SSD Drive WD Green Reviews. There was never such a thing, and here again - all about the new SSD Western Digital. Check in three ways

WD Black - fast desktop and PC SSDs with a small form factor. The drives of this series with the TLC memory are made in the form factor M.2 2280 and support M.2 PCI-Express interface, providing a lightning transmission. The sequential reading speed reaches 2050 MB / s, and records up to 800 MB / s. Such characteristics provide maximum speed when performing complex tasks. The average time of operational failure (MTTF) at 1.75 million hours provides long-term reliability of 512 GB drives and 256 GB.

WD BLUE - Reliable solid-state drives for personal computers and laptops with 3D TLC memory. High resource up to 400 TB for recording operations and 1.75 million hours of average time for failure provide data protection on the disks of this series for many years. Such drives are available in the M.2 2280 and 2.5 inches form factor with M.2 SATA and SATA 6GB / S interface, respectively. These light, compact and productive SSD discs with a capacity of 250 GB, 500 GB and 1 TB support Trim and show excellent read speed and write data - up to 560 MB / s and 530 MB / s.

WD Green - economical SSD discs for the upgrade PC and laptops. With the drives of this series, watching web pages, games and starting the system will occur in the blink of an eye. They use TLC and 3D TLC Memory and Silicon Motion controller supporting SATA 6GB / S and M.2 SATA interface. Mutnified in the form factor M.2 2280 and 2.5 inches These discs provide high speed reading and write information - 540 MB / s and 465 MB / s, respectively. These light and shock-resistant solid-state drives do not contain moving parts, thanks to which the data loss does not threaten even if the SSD has hit or drop. Disks with a capacity of 240 GB and 120 GB support Trim, and their resource reaches 80 TBW.

Today we will learn the younger line of solid-state drives Western Digital - Green. In the Winchester market, this "color", we recall, was abolished for a long time - too much WD Green was similar to formally more "cool" WD Blue, and in the end they just joined the elder family. But you should not expect the same from SSD: here the presence of two lines in the lower class is fully justified, because by its elementary base they differ significantly using, in particular, different controllers. The appointment is also different: if BLUE, as shown in the last article, these are devices "for all", then Green - inexpensive SSD for use in desktop computer together with hard drives and / or in budget laptop. Model line, respectively, very short - only 120 and 240 GB. But this in many cases enough, and the history of SSD-drives WD Green is longer and interesting than it may seem on the basis of the date of their announcement, so we are not entitled to pass by this family.

WD Green SSD 240 GB

As expected, this family of WD drives is also identical to one of the SanDisk lines, but at the same time, many processes occurring in the SSD market are well-quite well-drawn on semi-detective stories ...

This story began in 2015, when a special ultra-budget line of SanDisk - SanDisk SSD Plus was published on the market, the senior representative of which we tested. The TLC memory at that time was just beginning to be applied in this market segment, so that when creating a line, the company chose to save in another way: using the cheap Silicon Motion SM2246XT controller. SM2246XT was an option for popular and also inexpensive (and therefore popular) SM2246EN, devoid of interface for working with DRAM buffer. As a result, he was still cheaper, and the LPDDR chip could be saved. In addition, SanDisk has always at hand was a cheap MLC flash second freshnesswhich in SSD Plus installed only 120 or 240 GB, and in the end it was very cheap devicecapable of competing with SSD on TLC memory. Of course, the most spoiled users passed by him, as it was little and slowBut for many more importance was the price, so the SSD Plus has become quite popular.

The company announced the use of the latest Silicon Motion SM2258, but after the appearance of devices in free access, they showed up SM2256S, on the developer's website. And no wonder, since such a name of a quiet sapa was decided to give the SM2258XT controller. The latter is also not too advertised, because it is basically SM2258, but ... on which they melted the same way as once over SM2246EN: completely removing the DRAM controller and in general the memory interface. What for? And to make a solution that is fully compatible with the conclusions with SM2246XT (i.e., suitable for work on old boards without changing), but with corrected errors and support for the latest improvements, such as algorithms for correcting LDPC codes, and in general "high quality" 3D TLC NAND maintenance. But to expect from this performance solution at least SM2256, not to mention SM2258, so renaming is logical. It is a pity that damp. But the superiority over the SM2246XT will always have, and when using high-quality TLC memory, you can get "endurance" is not worse than that of a cheap MLC, so such an "upgrade" SSD Plus is still an upgrade.

