Designed for use as a startup drive, the 500GB 3D SATA III 2.5″ Internal SSD from SanDisk provides faster system boots and helps enable faster gaming and graphics performance compared to a traditional HDD. It has a storage capacity of up to 500GB, is equipped with a SATA III 6 Gb/s interface, and fits into your system’s 2.5″ / 7mm drive bay. In terms of speed, this drive offers sequential write speeds of up to 530 MB/s, sequential read speeds of up to 560 MB/s, random writes of up to 84,000 IOPS, and random reads of up to 95,000 IOPS 3D NAND and nCache 2.0 technology.

With solid-state drive technology you benefit from load and access times for your files and programs that are faster than a conventional 7200 rpm hard drive. As SSDs have no moving parts, they are also more durable than traditional hard drives and are better protected against damage from drops and bumps. Having no moving parts also means that SSDs receive less wear and tear, as there are no read or write heads for the drive media to come into contact with. SSDs also help to deliver improved battery life and cooler operating temperatures.

SanDisk’s 500GB 3D SATA III 2.5″ Internal SSD offers their SSD Dashboard, which is available as a free download, and helps users to monitor their drive’s health.