SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report

We see how SanDisk's Extreme II 240GB SSD scales in RAID 0 and how it stacks against the competition subjected to our new TweakTown consistency testing.

Published
Updated
17 minutes & 3 seconds read time

Introduction

Till April 8th, 2014, you can win one of these drives!

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 01

SanDisk's Extreme II is no stranger to TweakTown. We've reviewed the Extreme II more extensively than just about any drive I can think of. Well, we're back with more. This time, we're going to see what kind of performance we can extract from two- to six-drive arrays. More importantly, though, we're going to see how well the Extreme II 240GB does in a head-to-head competition with our two current performance leaders.

SanDisk's Extreme II is the successor to their highly successful Extreme series of SSDs. The Extreme II supplanted the Extreme series and brought with it some newer hardware as well as new technology. The original Extreme series leveraged SandForce second generation controller technology combined with SanDisk's own 25nm Toggle NAND technology. This was a very potent combination when it was launched, and like the Extreme II, the Extreme was a TweakTown favorite and one of the fastest drives ever made when it launched.

The Extreme II carries forward the Extreme's enthusiast pedigree. Geared toward power users and enthusiasts, SanDisk designed the Extreme II to deliver bleeding-edge performance in any user environment. Unlike the original Extreme, the Extreme II does not rely on compression technology to generate peak performance. The Extreme II performs equally well whether or not data can be compressed. This is important in today's world where nearly every piece of data comes in a compressed form.

As NAND technology progresses, lithography necessarily shrinks. Shrinking lithography as it relates to components like CPUs generally brings with it a performance increase. Lithography shrinkage as it relates to NAND Flash Memory is quite the opposite. As NAND lithography shrinks, performance as well as endurance shrinks along with it. Technologies are being developed to mitigate the performance and endurance issues that are inherent to NAND lithography shrinkage. One of the leading technologies is programming an emulated single bit per cell (SLC) caching layer into multi bit per cell (MLC) flash memory.

SanDisk was first to introduce the world to emulated SLC technology. SanDisk calls their emulated SLC technology "nCache". SanDisk utilizes this technology on the Extreme II to increase endurance as well as performance by caching small random writes on an emulated SLC layer and flushing them sequentially to the drive's MLC NAND array.

The Extreme II is born of the latest technologies and, as we've documented many times, is one of today's elite performance oriented SSDs. We've seen the Extreme II set many a lab record, but we have a new test that we consider the ultimate in determining whether or not an SSD can deliver consistent high performance over time or if it's just a benchmark babe.

The purpose of today's review is threefold. First, we're going to see how well we can get two- to six-drive Extreme II arrays to scale on the limited bandwidth available from Intel's Lynx Point chipset. Second, we are going to see if the Extreme II performs well when blasted by our new consistency test. The Extreme II is going to face off against our current performance champions in a head-to-head competition. Third, SanDisk and TweakTown are teaming up to give away five Extreme II 240GB SSDs to five of our lucky readers.

This is going to be good, so let's get started!

Specifications and Pricing, Drive Details & Test System Setup

Specifications and Pricing

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 02

SanDisk's Extreme II is available in three capacity sizes: 120GB, 240GB, and 480GB. Specifications list the 240GB Extreme II SSD as capable of up to 550MB/s sequential reads and up to 510MB/s sequential writes. Random read/write speed is listed at up to 95,000/78,000 IOPS at 4k QD32.

The Extreme II has a 7mm z-height allowing for more compatibility with newer laptops. The Extreme II is an affordable Hyper-Class SSD featuring premium 19nm, eX2 ABL MLC, 3k P/E toggle mode NAND. The Extreme II is powered by Marvell's 8 channel "Monet" 88SS9187 SSD processor.

Since this is a RAID review, we are going to focus on performance rather than features. For a more in-depth look at the SanDisk Extreme II's feature set, I will refer you to Chris Ramseyer's extensive review of the SanDisk Extreme II 240GB SSD.

SanDisk's Extreme II is the recipient of TweakTown's prestigious Best of Computex 2013 award in the SSD category.

PRICING: You can find the SanDisk Extreme II (240GB) for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.

United States: The SanDisk Extreme II (240GB) retails for $172.00 at Amazon.

Canada: The SanDisk Extreme II (240GB) retails for CDN$255.97 at Amazon Canada.

Drive Details - SanDisk Extreme II 240GB SSD

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 03

The SanDisk Extreme II comes packaged in a small attractive box that has a picture of the drive on front. The box is black and red with gold, red, and white lettering. The drive's capacity is listed along with a few attributes common to SSDs.