And why did we remember about him, everything already, for sure, guessed: WD Green - this is the updated SanDisk SSD Plus with a capacity of 120 or 240 GB. Just on SM2256S and 15 nanometer TLC memory, with a similar WD Blue. But the intersection by capacity in Linek WD is only one one, and with the same three-year TBW warranty for Green 240 GB, only 80 TB is limited - against 200 TB of Blue 250 GB. On the other hand, the OCZ TR150 of the same TBW capacity is at all 60 TB, which is not surprising: used there (and so far popular) The PS3110 controller does not support LDPC codes with all the resulting. In general, the Green family is also interesting in its own way - not enthusiasts, of course, but many economical users. All the advantages of the brand here are evident similar to the older line, two form factor ("laptop" hard drives with a thickness of 7 mm and "Card" format M.2 2280) are available, but prices are low. The drive of 120 GB, however, is already too small for the retail market, as we think, but the older modification we tested.

It remains only to mention that all drives we tested with the firmware version of Z3311000, and you can move to practical testing.

Competitors

First of all, we will need WD Blue 250 GB - to directly compare the two WD rules with a close container. Of course, we could not do without the "old" SanDisk SSD Plus, since today we test it to a certain extent, just under a different name. And as a third guide, we will use Kingston Ssdnow UV400 480 GB, on a device more similar to BLUE (Marvell 88SS1074 controller with a 15-nanometer TLC-memory of the SanDisk and Toshiba joint venture), but rather slow. However, due to the greater capacity (and, accordingly, greater potential utilization of the channels of the controller), it has a certain fora in front of Green, but hardly large. In any case, it is obvious that this SSD Western Digital family for the performance records does not pretend, so the main issue is to assess its performance - both in absolute values \u200b\u200band in comparison with well-known reference points.

Testing

Testing technique

The technique is described in detail in a separate one. There you can get acquainted with the hardware and software used.

Performance in applications

As noted more than once, the orientation of the test packets of the PCMARK family on the "real" loads in the usual for personal computer Software and hardware surroundings strongly favors just budget devices. Green, however, turned out to be the most slow out of the subjects, but lagging behind other participants.

Here on a slightly lower level, its backlog from Blue, corresponding to the positioning of these two lines, is well noticeable. The backlog of the two other drives is much smaller.

Moreover - previous version Package (operating a slightly "light" loads) allows Green to be no longer slower, but at least faster than its actual predecessor. Yes, and the gap with the UV400 is relatively small, and the difference with Blue is more than predictable - no wonder these are two different lineups of one company.

And, as usual, we state the fact that in general, modern solid-state drives in typical user scenarios a bottleneck almost never turn out to be - other components of the system limit the speed of their execution much more noticeable.

Serial operations

As for the speed of linear reading, then with it, again, there are no problems for a long time almost with any drives with the SATA interface: it's not so difficult to "get" to the restrictions of the interface itself. In any case, when the data reading goes into one stream - a more complex load, as you can see, the Silicon Motion controller modifications have similar problems.

The record of small amounts of data effectively "intercepts" SLC-cache. What happens when going beyond its size - let's see a little later.

Random access

When not enough (we recall that in this program we work with 12 GB of data, and not from only 1 GB, as in AS SSD), other things being equal, it is immediately clear that the TLC memory on recording operations is slower than MLC. The well-known fact, of course, as well as what is happening, it is "with anyone being equal": on the example of Blue it is clearly seen that the high-performance controller and "worked" firmware allow and in this case to get a good (in its class) speed. True, it is necessary to hardly work well - UV400, for example, on the same controller is noticeably slower. As for our main hero, it was originally clear that such load scenarios were not at all his path.

Just because the low capacity of a low capacity does not need to "be able to" perform a huge number of operations with a "deep" queue of commands at all. The main purpose of such models is the "system" personal computer or laptop drive. That is, a device for storing the operating system itself, applied software and, perhaps, a certain amount of data - for example, a postal base, a browser cache, small working documents, etc. The most relevant for this scope continues to be read operations with (pseudo) by random access at a single depth of command queue, but blocks different size. With this scenario, Green copes well - why it looks good in tests high level: just such operations are most characteristic of modern applied software.

