SanDisk SSD Plus 120GB 2.5-Inch SDSSDA-120G-G25 (Old Version)

This is the little SSD that could... I bought this drive expecting disaster... but was pleasantly surprised by its real time performance. Lets talk about entry level SSD drives. You buy an entry level SSD for these reasons a) save money b) the programs you will be running are browsing, office software and light gaming c) you want a fast boot into Windows 10.. averaging 10 seconds. d) the drive is mainly for HDTV use Even if you add this drive to an older board (even something with DDR2 and Sata II).. your boot will be in 12-14 seconds. Just understand ONE main principle of the controller on this drive. After it exceeds the fast cashe of 4 GB.. the drive will slow down. If you fill the drive past 80% it will slow down. This means if you are a developer, coder or heavy gamer, select a more advanced model or brand of SSD. Finally... the drive has the equivalent weight of a large goose feather and can be attached to the inside of a case using double-sided mounting adhesive.

Wow I really am impressed with this, I already have used SSDs before but never though the performance boost would be so insane! So basically I bought this to upgrade an ancient computer with a Pentium 4 HT in it, it previously had a noisy and slow 240gb Seagate Drive and boy was it slow, I had already upgraded my computer to use a SSD as the primary and loved the results, I however originally planned to buy a Samsung 850 Evo, but unfortunately they where sold out at the time, I was desperate for a SSD though so I said Hey SanDisk has been making solid flash storage for a while so why not give them a shot? So I did! Out of the box you get the SSD itself, some sort of plastic assume is for Laptop compatibility, and other basic stuff (No Sata cable included folks, you will have to provide your own), so to get everything done I simply cloned the drive and I was all set... but was I? Not really before you can take full advantage of an SSD you need to do a few things: 1.Disable Superfetch (SSDs are really fast and all superfetch does is add unnecessary R/Ws) 2.Install SanDisks SSD Software ( This really should be the last step but its not) 3.Opimize your drive (On Windows 8.1+ the Defrag option is replaced with an optimize option, I recommend you do this first) *If you are on Windows 7 and bellow please DO NOT DEFRAG you SSD, this only worsens its performance and basically kills it a bit* Boot speeds increased on this old system greatly, but more impressive is how a single SSD and no other change to this old system greatly improved its overall performance. So I would definitely recommend this product, specially by its pricepoint.

Installed this on my 15 Macbook Pro (mid 2012 model). I dont use too much space on my HDD, so I opted for the 120GB SSD for blazing fast start-up speeds and application control. The speed is well worth it. Easy install, also comes with a frame for the SSD. My only complaint is that it does not come with any spacers. I now have a little extra room in the HDD bay, and can noticeably hear the SSD moving around frequently. Despite the spacing, I would recommend for anyone looking to add some life back into their machine.

Its not the fastest SSD out there, nor the biggest, but for most people its perfect. Its a reliable drive and a great value, and these days SSDs are all so good that even a budget option like this is at least as good as the high-end models from a few years ago. I have an old Samsung 840 500 GB drive in my MacBook that I paid $300 for back in the day. Now that I have this SSD in my gaming PC, it no longer feels slower to boot or open apps than my five-year-old laptop. I put another one of these in my grandmas laptop, and even though shes not very computer savvy, she could feel a night and day improvement in speed. SSDs are so much better than mechanical hard drives. If youve been holding off because youre saving up to buy a really high end one, just stop suffering and get this one now. Its cheap, its really fast (because all reputable SSDs these days are), and for most peoples needs, you probably wouldnt notice the difference between this one and the latest high-end Samsung.

Second time buying a SanDisk SSD. First one being for myself and this second one for my younger brother. Its a very good SSD and does its job well. This replaced a 500GB Seagate Barracuda as a boot drive in my younger brothers PC and paired with Windows 8.1 Pro, the darn thing boots up well before we get the monitors to turn on from a cold start. Its very good at being an SSD. I dont want to get super technical with the specs, but based on the hardware in the SSD, it stands up well to other competitors from Crucial, Samsung, ADATA, etc. The nandflash seems to read and write well, but I havent gone into in depth testing with the SSD, however from everyday use, the drive is speedy and doesnt miss a beat. Overall, Id say that this SSD is a great buy and very competitive for the market that it is in.

I bought this to use in an Atomos Ninja 2 video recorder for my camera after having a discussion with Atomos support to ensure compatibility. They actually told me this model should appear on their official supported list. I already have an inexpensive larger HDD that I use for longer jobs (3+ hour concerts on a stationary camera, etc), but I wanted an SSD for jobs that I might require more shock-proofing if going off-tripod with the recorder. This is a perfect fit for that- performance is not the fastest on the market (Sandisk has other lines such as the extreme for that), but it is very respectable for an SSD in todays standards, and faster than my first-generation Intel SSD currently in my workstation. And if youre comparing to a mechanical HDD, were not even in the same ballpark either way. These are FAST and solid. And I trust Sandisk a lot more than other brands out there. In fact, Im impressed enough with the quality-to-cost ratio that I might pick up another one to replace my workstations older and smaller model. Great buy!