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 04

The rear of the box informs us the drive ships with a spacer and gives us the definition of a gigabyte in 10 languages. A yellow logo informs us that the Extreme II is backed by an industry-leading five year warranty.

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 05

SanDisk includes a stick-on plastic spacer for increasing the drive's overall thickness as well as a printed installation guide.

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 06

The top of the Extreme II's enclosure is formed from a single piece of black plastic. Centered on the top face of the drive is a black manufacturer's sticker with red and white lettering. The bottom and sides of the Extreme II's enclosure are formed from a single piece of stamped aluminum painted black. Centered on the rear face of the enclosure is a manufacturer's sticker that lists the drive's part number, serial number, capacity, and interface.

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 07

Here's what the SanDisk Extreme II 240GB SSD looks like completely disassembled. The Extreme II has a full sized PCB. The drive's controller, DRAM module, and NAND chips all make contact with a thermal pad thereby dissipating heat generated into the aluminum half of the enclosure. The other side of the PCB is devoid of any major components.

Desktop Test System OS Based Testing

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 08

Desktop Test System PCMark 8 Extended Testing

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 09

We are utilizing our ASRock Extreme 11 a/c Test Rig for our OS testing and our ASUS Maximus VI Extreme Test Rig for our PCMark 8 Extended Storage testing. Our ASUS Board provides superior performance and is the test bed we utilize for all our PCMark 8 Extended Storage testing; this will allow for a direct comparison to our other arrays for the purpose of determining our performance champion.

Drive Properties

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 10

The majority of our testing will be done with our test drive/array as our boot volume. Our boot volume is 75 percent full for all OS Disk "C" drive testing to mimic a typical consumer OS volume implementation. We're using 64k stripes for 2-4 drive arrays and 32k stripes for our 5-6 drive arrays. Write caching is enabled.

All of our testing includes charting the performance of a single drive as well as RAID 0 arrays of our test subjects. We are utilizing Windows 8.1 64-Bit for all of our testing.

This report will focus mainly on drive scaling in RAID 0 and what a kind of storage performance you will get as you add drives to your Z87 Lynx Point array. We're going to post screen shots of our 6-drive array's performance and chart a single drive as well as 2-6 drive arrays. Since we've already done a two-drive review of SanDisk's 240GB Extreme II, we are going to add our new PCMark 8 Extended testing regimen to this review as well.

We will compare how the Extreme II 240GB stacks up against the competition utilizing a two-drive array. We consider PCMark 8 Extended testing the best test ever devised to test a drive or an array. We utilize the results from PCMark 8 Extended Consistency testing to rank our drives/arrays.

Synthetic Benchmarks - ATTO, Anvil Storage Utilities, CrystalDiskMark & AS SSD

ATTO

Version and / or Patch Used: 2.47

ATTO is a timeless benchmark used to provide manufacturers with data used for marketing storage products.

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 11

Transfers quickly ramp up reaching full performance by 16k transfers. Read and write transfers are well balanced, strong, and consistent throughout. Our arrays of 4-6 drives are maxing out the bandwidth available from our Lynx Point chipset.

Sequential Write

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 12

Here we can see that available sequential write bandwidth can be maxed out by three drives.

Sequential Read

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 13

Read bandwidth is a slightly different story. Performance is increasing all the way from a single drive to a six-drive array.

Anvil Storage Utilities

Version and / or Patch Used: RC6

So what is Anvil Storage Utilities? First of all, it's a storage benchmark for SSDs and HDDs where you can check and monitor your performance. The Standard Storage Benchmark performs a series of tests; you can run a full test or just the read or the write test, or you can run a single test, i.e. 4k QD16.

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 14

SanDisk's Extreme II is all about performance at low queue depths. This is where performance matters most. Most notable is write performance at QD4. I'm anxious to see how this will translate to real-world performance over time.

Read IOPS through Queue Depth Scale

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 15

Adding more than three drives to the array does result in a performance increase; however, it's a diminishing return until we hit queue depths of eight or more. This is why we consider three drives the sweet spot. Right now, a three-drive array will smash any consumer PCIe SSD.

Write IOPS through Queue Scale

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 16

The Extreme II is tuned for write performance at low queue depths. This makes sense because most commands on an SSD are executed at queue depths of 4 and below.

CrystalDiskMark

Version and / or Patch Used: 3.0 Technical Preview

CrystalDiskMark is disk benchmark software that allows us to benchmark 4k and 4k queue depths with accuracy.

