Final Thoughts
The Extreme II delivered similar performance to the Vertex 450 throughout our benchmarks. Custom file transfer tests definitely favored the former by a tad, but the margins were thin enough that it's hard to name a clear winner and although the Extreme II showed troubling random 512k and 4K-QD32 results in CrystalDiskMark, it had no trouble matching the Vertex 450 in our real-world application tests.
Moreover, the Extreme II held its own when running PCMark 7 and this was again the case when testing with the recently released PCMark 8, which leads us to conclude that SanDisk's latest offering is on an even playing field with the Vertex 450 when it comes to performance. Naturally, such is also the case with pricing, as both drives are currently fetching about $230 at online retailers.
While you get a little more storage with the Vertex 450, we think reliability is the biggest consideration and OCZ's record here is mixed. Though they made a lot of noise about the vigorous testing procedures the Vector drives went through and the Vertex 450 is based on a similar design. Our samples are running well, but there's a lot of talk on PC forums about high failure rates with the latest OCZ drives.
The Extreme II's reliability is obviously yet to be determined, but Marvell-based SSDs have an excellent history in this respect and given the same controller is also inside Crucial's M500, we are confident SanDisk's drive will go the distance. Assuming that's the case, with its current pricing and performance we have no problem recommending the Extreme II for anyone looking to buy a high speed SSD.
score
Pros: Solid performance showing across the board. In-house developed firmware, good controller choice.
Cons: Slight pricing adjustment makes SanDisk's high-end drive very competitive, but not entirely differentiates it from tough rivals, namely Samsung.