/s reads and 520MB/s writes with IOPS rated at 33,000 4K read and 80,000 4K write.  Do these specs sound familiar to you?

Priced at $190 and $400 respectively, a $750 480GB SSD should be out soon.

Next up is Sandisks X100 family of OEM SSDs. The X100 should encompass 2.5″ drives (7mm and 9.5mm) as well as mSATA form factors. The X100 also supports something called “Power Classes” which should allow the SSD to adjust performance to fit in a smaller power envelope. SanDisk has announced capacities ranging from 32GB to 512GB and maximum performance for the X100 is said to be 500MB/s read and 420MB/s write for the 256GB version which could possibly be an enterprise ‘tamed’ SandForce configuration but sounds remarkably close to what we are seeing of current Marvell controllers as of late.

Then again, it could very well be a proprietary SanDisk controller as they discussed this being a drive that throttles it’s own performance to use less power which is certainly unique. Either would be interesting on it’s own, but together, it could be one of the more interesting drives to be released. SanDisk is also touting the X100’s endurance, which further piques interest.