Note: Crystal Disk Mark 3.0 Technical Preview was used for these tests since it offers the ability to measure native command queuing at 4 and 32.

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 17

That's mega performance across the board. Write performance at QD:4, and read performance at QD:32, is outstanding.

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 18

Like we've seen so far, read performance is able to increase at higher queue depths as drives are added to the array.

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 19

Notice the marked performance decrease in 4k performance between the 3- and 4-drive arrays. This is a clear indicator than we need a change in stripe size to increase performance. This is why we changed to 32k stripes for our 5 and 6 drive arrays. Here's the deal: there are three ingredients for great SATA based RAID 0 performance. First, the driver needs to be 11.2 RST driver.

Drivers newer than that are only good for single drives. Second, a stripe size of 64k for 2-3 drive arrays; 32k stripes for arrays of 4-6 drives. Third, write caching must be enabled in RST control panel and Windows buffer flushing should be turned off.

AS SSD

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.7.4739.38088

AS SSD determines the performance of Solid State Drives (SSD). The tool contains four synthetic as well as three practical tests. The synthetic tests are to determine the sequential and random read and write performance of the SSD. These tests are carried out without the use of the operating system caches.

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 20
SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 21

Here we're seeing a nice increase as we add drives to the array. 32k stripes are making the difference for our 5- and 6-drive arrays. Notice the small difference between the 3- and 4-drive arrays. This is a clear indicator that a stripe change is in order. Notice the difference between the 4- and 5-drive arrays. This big performance increase is due to a stripe change.

So, the next logical question is: if we went to 16k stripes on our 6-drive array, would we see another performance increase? The answer is no, in case you are wondering. If we had 7 or 8 RST ports, then probably, but with 5- and 6-drive arrays, 32k stripes will provide maximum performance. A 4-drive array is where there is a grey area. Depending on the drives, 64k stripes may be better than 32k or vice versa.

OS Volume -Trace-Based Benchmarks - PCMark Vantage, PCMark 7 & PCMark 8

Light Usage Model:

We are going to categorize these tests as indicative of a light workload. Typical laptop usage models fit perfectly into this category. If you utilize your computer for light workloads like browsing the web, checking emails, and office related tasks, then this category of results is most relevant for your needs.

PCMark Vantage - Hard Disk Tests

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.2.0.0

The reason we like PCMark Vantage is because the recorded traces are played back without system stops. What we see is the raw performance of the drive. This allows us to see a marked difference between scoring that other trace-based benchmarks do not exhibit. An example of a marked difference in scoring on the same drive would be empty versus filled versus steady state.

For this review, we will run Vantage two ways. The first run is with the OS drive/array 75 percent full to simulate a lightly used OS volume filled with data to an amount we feel is common for most users. The second run is with the OS volume written into a "Steady State" utilizing SNIA's guidelines (Rev 1.1). Steady state testing simulates a drive's or array's performance similar to that of a drive/array that has been subjected to consumer workloads for extensive amounts of time.

OS Volume 75% full - Lightly Used

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 22

OS Volume 75% full - Steady State

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 23

Vantage with data on drives doesn't show much in the way of drive scaling. This is where our synthetic testing actually does a better job of showing us how drives are scaling as we add them to the array.

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 24

When a drive/array is in a steady state, it means garbage collection is running at the same time it's reading/writing. There's a huge difference in performance between a single drive and a two-drive array, but there's not a whole lot of difference between arrays of 2-6 drives when testing with Vantage. Again, I will point out the differences between a 3- and 4-drive array. The drop in performance as we move to a 4-drive array is another example of how 64k stripes are losing steam. I would say that in the case of the Extreme II, you want to use 32k stripes with arrays of 4 to 6 drives.

PCMark 7 - System Storage

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.4.00

We will look to the Raw system storage scoring for RAID 0 evaluations because it's done without system stops and therefore allows us to see significant scoring differences between drives/arrays.

OS Volume 75% full - Lightly Used

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 25
SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 26

More evidence that 32k stripes are in order for the Extreme II when four or more drives are utilized in your array. Just as we saw with Vantage, there is actually a performance drop off at a four-drive array with 64k stripes.

PCMark 8 - Storage Bandwidth

Version and / or Patch Used: 1.2.157

We use the PCMark 8 Storage benchmark to test the performance of SSDs, HDDs, and hybrid drives with traces recorded from Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, and a selection of popular games. You can test the system drive or any other recognized storage device, including local external drives. Unlike synthetic storage tests, the PCMark 8 Storage benchmark highlights real-world performance differences between storage devices.