Work with big files

For drives of this class (especially if we recall the limited capacity) such loads are purely synthetic, but allow, for example, to understand - what is happening at the speed of recording in cases where it is determined by the flash memory array, "breaking" all the tricks of the type SLC caching. Nothing surprising that in such scenarios the only one among the SSD subjects based on the MLC memory. TLC itself is slower. However, it is interesting that the WD Green's budget controller with a capacity of only 240 GB (and in such scenarios, it has already been said, it usually matters) at all is not so bad, as it would be possible to assume on the basis of only technical characteristics: 160 MB / s for this class Normal result. Blue close capacity, of course, even faster, but it should be - the main thing is that some potential competitors are even slower :)

Ratings

As it was possible to assume initially, in comparison with the other we tested on this moment WD Green solid-state drives are a sufficiently slow device. But it is also positioned.

The most important, taking into account its purpose, is that "on the mixture" of high and low test tests is quite comparable to "classmates", i.e., in this case, everything will solve the price and other related factors. And it is also interesting to compare the indicators of our today's hero with the "historical" X25-M - once one of the best and most expensive SSDs on the market. However, cheap solid-state drives "reasonable" capacity in those years was simply not there, and now they are - and faster than best models Epochs beginnings began This market segment. Actually, in many respects, because of this, the "beginning" and began to flow into the "flourishing".

Prices

The table lists the average retail prices of the SSD-drives tested today in Moscow, topical at the time you read this article:

TOTAL

So, what do we have in a dry residue? First, formally provided the regiment budget drives, although under the SanDisk brand name, this device has become available a little earlier. In comparison with the predecessor, a certain deterioration of part of the high-speed indicators can be noted (which is still inevitable when changing the type of flash memory), however, the indicators are minor - taking into account the target appointment of the drives of this class. But the well-known shortcomings of the "old" models are corrected by an updated controller.

In the range of products under the brand Western Digital, no confusion arises, both rules are divorced for its intended purpose and logical. WD BLUE is a universal family "for all" (except, except, enthusiasts, but we will not be surprised if it will soon appear for them special offer - "Black" color is not yet used yet) and "for everything", representatives of which are capable of "overlapping" many scenarios of using a computer even in proud loneliness. WD Green is a basic level, primarily oriented by economical users who will apply these devices in a pair with, for example, with a hard drive, so large capacities are not required. The models of this family are also limited because the flash memory in both WD rules is the same - savings are achieved only at the expense of the DRAM controller and microcircuit. As a result, even with a capacity of 240/250 GB, the savings are not yet too significant, which is noticeable and retail pricesSo "Jr." Blue is, in our opinion, a more successful purchase. But when capacity in 120 GB should not be neglecting such saves, even if the price of some deterioration of warranty conditions (TBW is stronger) and, moreover, high-speed indicators are still sufficient for the basic appointment of such devices. In general, we tend to consider both WD lineups with successful and promising, the experience of SanDisk is well combined with the skill of Western Digital to work on the mass market.

Western Digital seriously took up the conquest of the market of solid-state drives about a year ago - it was then that the first consumer SSDs were presented under her name. However, their release Western Digital mastered not herself, for this she had to acquire one of the leading flash memory manufacturers, SanDisk. Therefore, there is nothing surprising in the fact that the model range of Western Digital at the first stage was filled with drives, which were already well acquainted by us under the SanDisk brand. In particular, it turned out to be a close analogue of SanDisk Ultra II and X400, and the SanDisk SSD Plus model began to be sold under the name.

However, only the products borrowed from SanDisk, WD could not be limited. The fact is that the company purchased Western Digital for some reason refrained from the release of flagship consumer solid-state drives with the NVME interface, and at the time of the transition to the property of the new owner in the SanDisk assortment there were no such models. At the same time, continue to ignore promising and productive solutions would be very strange, so immediately after the transaction is completed, the SanDisk engineers have lowered an urgent task: to fill the existing space as soon as possible. As a result, just a few months after the emergence in the market mass WD Blue SSD and budget WD Green SSD. The older model, WD Black SSD, was added to them - a new solid-state drive with a NVME interface, which, unlike his fellow, direct analogues among SanDisk offers no longer has.

