Western Digital is one of the longest-standing companies when it comes to computer storage. Though late to the game, the company has been almost on a warpath to take over, updating all of its storage lineups with speedy SSD alternatives. Recently, WD launched the Black SN750, and now the company is launching the Blue SN500 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD.
The WD Blue SN500 NVMe SSD is geared toward more budget-friendly setups compared to the Black SN750. It offers slightly lower speeds, but the same great reliability that you’ve come to know and love from Western Digital.
WD announces the Blue SN500 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD
Starting out, you’ll be able to enjoy up to 1.7GB/s read and 1.45GB/s write speeds on the 500GB model. Though this is slightly slower than the WD Black SN750, it’s quite a bit faster than the previous WD Blue SSD which featured speeds of around 500MB/s read and write.
You’ll be able to get the WD Blue SN500 NVMe SSD in two storage sizes: 250GB and 500GB. This helps Western Digital keep the drive geared more toward the budget-friendly segment of its lineup and allows them to get their foot in the door on with more computers.
Western Digital isn’t just trying to get consumers to buy its latest SSD, but also resellers and system builders. WD’s goal is to provide a reliable NVMe storage solution for those who are attempting to create more budget-focused computers while still providing great reliability that the company is known for.
Warranty-wise, you’ll be secure for 5 years from Western Digital, meaning that should there be any issue, WD has your back. There’s even a downloadable SSD dashboard to help monitor your drive’s health.
Pricing and availability
The WD Blue SN500 NVMe SSDs are available in 250GB and 500GB models. Pricing is slated at $54.99 for the 250GB and $77.99 for the 500GB model. Amazon lead times currently put the timeframe of getting the drives in hands 1-3 months out. This puts it near the bottom of the pricing barrel for NVMe drives and positions Western Digital right where they need to be to take back over the storage race.
[9to5-press-release]
SAN JOSE, CA – Mar. 14, 2019 –Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC), a global data infrastructure leader, is accelerating the NVMe transition of value-PC storage by adding an NVMe™ model to its award-winning WD Blue® solid state drive (SSD) portfolio, the WD Blue SN500 NVMe SSD. The new SSD delivers three times the performance of its SATA counterpart[1] while maintaining the reliability the WD Blue product line is known for. For content creators and PC enthusiasts, the WD Blue SN500 NVMe SSD is optimized for multitasking and resource-heavy applications, providing near-instant access to files and programs.
Leveraging the scalable in-house SSD architecture of the highly acclaimed WD Black® SN750 NVMe SSD, the new WD Blue SN500 NVMe SSD is also built on Western Digital’s own 3D NAND technology, firmware and controller, and delivers sequential read and write speeds up to 1,700MB/s and 1,450MB/s respectively (for 500GB model) with efficient power consumption as low as 2.7W.* Since demands on storage are continuing to grow and client workloads are evolving, the WD Blue SN500 NVMe SSD features high sustained write performance over SATA as well as other emerging technologies on the market today to give that performance edge.
“The PC industry continues its transition from SATA to the NVMe protocol, along with the expectation from consumers that computers continue to become faster and more responsive,” said Don Jeanette, TrendFocus. “Within the mainstream segment, content creators are consistently doing more, such as editing 4K or 8K video files, creating and streaming content, and managing massive amounts of data internally. The new WD Blue SN500 NVMe SSD will enable larger file loads that require faster storage.”
“Content transitioning from 4K and 8K means it’s a perfect time for video and photo editors, content creators, heavy data users, and PC enthusiasts to transition from SATA to NVMe,” said Eyal Bek, vice president marketing, data center and client computing, Western Digital. “The WD Blue SN500 NVMe SSD will enable customers to build high-performance laptops and PCs with fast speeds and enough capacity in a reliable, rugged and slim form factor.”
Pricing and Availability
Perfect in slim form factor notebooks or desktop PCs, the WD Blue SN500 NVMe SSD will be available in 250GB and 500GB capacities in a single-sided M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 x2 form factor. Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) in the U.S. is $54.99 USD for 250GB (model number: WDS250G1B0C) and $77.99 USD for 500GB (model number: WDS500G1B0C). For more information, visit the website: Western Digital.
*As used for transfer speed, megabyte per second (MB/s) = one million bytes per second. Performance will vary depending on your hardware and software components and configurations.
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