The big names appear to have locked horns in the NVMe market recently, with small improvements here and there, but how does Western Digital stack up against the likes of Corsair and Samsung?
Product on Review: Western Digital Black SN750
Manufacturer: Western Digital
Street Price:
250GB – GBP £76.99 / USD $89.99 / AU $110
500GB – GBP £119.99 / USD $143.99 / AU $179
1TB – GBP £229.99 / USD $279.99 / AU $350
This month the WD BLACK SN750 is being released as WD’s latest generation of high-performance NVMe SSDs. Based on the prior generation WD BLACK with identical NAND (the new 2TB model excepted) and controller, it nonetheless incorporates an updated firmware for improved performance characteristics. Adhering to the now-commonplace M.2 2280 form factor, it will reach Sequential Read/Write speeds of up to 3470MB/s and 3000MB/s respectively over the 4-lane PCIe 3.0 interface. That puts it in rarefied company alongside some of the biggest players in performance NVMe SSDs, and likely close to the peak of what’s possible prior to moving to PCIe 4.0 in the next few years.
In addition to a familiar single-sided M.2 drive design, the SN750 will later this quarter also offer variants with a built-in heatsink. The cooling, which is designed in partnership with EK, addresses the core issue of temperature-dependent throttling under extended saturated usage. It should also look slightly more attractive in PCs compared to just having the bare drive (complete with product information label) exposed.
The WD BLACK SN750 is being sold in 250GB – 2TB form factors, with the latter making use of their newer 512GiB memory chip to keep it single-sided. SKUs with and without heatsink are available (the former from March 2019), and as standard performance levels will differ based on the model capacity. The MSRP starts from $89.99, reaching $499 for pre-orders of the 2TB model.
The launch of the WD BLACK SN750 is part Western Digital’s effort to bolster WD’s presence in the Gaming sector, a market which continues to exhibit strong growth. WD Gaming has recently been a presence at Esports tournaments and other industry events such as ChinaJoy, with the brand showcased to millions of viewers on worldwide streaming platforms. The SN750’s software dashboard has also been designed with future developments and product launches in mind, although WD themselves are closed-lipped about the form they may take.
Western Digital on the Black SN750:
The WD BLACK™ SN750 NVMe™ SSD delivers top-tier performance for gaming and hardware enthusiasts who are looking to build or upgrade their PC. Available in capacities up to 2TB, the WD Black SN750 NVMe SSD rivals some of the best performing drives on the market to help give gamers that competitive edge.
About Western Digital
Founded in the 1970’s as one of a host of companies building on the semi-conductor boom of that period, Western Digital has an impressive pedigree in the IT storage industry dating back to the 80’s as manufacturers of hard disk drive controllers. Since then the name became synonymous with performance-leading products in the HDD field, capped by the WD Raptor series in the mid-2000’s. WD controls tens of thousands of relevant patents that define the modern storage drive, which is a testament to their status as a veritable 900lb gorilla in the market. Those who grew up with PCs and took any sort of interest in their components will undoubtedly recognise the name.
From 2010 the landscape of storage in IT changed immeasurably thanks to the introduction of affordable NAND flash Solid State Drives in both enterprise and consumer-level markets. Initially used to augment system performance alongside conventional HDDs, SSDs have since grown to eclipse mechanical storage media in most markets where copious capacity isn’t the main requirement. This has led to a consolidation of HDD manufacturers, including WD’s acquisition of HGST (formerly Hitachi Global Storage Technologies) in 2012, and WD’s need to diversify into this still-growing sector.
In 2016 WD acquired SanDisk, a US manufacturer of memory and NAND-based products that itself was a veteran of the PC Storage industry and the third largest manufacturer of memory worldwide at the time. SanDisk value wasn’t just in a wide product portfolio, but also the expertise needed to introduce the WD brand to high performance SSD storage. They continue to push the envelope of NAND manufacturing today, exemplified by the development of 96-layer 3D NAND memory that further improves drive capacity.
This acquisition also coincided with another important development in the PC market: the NVMe storage standard and its adoption on mainstream computing platforms. Sidestepping the limitations of SATA to interface directly with the storage controller over high-speed PCI-Express lanes, suddenly storage bandwidth of over 1GB/sec per device was possible without RAID configurations.