However, it is possible to say that WD Black SSD is the flagship drive, it is only having in mind the Western Digital range. Despite the fact that the manufacturer has traditionally used trademark Black for exceptional in its characteristics hard disksIn the case of solid-state drives, the global positioning of the novelty turned out to be somewhat different. The fact is that after the purchase of Sandisk business, Western Digital refused to use flash memory in its products with two-bit cells. Emphasis, according to this manufacturer, in the modern world should be made to a more dense TLC memory with the prospect of switching to QLC. Therefore, WD Black SSD is not a novelty that can shake positions. According to the manufacturer's plan, it should win the sympathy of buyers looking for a profitable combination of prices and speed. In other words, WD Black SSD is another option of a relatively inexpensive NVME SSD based on TLC memory, which should be in one row with, and other offers of this kind.

In addition, it seems that WD Black SSD is a transitional model that exists in the model range of Western Digital not so long. The fact is that it, like the other SSD of this company of the first wave, is based on the planar TLC memory SanDisk, which is produced by 15-nm standards. Now such flash memory becomes obsolete and gradually derived from the appeal. Not so long ago, the same Western Digital has begun to transfer its SATA SSD to use the three-dimensional 64-layer BICS (Bit Cost Scalable) flash memory with three-bit cells. Obviously, a similar process should affect the flagship NVME-drive company.

However, while nothing is known about the prospects for such a transition. Moreover, on the Russian WD Black SSD market appeared quite recently. And if so, it's time to get acquainted with this drive closer.

But WD Black SSD is a slightly different story. In it, the 88SS1093 controller, which is currently the only one actual decision Marvell with NVME interface, combined with 15-nm planar TLC NAND SANDISK production. And therefore, this drive is similar not to Plextor M8PE, but for a cheaper, where this chip controls the flash memory array composed of the 15-nm TLC NAND chips of Toshiba. However, if WD Black SSD can be called him relative, then only distant. The firmware of the new Western Digital engineers SANDISK wrote from scratch, and as a result of the WD Black SSD profile, the WD Black SSD is very different from the Plextor drive hardware platform. There is a significant difference in other key characteristics in endurance and composition. model Row.

In order to make sure this is enough to look at the official WD Black SSD specification.

From the numbers that Western Digital, we can conclude that in the disclosure of the potential of the three-core and eight-channel controller Marvell 88SS1093, the company managed to achieve much more modest success than Plextor specialists. Indeed, on the declared high-speed WD Black SSD parameters, Plextor M8SE is noticeably inferior to the difference in the flash memory, it is hardly possible to write this: 15-nm Nand TLC authorship of Toshiba and SanDisk - the same one. But in the WD Black SSD project, the engineers managed to additionally save and walk around the smaller DRAM buffer volume, so that in theory this drive has a lower cost and can easily become the most accessible option with the NVME interface.

Analyzing high-speed WD Black SSD indicators, it should be borne in mind that, as in the case of other TLC drives, they are given by the manufacturer taking into account the technology of pseudo-SLC-caching, which hides the user's real speed of the flash memory array built on the basis of planar TLC chips. WD Black SSD has a relatively small volume of such a cache - 2.5 GB for every 256 GB of the catering capacity. In addition, for some reason bandwidth The flash memory array of this drive is significantly lower than that of other models with the NVME-interface and with TLC memory. As a result, on long operations, WD BLACK SSD recording only until SATA SSD speeds, seriously lagging behind the decisions of the new generation.

For example, what does the performance of the 512-gigabyte version of WD Black SSD looks like with a continuous serial recording.

After recording on the data storage capacity of about 5 GB, placing in the SLC-cache Speed \u200b\u200bdrops somewhere twice - from 800 to 400 MB / s. Not too joyful picture. As an explanation, we give a table with the most the main characteristics of the SLC-Kesha in other modern NVME-drives built on flash memory with three-bit cells:

It turns out that in WD Black SSD, a minimum amount of flash memory is allocated to ensure the operation of SLC-caching. This means that the user is in larger quantities Situations will face leisurely when writing a TLC memory with an array.

