SanDisk Intros SSD for Retail Consumers

SanDisk is now offering its Ultra SSD to consumers through Newegg.

Previously SanDisk offered its Ultra SSD to the business sector, but on Tuesday the company revealed that it's now offering the drive to consumers. Unfortunately, it's not packed with the SandForce SF-2200 controller or a SATA 6 Gbps interface, so don't expect blazing fast speeds in the 500 MB/s realm. But considering its price, the Ultra SSD offers a cheap way to replace the standard HDD and boost performance without having to sell body parts on the black market.

"Replacing a computer's hard disk drive with the SanDisk Ultra SSD is more cost effective than buying a new PC," said Kent Perry, director, product marketing, SanDisk. "Our new SSD delivers greater speed and reliability than a hard disk drive at an affordable price."

According to the specs, the 2.5-inch Ultra SSD features sustained sequential read speeds up to 280 MB/s and write speeds up to 270 MB/s. SanDisk claims that the 60 GB Ultra SSD can withstand at least 40 terabytes of data written to it over lifetime, while the 120 GB and 240 GB drives can withstand at least 80 terabytes and 120 terabytes of data written, respectively.

The SanDisk Ultra SSD is now available here in the States over on Newegg, costing $129.99 for the 60 GB model, $219.99 for the 120 GB model and a meatier $449.99 for the 240 GB model (although currently the 120 GB model is the only one listed). Additional retailers are expected to be revealed shortly.