OS Volume 75% full - Lightly Used

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 27
SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 28

Our three- and five-drive arrays have the best performance because this is where their particular stripe size is peaking. 64k stripes are peaking at three drives, and 32k stripes are peaking at five drives. Again, this is somewhat subject to the particular drives being used. Now we move to what matters to a power user/enthusiast: our Heavy Usage Model. Read on as we switch test beds and move to a two-drive array to see if the Extreme II has what it takes to be TweakTown's performance champion.

Secondary Volume Benchmarks - PCMark 8 Extended

Futuremark PCMark 8 Extended - Consistency Test

Heavy Usage Model:

We consider PCMark 8's consistency test our heavy usage model test. This is the usage model most enthusiasts, gamers, and professionals fall into. If you do a lot of gaming, audio/video processing, rendering, or have workloads of this nature, this test will be most relevant to you.

PCMark 8 has built-in, command-line-executed storage testing. The PCMark 8 Consistency test measures the performance consistency and degradation tendency of a storage system.

The Storage test workloads are repeated. Between each repetition, the storage system is bombarded with a usage that causes degraded drive performance. In the first part of the test, the cycle continues until a steady degraded level of performance has been reached (Steady State).

In the second part, the recovery of the system is tested by allowing the system to idle and measuring the performance with long intervals (TRIM).

The test reports the performance level at the start, the degraded steady-state, and the recovered state, as well as the number of iterations required to reach the degraded state and the recovered state.

We feel Futuremark's Consistency Test is the best test ever devised to show the true performance of solid state storage in a heavy usage scenario. This test takes on average 13 to 17 hours to complete and writes somewhere between 450GB and 7000GB of test data depending on the drives being tested. If you want to know what an SSD's performance is going to look like after a few months or years of heavy usage, this test will show you.

Here's a breakdown of Futuremark's Consistency Test:

Precondition phase:

1. Write to the drive sequentially through up to the reported capacity with random data.

2. Write the drive through a second time (to take care of overprovisioning).

Degradation phase:

1. Run writes of random size between 8*512 and 2048*512 bytes on random offsets for 10 minutes.

2. Run performance test (one pass only).

3. Repeat 1 and 2 for 8 times, and on each pass increase the duration of random writes by 5 minutes.

Steady state phase:

1. Run writes of random size between 8*512 and 2048*512 bytes on random offsets for 50 minutes.

2. Run performance test (one pass only).

3. Repeat 1 and 2 for 5 times.

Recovery phase:

1. Idle for 5 minutes.

2. Run performance test (one pass only).

3. Repeat 1 and 2 for 5 times.

Storage Bandwidth

PCMark 8's Consistency test provides a ton of data output that we can use to judge a drive's performance.

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 29

We consider steady state bandwidth (the orange bar) as our test that carries the most weight in ranking a drive's performance. The reason we consider steady state performance more important than TRIM is that when you are running a heavy duty workload, TRIM will not be occurring while that workload is being executed. TRIM performance (the blue bar) is what we consider the second most important consideration when ranking a drive's performance. Trace-based consistency testing is where true high performing SSDs are separated from the rest of the pack. Take a good look at how even a single Extreme II defeats a two-drive 840 Pro array. The 840 Pro is what I call a "Benchmark Babe" because it wins all the benchmarks that don't matter. Notice the performance drop off from TRIM to Steady State. Notice that the more the drives are over provisioned the less performance drops. The Extreme II's performance drop from TRIM to Steady State is relatively small in comparison to the Q Series Pro because the Extreme II is over provisioned 7 percent and the Q Series Pro isn't over provisioned.

As you can see, SanDisk's Extreme II is a performance powerhouse. The Extreme II is efficient; it is so efficient that TRIM doesn't even matter a whole lot. No matter what you do to an Extreme II, that SanDisk magic is going to deliver performance that's class leading. This is the test I use to determine our RAID performance champion and my personal single drive champion. The Extreme II wins on both fronts by delivering superior performance in a Steady State and becomes TweakTown's new performance leader.

Disk Busy Time

Disk Busy Time is how long the disk is busy working. We measure the total time the disk is busy while replaying all 18 trace iterations.

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 30
SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 31

The Extreme II is incredibly efficient. Our Extreme II array spends very little time working. Contrast that to the 840 Pro array that struggles over four times longer. This is another way we see overprovisioning at work. Notice how the Extreme II spends less time working than the Q Series Pro even though they are pretty much equally matched.