However, in a small SLC-KEX, you can see the advantages: to the backup space that the controller can use to equalize wear and replacing the failed memory cells, a lot of space remains. So, in WD Black SSD controller These goals were given 4.5% of the total volume of flash memory and half of the entire reserved space, inaccessible to the user. Recall that the Marvell 88SS1093 chip supports LDPC-based error correction methods, and all this together allows the manufacturer to assume to the high reliability of the proposed solution and extend to its TLC product five-year warranty. True, WD Black SSD record resource is limited to a very conservative framework. In order not to lose the warranty, the user is daily allowed to overwrite no more than the sixth of the overall drive of the drive.

Restriction on the permissible overwriting volumes is not the only symptom of an inexpensive NVME SSD entry level. The composition of the WD Black SSD model range is also indicated, which provides only two capacity options - 256 and 512 GB. Higher volumes from the range are excluded, since buyers of relatively expensive and spacious solid-state drives would hardly arrange the speed characteristics offered by WD Black SSD.

Another feature that the WD Black SSD should not be treated as the flagship, its design execution. Designed Western Digital Form factor M.2 is a "naked" fee. Neither additional cooling tools nor the adapter for installing this board in the PCI Express slots are provided. That is, everything is done so that WD Black SSD is inexpensive as possible. It is thus formed that the recommended price is formed: WD Black SSD should be the most affordable NVME-drive on the market and cost (in theory) almost as much as Intel SSD 600P costs, that is, about 20 percent less SAMSUNG 960 EVO.

It would be a mistake to call the presented models by the first intention of Western Digital to produce SSD - in 2010 there was an unsuccessful attempt to consolidate in home computers / laptops using the SiliconEdge Blue family, and in 2013, engineers were crossed, hedgehogs with such a combination of 120 -Gigabyte SSD and 1 TB HDD in one case. In the first case, the excitement was not due to the high price, and the hybrid was bulky (already 2.5 inches at a thickness of 9.5 mm were not placed in laptops) and the initiative, which is called, did not take off. There were also solid-state WD industrial class drives, but the company prefers not to remember today about the whole epoch. Say, "We have tried forces, and all the drives were originally designed not to such a wide audience." Well, who will remember the past - the eyes of the eye. Talk about our time.

New SSD WD Green and WD Blue - Budget and Middle Class

After several attempts to break into the SSD market on its own Western Digital, came on the other side and purchased SanDisk. Very well, by the way, acquired, because SanDisk is not just a "shockman of logos", like many SSD manufacturers, and one of the few brands with their factories that make memory. In addition, SanDisk has enough experience in developing controllers and optimizing firmware for controllers that you have to buy on the side. In a word, WD has now unleashed hands for wide maneuvers with new SSD.

Of course, you ask why WD generally decided to make a new model line with live and promoted SanDisk? And all because the company entered the concern recently, therefore even retail chains that sell WD and SANDISK drives are absolutely different retail chains. And in WD, they are not difficult to guess, much more common and mighty. Well, shut up for the Seagate belt, so that it does not seem to life with honey, WD also crave.

Western Digital Blue SSD Review | Introduction

Western Digital and before that bought flash memory technologies, but most of these acquisitions were focused on the corporate market. Almost immediately provided WD after Samsung in the list of the largest SSD manufacturers.

WD armed with extensive resources for the release of flash memory, including SanDisk factories and the largest patent portfolio in the industry, and set themselves the task to bring the high capacity SSD to the consumer market. All this wealth cost weekly, but the purchase of such an important producer of mass SSDs like SanDisk is able to eliminate most obstacles to the capture of the market.

The first timid attempt to enter the SSD Western Digital market has taken in 2010, releaseing a Silicon Edge Blu drive, which cost $ 999 for a 256 gigabyte modification. SE BLUE suffered from the shortcomings of the JMICRON controller and did not enjoy success. At that time, the Western Digital understood little in solid technology, so they purchased SiliconSystems Inc to develop, which, as it turned out, did not know much about creating consumer SSD.

Exclusive Western Digital models like Winchesters Raptor series were not bestsellers. These are devices for enthusiasts, and not for reports on sales volumes. Even if you remember that all our acquaintances have ever used Raptor discs, they are still sold much less than conventional mass models - in a ratio of one to several hundred copies. In such a category "1% of the products" and SSD and SSD were hit for a decade, so manufacturers of hard disks simply ignored this technology. In the first quarter of 2016, the supply of hard drives fell by 20%, so it was impossible to ignore flash technologies. Fortunately, WD acquired several profile assets to move in the right direction.

