Western Digital WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe SSD 1TB, M.2 2280 / M-Key / PCIe 4.0 x4

Während sich die Nintendo Switch vor allem wegen ihres hybriden Bedienkonzepts großer Beliebtheit erfreut, ist unter den modernen Spielekonsolen mit deutlich mehr Rechenpower vor allem die Sony PlayStation 5 erfolgreich. Doch auch bei ihr kann die Speichererweiterung am internen M.2-Slot sich durchaus auszahlen. Durch das kürzlich von Sony angekündigte Software-Beta-Programm ist es nun möglich, den internen Speicher der Konsole am M.2-Steckplatz zu erweitern. Die WD_BLACK SN850 NVMe SSD mit Kühlkörper erfüllt die Spezifikationen von Sony.

Zwar konnte uns die WD_Black AN1500 zuletzt noch etwas besänftigen, doch seit der gemeinsamen Ankündigung einer vollwertigen PCIe4-SSD aus dem Hause Western Digital war natürlich vor allem die SN850 das Objekt der Begierde. Nachdem die ebenfalls lang ersehnte Samsung SSD 980 PRO nicht unbedingt alle Erwartungen erfüllen konnte, scheint jetzt die Chance groß zu sein, die bisherige Samsung-Dominanz bei NVMe-Laufwerken zu brechen. Beeindruckende Leistungsangaben von bis zu 7.000 MB/s wecken zumindest Hoffnung darauf. Doch natürlich können Herstellerangaben viel versprechen. Was am Ende von der Leistung übrig bleibt, klären wir wie gewohnt mit unserem Testparcours.

Building a high-performance PC in 2020 requires careful thought in every area. AMD has the benchmark lead in mainstream CPUs that also feature PCIe 4.0 connectivity on chip and chipset. Playing well with the latest slew of M.2-based NVMe drives, WD puts its name forward as the go-to choice for those wanting to leave no storage stone unturned. The WD Black SN850 uses a brand-new in-house controller and SanDisk TLC NAND to usher in the most impressive numbers we've seen from an M.2 drive. Around 40 per cent faster than first-generation PCIe 4.0 models, but not costing massively more per GB, the only potential concern to the power user is excess temperature if not under motherboard cooling. There's now clear performance delineation between entry-level and premium M.2 SSDs. If you're building a behemoth of a system based on PCIe 4.0, the WD Black SN850 is certainly worthy of interest and investment.

It is great to see PCIe Gen4 drives to be hitting the storage market in force. It feels like we’ve been waiting forever for PCIe 4.0 drives to come! The initial performance of the WD_Black SN850 is impressive and the timing of its release is likely no accident. The AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors just recently came out and the Sony PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Xbox Series X came out this very week. Gaming hardware is all over the news, so why not release a killer storage drive for that market! When it comes to performance the WD_BLACK SN850 did really well in our testing and the 2TB model topped out at 7,034 MB/s read and 5,131 MB/s in CrystalDiskMark. Not bad considering this capacity is rated at 7,100 MB/s read and 5,100 MB/s write. Our testing is done as a primary OS drive with 55% fill, so it is a little tougher to hit those peak numbers with a setup that is more akin to what users will be doing. The one thing that we did notice with the WD_BLACK SN850 is that it does tend to run a bit hot as we were able to push the drive past its 88C critical thermal limit and trigger a throttle event with large file transfers. If you move around large files often (40GB or larger) then you’ll want to ensure that you have good airflow around the SN850. A WD_BLACK SN850 version with a heatsink is coming to market soon, so it will be interesting to see how much a heatsink will help the drive.

The WD_BLACK SN850 is the latest PCIe 4.0 SSD to hit the storage market, specifically targeting the gaming and the prosumer demographic. The timing of its release couldn’t be more perfect if you’re a console gamer, as both next-gen systems (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X) hit store shelves this week; though as of this review, the PS5 is the only system that supports 3rd party drives. Nonetheless, the SN850 is an excellent release by the company for pretty much any consumer application. Coupling its WD_BLACK G2 controller, improved low queue-depth performance, and new cache technology made for a very impressive showing in tests, specifically a dominating performance in read activity. Highlights from our tests included posted peaks of 790,094 IOPS in 4K read, 172,904 IOPS in 4K write, 5.57GB/s in 64K read, and 1.52GB/s in 64K write. In our VDI Clone, we saw the SN850 with peaks of 168,947 IOPS in boot, 56,746 IOPS in initial login, and 35,695 IOPS in Monday login. Our main takeaway from these results is that the drive is certainly very fast. However, it has slightly higher latency in some areas as shown in the charts above, as the SN850 sits a bit higher than some of the other comparables in the lower load ranges of our tests. Though we don’t have it on hand due to its release date early next year, those planning to put their WD_BLACK SN850 through the wringer (or if your workstation is an area that gets fairly warm and doesn’t have the greatest airflow configuration), users might want to wait for the heatsink model or grab a 3rd party solution. This will certainly help with any throttling issues your PC might inflict during intense gaming sessions and other resource-intensive hardware and will be particularly useful if you need sustained performance. That said, WD has certainly produced a winner and a drive that surprisingly looks like a real competitor for Samsung. This is no easy feat and something we rarely see in the consumer storage market. As far as pricing goes, the WD_BLACK SN850’s 500GB model goes for $150, which is identical to the 500GB Samsung 980 Pro. Though without knowing the retail of its high capacity models, it’s hard to make any meaningful comparisons between WD and Samsung. You can rest assured, however, that the new WD_BLACK SN850 is one of the best consumer-grade drives on the market today and the leader in read performance by leaps and bounds.