WD Black SN850X PCIe 4.0 drive review: What a gaming SSD should be

The most popular high-performance SSDs for consumer PCs, the Samsung 980 Pro and WD Black SN850, were released about two years ago.
They are still in high demand, but frankly, they are no longer the best and fastest PCIe 4.0 drives today.
The situation was fundamentally changed by the advent of Micron B47R 176-layer TLC memory, which allowed other SSD developers to release not only comparable speeds, but even faster models.
The Samsung 980 Pro and WD Black SN850 were mainly drives based on the Phison E18 controller.
There are countless manufacturers of various calibers, and this, of course, could not go unanswered by the market leaders for long.
Both Samsung and Western Digital have chosen this fall to update their flagship SSD models and try to return their products to the leading position in the ranks of the best SSDs for high-performance gaming and work systems.
So, Samsung introduced the 990 Pro on a new Pascal chip and 176-layer proprietary memory, while Western Digital released the Black SN850X with more advanced BiCS5 memory and an improved proprietary controller.
Both models promise better performance than their predecessors, but they differ slightly in the way manufacturers present them.
If for 990 Pro the Samsung company promises \"incredible speed and endless victories\" always and in everything, the novelty Western Digital is described as a primarily gamer product with \"dizzying speed in games\" and a special Game Mode 2.0.Naturally, the laboratory 3DNews can not leave such ambitious claims without practical testing.
And first for the detailed analysis we have received the new WD Black SN850X - this drive is already available in local stores.⇡#Appearance and internal designWD Black SN850X is a drive, clearly aimed at the audience of gamers.
Therefore, it will hardly be a surprise to anyone that it is equipped with a heatsink with configurable RGB backlighting.
However, for those users who prefer SSD cooling systems available on modern motherboards, Black SN850X versions without a radiator are also available.
They are, by the way, as much as $20 cheaper.
That's why, choosing a version of the drive for a detailed acquaintance, we settled on the radiatorless terabyte.
Such storage has the recommended price of $135, and in Russia you can buy it for about 13 thousand rubles (naturally, we mean the parallel imports).
The \"bare\" WD Black SN850X will hardly surprise anybody with its appearance.
It is a single-sided M.2 2280 board with a simple sticker carrying a usual set of information: title, capacity, serial number, PSID to reset the encryption and so on.
Of interest on the label is the date of manufacture of the drive.
Our copy, for example, was released in July.
Without the label WD Black SN850X is very similar to its predecessor, Black SN850.
The PCB design of the old and new models is almost exactly the same.
Similar (but not identical) are also the sizes and markings of the chips installed on the board.
But the difference between the drives is significant, it becomes clear with a closer look.First, the new Black SN850X uses an upgraded controller: in fact we are talking about a version 2.0 proprietary eight-channel chip designed by engineers SanDisk, which was used in the Black SN850.
His new version has received support for faster types of flash memory, plus those exclusive gamer optimization and Game Mode 2.0, the presence of which the novelty is so carefully emphasized Western Digital.
Secondly, the flash memory itself has changed.
The Black SN850 was based on 96-layer BiCS4 (TLC 3D NAND), then the new drive moved to BiCS5 with 112 layers.
We have already had an opportunity to see how fast BiCS5 is on the example of WD Black SN770, because thanks to it four-channel bufferless SSD was unreachable leader in its class.
However, when using BiCS5 in the eight-channel Black SN850X there was an unpleasant nuance.
This memory has an increased to 512 Gbit capacity kernels, so in a terabyte SSD decreased the degree of parallelism - the controller can only use the double interleaving of devices in the channels.
However, the Western Digital developers believe that this is more than compensated by the accelerated to 1.2 GHz interface and a 50% reduction of latency BiCS5.
And the specifications of the new model as if to confirm the absence of the negative effect of changing the memory in a terabyte: even at this capacity new SSD promises 5-20% higher linear speeds compared to the previous model.As for the last component Black SN850X, buffer DRAM, then she, in fact, no change

Sony and Western Digital unveil first SSD certified for PlayStation 5

Sony and Western Digital have announced the first solid state drive (SSD) certified for use in PlayStation 5 gaming consoles.
Novelty under the name SN850 NVMe M.2 SSD for PS5 was released as part of a series of gaming products WD_Black.Image source: Western DigitalThe device is made in M.2 2280 format with dimensions of 22 × 80 mm.
For data exchange uses PCIe 4.0 x4 interface.
There is a cooling radiator, which helps to increase stability under high loads.Novelty presented in two capacity options - 1 and 2 TB.
The former has a sequential write speed of 5,300 Mbytes/s, the latter has a sequential read speed of 5,100 Mbytes/s.
The sequential read speed of the drives is the same - up to 7000 Mbytes/s.To use the products you need to update the firmware of your PlayStation 5 console to version 21.02-04.00.00 or later.
After installing the drive and powering up the console, you will need to format the SSD.WD_Black SN850 NVMe M.2 SSD for PS5 solutions are available for order now.
The 1TB version is priced at about $170 and the 2TB version is $280.
This is more expensive than the regular WD_Black SN850 drives, which are also supported by the PS5 console.