To be fair, this drive lasted 5 years. Not particularly aweful for HDs, but not particularly great either. For SSDs its fair I suppose. The problem is that when it fails, theres no warning signs in advance. Just one day, POOF, its completely and utterly DEAD. Cant be resurrected. Cant be recognized... laptop says Theres no hard drive installed. I have removed the drive, and using my Sabrent, have found the drive is completely gone. It cannot be recognized in my diagnostic system I use for testing & recovery. Drive Management reports nothing plugged in at all! (*Other drives are recognized*). This feels like the 90s, when I had to back up everything onto CDs (before DVDs were even a thing), and if I didnt back something up, it would inevitably be lost!

So far the drive is working great. Fixed my problem perfectly. Easy swap as well. Bought a laptop from the pawnshop that was slow and lagging. Drive in it was jumping to 100% for 5-10min at a time and hanging on downloads. Put this puppy in there and problem gone. Bonus boot time as well. Boots into Windows 10 in under 10 seconds. File access is super fast once you log in and copying files is a breeze. If you dont have a cable to clone your old drive over to the new SSD all you need is a USB with at least 8GB of free space, a Windows ISO and the Windows USB tool to make a USB install disk. Make sure you have your Windows key handy, swap the drives, put in the USB stick you made, boot up the machine and the computer should boot to the Windows installer on the USB stick. Install Windows and youre good to go.

I bought two of these to use in a couple of older laptops and see what performance I could eke out of them. Neither laptop was cutting edge, so even though this doesnt top the list in terms of performance, its a trusted brand and the price was right (it was cheaper than most other 240GB SSDs at the time of purchase). One went into an old Turion x2 laptop running Windows Vista. Because I didnt have the recovery disc for Vista and I didnt really want to spend too much time with it, I just imaged the drive over using Macrium Reflect to the SSD. It made a huge difference in usability. The boot time is still depressingly slow (but far faster than it used to be -- was over 3 minutes before, now its closer to 60-90 seconds from power button to usable Windows screen), but the responsiveness of the laptop has improved greatly. Also, being a 9 year old laptop with data that we didnt want to lose on it, I figured it was time for a backup anyway, so this way we have the old HDD sitting around as the data backup. The other went into a 1st gen i7 laptop running Windows 7. Unlike the other laptops Id installed 7mm thick SSDs into up until this, this one really required a 9.5mm drive. Thankfully, this SSD (like many others) came with a plastic spacer. With the spacer in place on the SSD, I was able to align the drive and slide it in to the appropriate SATA connectors. I installed Windows 7 fresh on this SSD, and then installed the Windows 10 upgrade on it, figuring that this laptop can now last a number of years. I still have the option of going back to 7 if I hate it, but Microsoft will let me use 10 again at a later date, because its been upgraded before the year period was up. Man, does this laptop boot silly fast now. Its up in just a handful of seconds from power on, and its ready to go. Apps just fly open now. I love it. As Im sure you know just by looking into purchasing an SSD, no matter what laptop you have, if its got an HDD, going to an SSD will provide some benefit. Theres very little downside to SSDs from a performance standpoint. Its mainly price per GB and the data densities available that keep SSDs from being the only thing you see out there. Its definitely headed in that direction, for better or for worse. For my part, Ive been thrilled with my SSDs in my laptops, and these also dont disappoint. Very nice performance, from a solid brand, at a great price. Im happy with that.

The Bad: These arent the fastest SSDs available today, Feb-2016. They are based on the SandForce chipset and for some thats a problem. The Good: They are cheap, and they are available in smallish sizes for good capacity/price ratios. For me, that makes them the perfect upgrade from rotating rust in older computers. Especially those computers running as servers or embedded machines. My favorite application for these SanDisk SSD Plus drives is as upgrades from spinning disks in Linux|BSD servers. They are perfect as the Boot/Root Drives in those applications. They are available in the tiny sizes 32G, 64G, that Open source OSs can use. And they are wholly appropriate in any application where your speed will be limited by the SATA bus. They are also good for those people upgrading older Macintosh hardware. I have a 60Gb SSD Plus in my Mac Mini media server. All of my media is stored on the network anyhow so I dont need a lot of storage there. But this drive is worthwhile for the improvement it provides in boot and program load time. Ive brought new life to my very first MacBook by replacing the rotating drive with a 120Gb SSD Plus. That machines boot time dropped from 2+ minutes to less then 30 seconds. And the laptop is quite usable for web browsing and email again. All of the machines I mention are limited by their SATA Bus which is generally SATA I or SATA II. I those situations, the speed difference between this and one of the new Samsung EVOs is irrelevant.