I finally broke down and purchased a SanDisk 500GB Extreme Portable SSD.  Since starting GearMashers, I have been taking a lot of pictures and video.  Most of this information has been stored on several 64gb SD and micro SD cards and my iMac computer.  Currently faster SD cards run around $100 per card, so freeing up their space saves me from having to buy new ones.  Using an SSD would also help me organize the pictures and videos I have captured rather than trying to juggle SD cards.

The SandDisk Extreme Portable SSD comes in 2 Terabyte, 1 Terabyte, 500GB and 250GB options.  I chose the 500GB Extreme Portable SSD, as the price point seemed the most reasonable ($125).

SandDisk Extreme Portable SSD Unboxing

The SandDisk Extreme Portable SSD came in typical marketing box showing some of the features.

The SSD Drive comes with a USB and Firewire cable and a warranty guide.

SandDisk Extreme Portable SSD Review

As mentioned earlier, I typically use 64GB SD and micro SD cards.  Here at GearMashers we take a lot of footage, both in photography and video and as a result fill SD cards rather quickly.   Trying to manage all this data has become somewhat of an issue, so I was looking for a better option.  To that end, I thought the SSD (Solid State Drive) might ease the workflow.  SSDs have no moving mechanical components, so are less prone to breaking down and are usually much faster that a typical disk drive.  They also have the added benefit of being extremely small and compact.

Here are some of the SD and Micro SD cards we use here at GearMashers

In the beginning SSD drives were really expensive, but due to manufacturing and technology advances, the prices have significantly dropped.  Beyond price, the drives have also become smaller and smaller.  To think the storage of these devices used to take up whole rooms and now can fit in a shirt pocket.

The SSD is rated at 550 MB/s Read/Write Speed, but my SDD was much slower on the write and a little slower on the read rate.  Still, it’s pretty darn fast and certainly fast enough for what I am using it for.  With a normal disk drive, the read/write speeds can not compete.

The drives comes with a USB-C cord and a USB-A adapter.  While the cord and adapter certainly work, the length of the cord is really short.  I assume they had designed it more for a laptop than an iMac.

Anyone who is into photography and video, especially capturing 4K video, will want to get a SSD drive at some point to help manage storage and safeguard their work.

The only complaint I have with the SanDisk 500GB Extreme Portable SSD is the short USB cord that accompanied it.  Having a longer cord would have made it easier to connect to a desktop computer, like my iMac.

Other than that, I think the SanDisk SSD or similar SSD is a must have.  You can find out more about SanDisk and their products by checking out their website (https://www.sandisk.com/).

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