Western Digital's flash memory business may become independent

More than six years ago, U.S.
hard drive maker Western Digital Corporation acquired the assets of solid-state memory maker SanDisk, which produced the respective chips in partnership with Toshiba, which later transferred the business to Kioxia.
Now, under pressure from investors, WDC is considering how to structurally separate the solid-state memory business from its drives.Image source: Western Digital CorporationAccording to Bloomberg, citing company representatives, the author of the idea is Elliott Investment Management, which represents the interests of several institutional investors.
The Board of Directors of Western Digital has considered the strategic alternatives for both of its key units, as a result of business for the production of solid state drives can be separated structurally, and its development will attract additional capital.
Analysts have long convinced the WDC administration that the two businesses separately are worth much more than the capitalization of a single company.Representatives Elliott explained that Western Digital is ready to decide to completely separate the flash memory business, and investors may provide financial resources for the development of a future independent company, without specifying the scale of the proposed investment.
By the end of 2023, investors expect the separation of the \"solid-state assets\" will allow Western Digital to raise the price of the main company's shares to $100 from the current $60.32.
The company's shares have lost 7.5 percent since the beginning of this year, and the news of the impending restructuring boosted the price by one percent at most.Elliott owns a 6 percent stake in WDC and also intends to provide $1 billion for the restructuring, which will be used to develop its solid-state memory business.
The new company's capitalization could reach $17 billion to $20 billion, according to investors.
That's about as much as the entire Western Digital has now.
Negotiations with Elliott are in full swing right now, and WDC management can't yet say exactly what the chosen strategic alternative will be.
The parties are bound by a non-disclosure agreement regarding public discussions of the decisions made.

Western Digital began to compensate owners of WD Red drives for the secret use of SMR recording

Western Digital began to pay monetary compensation to participants in a class action lawsuit related to the tacit use of SMR tiled recording technology in WD Red hard drives, designed for installation in network storage systems.
The latter provides higher storage densities but has a much slower rewrite speed.Image source: Western DigitalIt's well-known that in 2020, users suddenly discovered that the WD Red series drives used in network attached storage (NAS) use SMR technology, as opposed to standard CMR technology.
However, during certain tasks, drives of this type lose significantly in speed.
At first, the company tried to avoid responsibility, but when it finally admitted the problem, it was already too late - numerous class action suits were filed against the manufacturer, accusing Western Digital of unfair advertising.
According to the users' opinion the compensation is not high - from $4 to $7 per disc, depending on the capacity of the purchased discs.In 2021 WD created the fund of $2.7 million for paying compensation to the victims who bought discs WD Red.
The owners were invited to submit their claims on a special website until November 8, 2021.
Compensations have already begun to arrive, the matter concerns the buyers of WD20EFAX (2 TB), WD30EFAX (3 TB) models - they are paid $4 each.
Owners of WD40EFAX and WD60EFAX models (4TB and 6TB, respectively) are paid $7 each.

Western Digital revealed work on 162-layer BiCS6 flash memory and plans to create memory with more than 200 layers

Western Digital this week revealed its plans for 3D NAND memory in the coming years.
The company said it is working with its Japanese partner Kioxia to develop smaller-area, 162-layer Flash memory chips and flash memory with more than 200 layers of capacity.Image source: Western DigitalThe next-generation BiCS6 3D NAND chip will arrive later this year.
At first glance it will not be the most advanced chips by the number of vertical layers - only 162 layers, which against the background of just presented Micron 232-layer 3D NAND chips looks pretty modest.
Nevertheless, the capacity of WD and Micron's solutions is the same - 128 GB (1 Tb).
The area of BiCS6 is the most compact in the industry of 68 mm2.
The company was able to achieve this by significantly reducing the physical size of memory cells, which helped to use a new material in their structure.
BiCS6 memory will store four bits per cell (QLC).
Reducing the physical volume of the cell with a combination of writing four bits to each cell should lead to a reduction in the number of overwrite cycles, but WD has not yet disclosed this value.
At the same time, the speed of BiCS6 memory promises to be 60 percent faster than current solutions, allowing it to be used both for mass-market drives and high-capacity server SSDs.
Increased density should also reduce the cost of production, which is important for everyone.Image source: Western Digital Another new development looks equally interesting - BiCS+ memory with more than 200 layers.
It is claimed that it is being developed from scratch mainly for server SSDs.
BiCS+ memory will appear by 2024 and will provide up to 55% increase in bits per wafer compared to BiCS6 memory, as well as speed increase of up to 60%.
WD expects to see a 15 percent increase in write speeds, which is as important as anything else for NAND flash memory.Image source: Western DigitalWD is like other 3D NAND manufacturers, with the goal of having 500 or more layers of 3D NAND in the future.
Produce such memory is only possible through a combination of multiple technologies, including vertical \"gluing\" of memory crystals.
The company does not lose hope to release memory with writing five bits in each cell (PLC), but it is no less difficult than releasing 3D NAND with 500 layers, which puts off the time of its appearance.