Total Access Time

Access time is the time delay or latency between a request to an electronic system and the access being completed or the requested data returned. Access time is how long it takes to get data back from the disk. We measure the total time the disk is being accessed while replaying all 18 trace iterations.

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 32
SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 33

This is our clearest example of the benefits of RAID write caching. Notice how much better access performance is when utilizing an array in comparison to a single drive. Access times are close to 3.5 times better for a two-drive Extreme II array in comparison to a single Extreme II. This isn't a function of scaling; this is a function of write caching, caching that's not available for a single drive.

Data Written

We measure the total amount of random data that the drives are capable of writing during the degradation phases of the consistency test. The total combined time that degradation data is written to the drive is 220 minutes. This can be very telling. The better the drive can process a continuous stream of random data, the more data will be written.

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 34

In my opinion, nothing I've ever seen more clearly shows the benefit of over-provisioning than this chart does. Notice how our Extreme II array is capable of writing more random data than our Q Series Pro array in the same amount of time. This is because the Extreme II is overprovisioned and the Q Series Pro is not. Now, compare that to the heavily overprovisioned 600 Pro array. The more overprovisioning a drive has, the better it will perform the heaviest of workloads. This is a metric that, until now, has been hard to quantify because it won't manifest itself in a meaningful way except in certain scenarios like this one.

Final Thoughts

Till April 8th, 2014, you can win one of these drives!

SanDisk Extreme II 240GB 6-Drive SSD RAID Report 35

Solid state storage is the most important performance component found in a modern system today. Without it, you do not even have a performance system.

We will be updating our benching regimen and report format over the next few months. Some of the benchmarks we've been using have already been, or will be, replaced with new benchmarks that drill down deeper into the meaning of real-world performance.

Like I stated at the beginning of this Report, SanDisk's Extreme II is a drive that we've reviewed extensively here at TweakTown. We've seen it break many a lab record, but those were much less meaningful than the record it broke today. Our opinion of what it really means for a drive to be considered a top performer has been and continues to evolve. Like most, at one time or another, we have been enamored by "Benchmark Babes" and believed drives like the 840 Pro could deliver the best performance. That day has come and gone. What matters to us now is what a drive's performance is going to look like after a year of getting beat to hell by an Enthusiast/Power User type workload.

Futuremark's Extended Consistency test is really the gold standard of benchmarks for determining how well an SSD is going to perform for the long haul when subjected to the heavy duty workloads most of our readers will subject their NV storage to. This test also clearly shows you the tremendous advantage RAID 0 brings to the table when heavy duty processing is the order of the day.

We pitted the Extreme II against the other two drives we now consider the fastest SATA based drives that have come across our bench. The Extreme II delivered the best Trace-Based Steady State performance of any drives we've tested to date. We feel Steady State performance while running a consumer based workload is THE most relevant metric available for establishing a drive versus drive ranking. Right now, and for what will undoubtedly be a fleeting moment, SanDisk's Extreme II is TweakTown's RAID performance champion. If you want the best, you can't do much better than an Extreme II.

As mentioned, SanDisk is sponsoring a TweakTown contest where five lucky TweakTown readers will win a brand new 240GB Extreme II. Be sure to enter the contest as soon as possible.

RAIDing two or more drives together provides you with storage that takes performance to the next level and is something I recommend you try. Think of it as the SLI of storage. Once you go RAID, there's no going back.

PRICING: You can find the SanDisk Extreme II (240GB) for sale below. The prices listed are valid at the time of writing but can change at any time. Click the link to see the very latest pricing for the best deal.

United States: The SanDisk Extreme II (240GB) retails for $172.00 at Amazon.

Canada: The SanDisk Extreme II (240GB) retails for CDN$255.97 at Amazon Canada.

PRICING: You can find products similar to this one for sale below.

USUnited States: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.com

UKUnited Kingdom: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.co.uk

AUAustralia: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.com.au

CACanada: Find other tech and computer products like this over at Amazon.ca

DEDeutschland: Finde andere Technik- und Computerprodukte wie dieses auf Amazon.de

Jon joined the TweakTown team in 2013 and has since reviewed 100s of new storage products. Jon became a computer enthusiast when Windows XP launched. He was into water cooling and benching ATI video cards with modded drivers. Jon has been building computers for others for more than 10 years. Jon became a storage enthusiast the day he first booted an Intel X25-M G1 80GB SSD. Look for Jon to bring consumer SSD reviews into the spotlight.

Newsletter Subscription
We openly invite the companies who provide us with review samples / who are mentioned or discussed to express their opinion. If any company representative wishes to respond, we will publish the response here. Please contact us if you wish to respond.