Today we test the SSD drives of the new series WD BlueAnd later we will get acquainted with the models of the budget line Green. Since the Green SSD will appear on sale only next year, their review will have to wait.

Western Digital Blue SSD Review | Specifications

In a series Western Digital Blue Included SSD drives of three tanks from 250 GB to 1 TB. The hardware filling of these disks is identical to the one that is installed in the SanDisk X400, which we recently tested . As we were told in Western Digital, they differ in the modified firmware, but we have no special details. The drives are produced in two form factor - 2.5 "and M.2 2280 (AHCI SATA).

Oriented by corporate clients The X400 series discs were adapted to the consumer market due to a vacuum formed as a result of the fact that the SSD manufacturers rushed to conquer the ultrasound segment, not paying due attention to the average class. Compared to the X400, BLUE is slightly higher performance and reliability. Peak Speed \u200b\u200bSerial Reader at the SSD Blue Series reaches 545 MB / s, the maximum sequential recording speed is 525 MB / s. Performance of arbitrary access reaches 100000/80000 IOPS read / write. Two senior models provide maximum productivityBut 250-gigabyte modification is inferior to them only the smallest.

The drive is built on the 4-channel controller Marvell 88SS1074 "DEAN", which supports error correction code with a small density check (LDPC). The LCPC algorithm implements a bilateral (hardware and software) approach to correcting errors in the 15-nm TLC NAND memory (3 bits per cell) SanDisk. LCPC provides a greater resource for this type of flash memory than BCH ECC, which extends the service life of a depletion of planar NAND.

Western Digital Blue SSD Review | Price and accessibility

SSD-storage series Western Digital Blue Already went on sale (in the USA). It is expected that initial discs will be sold at the recommended prices, and then become cheaper. The best offer is a 500-gigabyte model for $ 139.99. Oddly enough, but today the 1-terabite model is worth more than twice as expensive - $ 299.99.

Western Digital Blue SSD Review | Warranty period and resource

All three modifications are provided by a three-year guarantee limited by the volume of recorded data - the TBW rating (the volume of terabytes recorded on the disk) serves as the main guideline for how much data you can burn to the disk before the warranty loss. For the Blue series drives, an increased resource is declared compared to the X400 disks of the same capacity: for example, for the terabyte model it is increased from 320 to 400 TB. A 500-gigabyte drive resource - 200 TBW, 250-gigabyte - 100 TBW.

Western Digital Blue SSD Review | Equipment

Included Western Digital Blue There is no documentation. Inside the box, we found only the drive itself in a plastic protective container. From the manufacturer's website, you can download the SanDisk SSD Dashboard utility, made in the Western Digital corporate colors, which will work with the drives of the new series.

In the same way as the original version of SanDisk, this program does not allow you to safely delete data in windows Environment 8 and newer operating systems. With it, you can only create boot USB drivewhich clears the disk without logging in Windows.

Western Digital Blue SSD Review | Packaging

New SSD. Western Digital Blue Have an attractive design, but the manufacturer does not report special details about its product. According to the corporate color scheme, SSD refers to the blue line, that is, to mass consumer products for PC. It is unlikely that someone will surprise that a company known as a manufacturer of hard drives offers on the packaging "ideal" two-disc configuration of the SSD / HDD system, in which the Winchester is intended to be used for long-term storage of data. However, such configurations are for advanced users, and we do not think that many ordinary buyers will set this "ideal" configuration. In any case, web browsers and family photo collection usually do not take a lot of disk space.

Western Digital Blue SSD Review | Appearance

Externally Western Digital Blue It does not differ from the X400 drives, with the exception of the label. The thin plastic case does not claim a premium design, but it is well suited for installation in the desktops and in general for consumer purposes. The Marvell 88SS1074 controller does not highlight a lot of heat, and it will be comfortable in an isolated space. To transfer heat from components to a thin plastic case, Western Digital engineers used a full-sized thermal conducting gasket.

Western Digital Blue SSD Review | Hardware features

Western Digital sent us to the test only modification with a volume of 1 TB. In this drive on one side pCB Eight SanDisk chips 15 Nm TLC NAND and two LPDDR3 DRAM cache chip are installed next to the 4-channel Marvell controller.

Western Digital Blue SSD Review | Products for comparison