Western Digital began shipping its first 22TB and 26TB hard drives

The death of hard drives was predicted by experts ten years ago.
We were told that SSDs would soon displace hard drives not only from home computers, but also from the cloud sector.
It was assumed that the price per 1 GB of SSD would continue to decrease, which would have a positive impact on the cost of super-capacity drives, and 10TB would enter every computer by the year 2020.
It is not clear what is the reason for the current stagnation, because SSDs have been getting cheaper lately, and predictions of the displacement of hard drives have disappeared from the information field altogether.
It is possible that the case in the semiconductor deficit, which had a negative impact on the plans of manufacturers to increase the volume of SSDs and their capacity.advertisementHowever, but the alternative to traditional hard drives still do not.
It is obvious that many cloud services, for which are important not only reliability, but also speed of access, have already moved to the SSD, but quite a few remains faithful to the HDD.
Not only that, but the three companies involved in the production of hard drives do not plan to give up their positions.
In contrast to SSDs, the capacity is growing, which allows you to buy one hard drive to cover the requirements for home video and photo archives for decades to come.
Western Digital announced the HDD capacity of 22TB and 26TB, which are based on CMR recording technology and are the only hard drives on the market with 10 platters at once.
Commercial customers may want to consider the DC HC570, which is part of the Ultrastar series.
It's more suitable for cloud storage and data center applications, with increased durability compared to the custom Red Pro, Purple Pro and Gold series.
Each platinum has a 2.2TB capacity, with Western Digital promising the new drives will go on sale freely this summer.The 26TB HDD, on the other hand, is a data center series.
It also has 10 2.6TB platters, which are written using SMR technology.
Only one DC HC670, the flagship of the Ultrastar series, is available for order.
Western Digital does not tend to disclose the characteristics of the new series of hard drives, so more details we will learn from enthusiasts, who will receive such drives first.
It is known that all new items have the OptiNAND caching technology.
It implies tangible write acceleration for random and large blocks.
According to the official data, blocks of 256 KB can be written 40% faster.
As for blocks larger than 1 MB, they will boost up to 80%.
Experts note that we are talking about peak values, which means that in many user scenarios we may not see any increase at all.
In general, large-capacity hard drives are valued not for their speed, but for their reliability and ability to work long hours under load in 24/7 mode.For the post rewardedThis material is written by a site visitor, and for it the reward is accrued.

Western Digital introduced PC SN740 SSDs with read speeds up to 5150 MB/s

Western Digital has introduced Western Digital PC SN740 SSDs.
The new products are designed primarily for computer OEMs, but one way or another may appear as inexpensive retail solutions.Image source: Western DigitalThe basis of Western Digital PC SN740 series drives is bufferless DRAM architecture, proprietary Western Digital controller (the manufacturer does not specify what it is), and BiCS5 3D NAND memory technology.
The 1TB and 2TB models offer sequential read speeds of up to 5,150 Mbytes per second, which is 50% faster than the previous-generation SN730.
The SN740 series SSD uses the PCIe 4.0 interface and offers support for advanced security features, including the optional TCG Opal 2.01, TCG Pyrite 2.0, and ATA password.
They also support Western Digital's proprietary SSD Dashboard software.
It can be used to monitor drive status, available space, temperature, and other media parameters.The company notes that the Western Digital PC SN740 SSDs have been certified and are already shipping to key OEM customers.
The drives are backed by a 5-year manufacturer's limited warranty.

New firmware for WD Black SN850 fixed the speed drop issue on AMD X570 platform

Western Digital has released new firmware for its WD Black SN850 solid-state NVMe drives that solves the problem of performance dips when the drive is connected to a system via an M.2 connector that is connected to the AMD X570 chipset, not the CPU.

The WD Black SN850 drives are some of the fastest drives on the market. However, some users have complained that SSD performance drops by more than 40% if the M.2 socket they are installed in is not directly connected to the Ryzen processor. With a single drive, the problem was solved by routinely installing it in the first M.2 slot, which is the CPU's responsibility. However, some users have several NVMe drives installed in their system at once. According to Western Digital, the essence of the problem was related to the Maximum Payload Size (MPS) parameter, which is responsible for the maximum transaction level packet size on this bus. The speed of the WD Black SN850 was limited if the MPS value was set to a minimum of 128 bytes. The new firmware version 613200WD for the WD Black SN850 corrects this omission.

WD Black SN850 performance before installing the new firmware

According to a user on the German forum ComputerBase, the previous firmware version 613000WD had a sequential write speed limit of 2821.63 Mbytes/s. On the latest 613200WD version, the drive is capable of 5115.11 Mbytes/sec.

WD Black SN850 performance after installing new firmware

The new firmware for WD Black SN850 NVMe drives is only available through Western Digital's proprietary Dashboard software. To install it, just run the program and it will automatically prompt you to update to the latest version. If you do not receive this notification, it is recommended that you simply reinstall the Western Digital Dashboard software.