The Western Digital Black PCIe SSD (512GB) Review
by Billy Tallis on March 8, 2017 8:30 AM ESTAnandTech Storage Bench - Light
Our Light storage test has relatively more sequential accesses and lower queue depths than The Destroyer or the Heavy test, and it's by far the shortest test overall. It's based largely on applications that aren't highly dependent on storage performance, so this is a test more of application launch times and file load times. This test can be seen as the sum of all the little delays in daily usage, but with the idle times trimmed to 25ms it takes less than half an hour to run. Details of the Light test can be found here.
The WD Black's average data rate on the Light test is higher than the Intel 600p or any SATA SSD, but the Samsung 850 Pro comes very close when the test is run on a full drive. When the test is run on a fresh drive the WD Black is substantially faster than the theoretical limits of SATA.
The WD Black's average service time is just slightly worse than its cheapest MLC-based PCIe competition, and its full-drive latency is better than the Intel 600p's empty-drive latency. Most SATA drives exhibit at least twice the latency in either test condition.
The rankings for latency outliers are similar to the average service time scores. The WD Black is close to but not quite as good as most of the PCIe competition, and the Intel 600p and all the SATA SSDs are trailing way behind.
The WD Black is in a four or five-way tie for last place in power efficiency (ignoring the Intel SSD 750). This is one of the few tests where the Intel 600p proves to be more efficient than most PCIe SSDs, but the SATA SSDs and Samsung's PCIe SSDs still rank higher.
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jjj - Wednesday, March 8, 2017 - link
At least it beats the Intel lolSuch a pity that SSD makers are messing around with slow options.
As NAND prices rise, the controller becomes a smaller % of the costs so offering great perf per $ is easy, as long as you have the perf and they don't.
I do have a bit of an objection to the way you talk about the 960 EVO in your conclusions.
You haven't tested the 500GB version or at least it's not in the graphs or bench and it's hard to be accurate in estimating its perf due to the SLC cache. A review for it would be nice and maybe the very popular MyDigitalSSD.
Gothmoth - Wednesday, March 8, 2017 - link
slow options are not bad if they would give me 2 TB for 200$... :)but this is just crappy stuff.
jjj - Wednesday, March 8, 2017 - link
Slow options with PCIe x4 drives so these things that offer too little over SATA.They make sense for OEMs in laptop and SFF, lower mechanical volume but the opportunity to make a buck is bigger with faster drives right now.
ImSpartacus - Thursday, March 9, 2017 - link
Yeah, pcie drives busy doubt make sense for the budget market at the moment.It's just an unnecessary cost for a use case that doesn't need the extra benefit. 2.5" sata drives can get too cheap and are too versatile.
theuglyman0war - Sunday, March 12, 2017 - link
Whats everyone complaining about? It's a.... OOPs! Read the that 800MB/s as if that was 800GB size for $199..LOL! nevermind...
Samus - Thursday, March 9, 2017 - link
I'd as clueless as everyone else as to why non-3D TLC is even a thing, especially in a product not limited by SATA.Bruce427 - Monday, March 13, 2017 - link
** A review for it would be nice [on] the very popular MyDigitalSSD. **I agree. I have one of their 480GB BPX models ($187.32) in one of my PCs and I cannot tell much difference between it and the Samsung 512GB 950 Pro.
The MyDigitals are probably the best performing lower priced NVMe drives. They also have a 5 year warranty and huge endurance (TBW) ratings.
ATB - Sunday, April 1, 2018 - link
huge endurance? Looking at 256GB size (80TBW for the WD Black) in the same price range: Intel's 600P is at 144, Kingston's KC1000 is at 300 ant Plextor's M8Pe is at... 384!!! Which means that the life-span of the black is less than 1/4 of the M8Pe's :(Mathieu Bourgie - Wednesday, March 8, 2017 - link
Reading the introduction: 'In the SATA space SanDisk has made very effective use of their planar TLC and the SanDisk X400 and WD Blue are the best in their class. 'Sure, the Sandisk X400 is a leading TLC drive, but how is the WD Blue the best in its class (and what class is that?).
From your own review of the WD Blue SSD: 'Unfortunately, the WD Blue is slower than the X400 on most other tests' and it has a 3 years warranty instead of 5 years for the Sandisk X400.
highlnder69 - Wednesday, March 8, 2017 - link
Not sure who would want to Pre-Order such a horrible performing SSD.