Impressions and conclusions after the first acquaintance with the SSD …
About a year ago, I began to notice that a well-worn home laptop (Samsung RV515) began to work not as fast as I would like. Moreover, the scenarios cannot be called complicated: the Internet, office applications (Word, very rarely Excel), movies, TV series, streaming music services, Telegram. But even with such a load, the laptop 'thought about', it took a particularly long time to get out of 'sleep'. For a long time I could not bring myself to sit down and figure out the reasons for this 'slowdown'. As a result, I decided that it was time to change the HDD to SSD.
The initial choice fell on the Evo line from Samsung, namely the 750/750 Pro models. Apparently, I wanted to take an SSD from the same manufacturer as the laptop. In addition, bundled with the SSD they promised a program for cloning an existing HDD. I was frightened off by the cost and interruptions with the availability of the necessary configuration (240-250 GB) in stores. In addition, vacation-related costs came to the fore, after which the intention to buy an SSD was forgotten and lost in a heap of everyday thoughts. The unexpected opportunity to test the SSD Ultra II from SanDisk was a good reason to think about the fact that it is still worth turning old plans into reality.
Positioning
I have at my disposal a 240 GB version, just about the same amount I need for everyday work with a laptop: I don't download large amounts of data, limiting myself to rare films and TV shows, if I can't find them in the online version, 'heavy' software is not I use.
The Ultra II was one of the first TLC versions of the popular solid state drives. Going to market was a response to the then 'monopoly' in the market, when only one manufacturer had such solutions. Now, of course, TLC NAND has entered ubiquitous use and will not surprise anyone. But, nevertheless, at one time the Ultra II model was positioned as a breakthrough solution designed to improve the speed of work tenfold and significantly increase productivity. Did you manage to do this in my case? Let's look at the characteristics first.
Specifications
SanDisk Ultra II SSD (SDSSDHII-240G-G25)
- Form Factor: 2.5 ″
- Connection interface: SATA 3 (up to 6 Gb / s)
- Volume: 240 GB (there are versions for 120, 480 and 960 GB)
- Memory: SanDisk 19nm A19 TLC ToggleNAND
- Controller: Marvell 88SS9190
- Read / write speed 550/500 mb / s
- Random write speed (4 KB blocks) – 83,000 IOPS
- Random read speed (4 KB blocks) – 91000 IOPS
- Encryption: none
- Features: energy efficient, silent, shockproof, low heat dissipation
- Optional: nCache0 technology, M.P.R. (Multi Page Recovery) Working with SSD Dashboard Utility
- Package contents: SSD, adhesive strip for thickening, documentation
The disc body is made of metal (bottom) and plastic (cover), thickness is 7 mm.
The characteristics can be called quite common for this class of devices. Among the features mentioned, it is worth highlighting SanDisk's proprietary technology – nCache 2.0, which provides a more careful attitude to Flash memory, which increases the potential life cycle of the disk. In one of the foreign tests, this parameter for the Ultra II version of 240 GB was estimated at almost 13 years. The essence of nCache is to allocate a part of the flash memory and use it in Single Level Cell mode in the case when information is recorded in the mode of one bit per cell, as the name implies. The nCache 2.0 volume for the mentioned memory size is 10 GB.
SSD Dashboard
The SSD Dashboard utility is responsible for disk management, the download link is indicated in the documentation.
Using the SSD Dashboard, you can check the status of the drive, update its firmware, get information about the status of the system, and also carry out a series of service operations (Secure Erase, Sanitize, PSID Revert).
The Tools tab also contains links to dedicated evaluation versions of products from partner companies: TrendMicro (antivirus), Acronis (cloning an old disk), Absolute Lo Jack (protection against theft). What is noteworthy, I did the cloning of my HDD using Acronis True Image 2018, everything went not so quickly, but smoothly, I took out the old disk, connected the SSD – everything worked as if nothing had changed.
Impressions
The changes, however, were immediately apparent. Turning on and loading until the moment when the Telegram and Spotify added to autoload were loaded now takes a maximum of a minute and a half. The recovery of the laptop from 'sleep' has improved, now you can almost immediately start working or continue watching a paused series. One of the important aspects was the silence during work, the last disc was almost always heard, it seemed like a trifle, but you notice them in contrast.
Personally, I have known SanDisk products for a long time, I don't remember any problems with their drives. If you, like me, do not work with scenarios that require super-fast hard drives, and have a computer that needs to speed up the work with files and general 'revitalization', then I can advise you to pay attention to this model. The Ultra II has performed well overall, as far as my experience with an SSD can tell. Of course, the disc is not a unique proposition, but the cost and affordability add to the appeal.