WD was playing catch-up, but they were catching up quickly. In the two years since their acquisition of SanDisk they have also released WD-branded SSD products for all sectors including mainstream ‘WD GREEN’ and more business-oriented ‘WD BLUE’ drives. This quick development has been aided by the vertical integration of their company for these products: they manufacture all the core components of the drive, from flash through to memory controller and final drive assembly, ensuring parts are manufactured to a tough and consistent standard. But it’s with WD BLACK NVMe SSDs that they have finally begun to flex their performance muscles and approached the specification’s current limits.
Technical Specifications
WD BLACK SN750 1TB SpecificationsInterface: M.2 2280
Protocol: PCIe Gen3 8Gbit/sec, x4 lanes
Capacity: 1TB (single-sided)
Sequential Read (QD=32, Threads=1): 3470 MB/s
Sequential Write (QD=32, Threads=1): 3000 MB/s
Rand Read 4KB IOPS (QD = 32, Threads=1): 515K
Rand Write 4K IOPS (QD=32, Threads=8): 560K
Write Endurance: 600 TBW
Operating Temperatures: 32F to 158F (0C to 70C)
Dimensions (non-heatsink review model): 80mm x 22mm x 2.38mm
Dimensions (with heatsink): 80mm x 24mm x 8.10mm
Warranty: 5 years.
Protocol: PCIe Gen3 8Gbit/sec, x4 lanes
Capacity: 1TB (single-sided)
Sequential Read (QD=32, Threads=1): 3470 MB/s
Sequential Write (QD=32, Threads=1): 3000 MB/s
Rand Read 4KB IOPS (QD = 32, Threads=1): 515K
Rand Write 4K IOPS (QD=32, Threads=8): 560K
Write Endurance: 600 TBW
Operating Temperatures: 32F to 158F (0C to 70C)
Dimensions (non-heatsink review model): 80mm x 22mm x 2.38mm
Dimensions (with heatsink): 80mm x 24mm x 8.10mm
Warranty: 5 years.
Packaging, Bundle & Closer Look
Now, with this being the Black SN750, it only really made sense to use a dark theme on the packaging. It’s basic but functional.
The rear gives just about the same information as the front apart from a cut out showing the serial number and some other details. There’s nothing at all included with the SSD so we’ll skip the bundle image.
As we mentioned in our introduction, Western Digital are planning a March release of this drive with a heatsink attached to the front, designed in tandem with EKWB, but for now we’re going without. The PCB is black, as is the sticker, so it shouldn’t stand out too much in your build.
Going for a sought-after single-sided approach, the rear is as plain as they come. There’s very little we can comment on here.
Software & Gaming Mode
SoftwareMost of the high-end manufacturers of NVMe drives, including Samsung and Corsair, develop a software suite in tandem with their drives, useful for keeping an eye on SMART data or temperatures but when it comes to performance, they tend to offer nothing. That’s where Western Digital is different. With their software suite you can eek out every last drop.
Upon opening the SSD Dashboard, which can be downloaded here, you get a decent brief overview of what’s going on in terms of capacity, life remaining and drive temperature.
The performance tab gives an overview of the previous few minutes to show when it was accessed and the kinds of speeds it delivered. The numbers underneath that can be impressive if the right applications are running.
Tools is the next tab along, here you can update the firmware, erase the drive entirely or check out in-depth SMART info.
Gaming Mode
In common with all storage drives on the market the SN750 incorporates a number of power-saving features in firmware that in some circumstances add small amounts of additional latency into normal operation. In an effort to eliminate this latency WD have introduced a Gaming Mode with their WD BLACK SSDs that disables these power-saving modes.
Gaming Mode is activated through the WD BLACK Dashboard, software which the user can optionally install that also displays a rich array of drive information and metrics that are usually hidden to consumers.
The WD BLACK Dashboard has been designed to be a cornerstone of a gamer’s day-to-day interaction with WD products, and WD see it as a key aspect of their product lineup. Expect the Dashboard to roll in new features as the WD BLACK lineup broadens.
