Product Listing

Transcend SATA III SSD720 (256GB) - More SandForce Goodness

By Kenny Yeo - 13 Jun 2012

Test Setup

Test Setup

The drives were tested on our new storage testbed, has the following system specifications:

  • Intel Core i5-2400 (3.1GHz)
  • MSI Z68A-GD80 (Intel Z68 chipset)
  • 2 x 4GB DDR3-1600 RAM
  • MSI GeForce 8600GTS
  • Windows 7

The list of SSDs tested are as follows:

  • Transcend SATA III SSD720 (256GB) (Firmware: 5.0.2)
  • Kingmax SATA III SSD SMP35 Client (240GB) (Firmware: L0306)
  • Intel SSD 520 Series (240GB)
  • Intel SSD 510 Series (240GB)
  • Crucial M4 SSD (240GB)
  • Kingston HyperX SSD (240GB)
  • OCZ Vertex 3 (240GB)
  • Patriot Pyro SE (240GB)

The Transcend SATA III SSD720 will be pitted squarely against the current bumper crop of high-end SSDs, many of which, like the Transcend drive, make use of the same SandForce SF-2281 controller. It'll be interesting to see if the Transcend drive can take on the very competent Intel SSD 520 Series, which is one of the most complete of SSDs we've tested recently. We have also included the Crucial M4 and Intel SSD 510 series, both of which use the Marvell controller, for furhter points of comparison.

The list of benchmarks used are as follows:

AS-SSD benchmark 1.6.4
HD Tune Pro 4.6
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.1
PCMark 7
PCMark Vantage
Iometer (version 2006.07.27)

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8.0
  • Performance 8.5
  • Features 6.5
  • Value 8
The Good
Very good and fairly consistent performance
Amongst the quickest high-end consumer SSD
Attractive price
The Bad
No installation brackets/racks provided
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