Western Digital Blue 3D review: Solid SSD performance your PC (and wallet) will appreciate

We're already making progress in migrating from traditional hard disk drives (HDD) to SSDs, but not all of the latter are created equal. Newer technologies in the flash storage department permit for faster drives and larger capacity, merely this comes at additional cost — and SSDs aren't cheap, even in 2022.

Still, companies go on to roll out more advanced SSDs, and Western Digital's 3D NAND Blue serial sports some capable storage drives. We took a look at the 2.5-inch 1TB variant to meet if it is worth the money.

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WD Blue 3D SSD specifications

On newspaper, the 3D NAND Bluish serial is flashier than the flash storage contained within the outer trounce. It's worth noting that the post-obit specifications are for the 2.5-inch drives and not the M.2 range.

Category	2TB	1TB	500GB	250GB
Chapters	2TB	1TB	500GB	250GB
Sequential read	560 MB/s	560 MB/southward	560 MB/s	550 MB/s
Sequential write	530 MB/s	530 MB/southward	530 MB/s	525 MB/s
Random read	95,000 IOPS	95,000 IOPS	95,000 IOPS	95,000 IOPS
Random write	84,000 IOPS	84,000 IOPS	84,000 IOPS	81,000 IOPS
Endurance	500 TBW	400 TBW	200 TBW	100 TBW
NAND	SanDisk 64-layer 3D TLC	SanDisk 64-layer 3D TLC	SanDisk 64-layer 3D TLC	SanDisk 64-layer 3D TLC
Controller	Marvell 88SS1074	Marvell 88SS1074	Marvell 88SS1074	Marvell 88SS1074
Warranty	three years	3 years	three years	three years
Price	$588.99	$289.99	$142.99	$95.99

Blue means become

Western Digital offers the new Blue range of drives in both 2.five-inch and M.2 flavors, depending on your needs and available upkeep. Thousand.2 cards are continued directly to the motherboard, as opposed to standalone drives that require a SATA connection and offer infrequent speeds. Samsung SSDs are faster overall, for certain, only they likewise cost considerably more.

	WD Blue	INTEL 545S	Crucial MX300	850 EVO
Read	560 MB/s	550 MB/southward	530 MB/due south	540 MB/southward
Write	530 MB/s	500 MB/due south	5100 MB/s	520 MB/south

The performance, endurance and other features of this drive are in line with high-end SATA SSDs. Western Digital as well offers a number of tools and utilities that can be used with the Blue SSD, including the rather good SSD Dashboard. This piece of kit shows you everything you need to know nigh the drive itself, including health, access to Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology (S.Grand.A.R.T) reports, performance graphs, and more.

Here's the test bench we used to carry out both synthetic and real-earth testing:

• CPU — Intel Core i5-6600K (clocked at 4.4 GHz).
• Motherboard — ASUS PRO GAMING.
• RAM — 4x 4GB Patriot DDR4 2400.
• GPU — ZOTAC GTX 1070 AMP! Extreme Edition.

Nosotros performed the tests below while the drive was completely void of any files, before installing software and games.

CrystalDiskMark

We used version vi of CrystalDiskMark, which immune us to again match numbers supplied by Western Digital with read and write speeds coming in at 560 MB/s and 533 MB/southward, respectively.

ATTO

This handy tool allows u.s. to come across merely how well the bulldoze performs with specific sizes. Compressible sequential read and write speeds seemed to match (and surpass) manufacturer's numbers, which is always a bonus when purchasing storage, and there was a nice bend to the results.

Conclusion: WD Blue 3D is a solid performer

Numbers are all practiced on paper, but how does the drive perform in real-globe scenarios? I installed a handful of games on the WD Blueish — GTA Five, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Witcher 3 and X3: Albion Prelude. We compared to other SSDs in the test system, including a Crucial CT250M, Kingston SV300, OCZ Agility 3, and a Seagate Barracuda for good measure.

Against other SSDs with similar engineering, yous'll not notice much improvement, if any. Compared to older SSDs at that place is definitely a noticeable improvement in loading times for software and games, and against an HDD is a no-brainer result. Should you be in the possession of an SSD or few already with like speeds, you'll probable non get much out of picking up the WD Blue.

However, should y'all currently be using an HDD for games or an older-generation SSD, the WD Blueish series is worth considering. Pricing also isn't out of this world, assuasive yous to pick upwards a 500GB and 1TB version for $142.99 or 289.99, respectively.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/western-digital-3d-nand-blue-review

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