SanDisk's Extreme SSD is a study in extremes, at least pricewise. With a $399 suggested retail price tag hanging around its neck, some people will dismiss it out of hand. Don't make that mistake: We found the drive selling online for a mere $165 (as of December 18, 2012), which drops the drive's price per gigabyte from $1.67 to just 69 cents—the lowest in our December 2012 SSD roundup.

In spite of using toggle-mode NAND and a SandForce SF-2281 controller, the Extreme produced overall performance that left it in last place in our roundup. It read our 10GB mix of files and folders at 384.9 MBps, and it wrote them at 308.7 MBps. With a single 10GB file, those numbers jumped to 440.6 MBps and 409.1 MBps. While those numbers aren’t in the same league as the results we saw from the Samsung 840 Pro and OCZ Vector, they are 80 percent better than what you get from the fastest mechanical hard drive you can buy.

The SanDisk Extreme ships as a bare drive with no accoutrements—not even the mounting bracket and screws that most drives come with. That deficiency, and the three-year warranty, detract only slightly from the drive’s bargain appeal.

Note: This review is part of a roundup of seven SSDs. Be sure to read the introduction, where you'll also find a detailed explanation of how SSDs work, as well as links to our reviews of each of the other six drives.