Test Setup & Methodology
Our test system is formatted and a fresh version of Windows is installed with just drives in place – no additional applications. Windows is then updated to the latest release and the drivers are installed.Included in the list of benchmarks are the following applications:
Benchmarks
Anvil Pro
AS SSD
ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.46
Futuremark PCMark 8
AIDA64
AS SSD
ATTO Disk Benchmark v2.46
Futuremark PCMark 8
AIDA64
Test system
CPU: Intel Core i7 7700K
Motherboard: MSI Z270 Gaming M7
Graphics: EVGA GTX 1070 SC
Memory: 16GB CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 3200MHz DDR4
SAMSUNG SM961 256GB NVMe
Crucial MX500 500GB SSD
PSU: BeQuiet Straight Power 11 650W
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit
Monitor: ASUS ROG PG279Q
Motherboard: MSI Z270 Gaming M7
Graphics: EVGA GTX 1070 SC
Memory: 16GB CORSAIR Vengeance LPX 3200MHz DDR4
SAMSUNG SM961 256GB NVMe
Crucial MX500 500GB SSD
PSU: BeQuiet Straight Power 11 650W
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit
Monitor: ASUS ROG PG279Q
Benchmarks: Anvil Pro
Anvil Pro from Anvil Storage utilities is one of the most popular storage benchmarking utilities today thanks to the large suit of tests available. You can test pretty much anything from Read/write Speed to IOPs with many variables to tweak allowing you to get either a single or host of results to compare with other likeminded enthusiasts. In our test we ran the standard suite 5 times, subtracting both the highest and lowest scores and determined the final result from the average of the remaining three results.
Benchmarks: AS SSD
AS SSD Benchmark is a straightforward tool for measuring the speed of your SSD drive.
Simply launch the program, choose your drive, click Start, and it’ll test your SSD’s read and write speed in a variety of ways, delivering a score for each when it’s done. And if that’s not enough, there are also additional file copy and compression-related benchmarks available from the Tools menu. (The author’s support page is German only, but if you need further English explanations then there’s a thread on the program at the OCZ Technology forum.).
Simply launch the program, choose your drive, click Start, and it’ll test your SSD’s read and write speed in a variety of ways, delivering a score for each when it’s done. And if that’s not enough, there are also additional file copy and compression-related benchmarks available from the Tools menu. (The author’s support page is German only, but if you need further English explanations then there’s a thread on the program at the OCZ Technology forum.).
Benchmarks: ATTO
The ATTO Disk Benchmark performance measurement tool is compatible with Microsoft Windows. Measure your storage systems performance with various transfer sizes and test lengths for reads and writes. Several options are available to customize your performance measurement including queue depth, overlapped I/O and even a comparison mode with the option to run continuously. Use ATTO Disk Benchmark to test any manufacturers RAID controllers, storage controllers, host adapters, hard drives and SSD drives and notice that ATTO products will consistently provide the highest level of performance to your storage.
Benchmarks: AIDA64
With this module, we can measure the performance of the PC’s storage devices, including (S)ATA or SCSI hard disk drives, RAID arrays, optical drives, solid-state drives (SSD), USB drives and memory cards. It also allows us to perform write tests, which helps us detect fake products and errors on the devices. In order to attain reliable benchmark results we have to make sure to close all background applications.
Benchmarks: PCMark 8
We use the Futuremark PCMark 8 utility to measure storage via Photoshop performance under both light and heavy loading conditions. Accelerated (open CL) is used to perform this test. The test is measured in seconds to complete.
Conclusion
The new Black SN750 from Western Digital hasn’t really changed or introduced anything drastically different from the previous model, but it does improve things somewhat with a firmware update to the controller and use of their own 64-layer NAND flash.One thing that’s certain is that we’re ready to see drives utilising the PCI-E 4.0 interface which should arrive later in the year, but for now, the Black SN750 offers good performance in the read tests but presents an excellent showing in the write tests.
While performance is good and they’ve managed to pull more performance from the controller, the question must be asked; why aren’t Western Digital using 96-layer NAND flash alongside Samsung? You would expect a company controlling the supply of the NAND via their ownership of SanDisk would be first to the market with such a product but they appear to have been outdone.
There’s also the price, which is exactly in line with the Samsung 970 EVO Plus. While they trade blows and offer the same wear endurance, the Samsung is arguably the superior product with the 2019 technology included. We also can’t help but notice the Corsair MP510 offering much of the same at a significantly reduced price.
We’ll wait with bated breath to see if the heatsink makes any difference in March, but for now, the SN750 is good, but not amazing.
Pros
+ Good performance
+ All-black design
+ Gaming Mode
+ WD SSD Dashboard gives a good overview of the drive
Neutral
+- Using 2018 tech in a 2019 drive
+- Price
Cons
– No heatsink available yet
+ Good performance
+ All-black design
+ Gaming Mode
+ WD SSD Dashboard gives a good overview of the drive
Neutral
+- Using 2018 tech in a 2019 drive
+- Price
Cons
– No heatsink available yet
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