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HDTUNE
HD Tune is a Hard Disk Utility with many functions from error checking, health testing (S.M.A.R.T.), and of course benchmarking. To build upon our real world write test we also looked to see where the write speeds leveled off to by using HD Tune Pro. If SLC caching is being utilized, this test will typically show it.
For one last benchmark we are yet again utilizing HDTune. HDTune shows us that the base write speed will drop off to about 300MB/s, though it can temporarily dip down to about 100MB/s. The multi-tiered caching mechanism seems to be doing a very good job and that paired with the Marvell controller beats out many of the Silicon Motion powered TLC SSDs.
REPORT ANALYSIS AND FINAL THOUGHTS
During our bombardment of benchmarking the WD blue did well. It achieved 560MB/s read and 530MB/s write speeds during ATTO. It hit 96K/75K IOPS read/write in AS SSD and Anvil. It received an average score of nearly 75K in PCMark Vantage and did very well in PCMark 8. It’s average file transfer speed in our 30GB copy benchmark was a bit under 400MB/s, but for a planar TLC based SSD, that is a great result. It also proved to be one of the most efficient TLC based drives thanks to that result and its power consumption. Idle power consumption was also very good at just 53mW. This drive should prove to do well in a laptop because of these and its DevSleep support. Finally, in testing for its base write performance we saw that it can sometimes dip to 100MB/s or so, but averages at about 300MB/s, so all seems great there.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The WD Blue is the first full-fledged SSD produced by WD. Since the acquisition of SanDisk, it was only time till an SSD product was released under their brand. Overall, it is a good performer and one of the best performing planar TLC based options out. Its price, however, is on the high side for what it is and will have to come down to be more competitive with the other TLC based options out there. One can grab a Samsung 850 EVO, which delivers better performance and longer warranty for a few bucks more or a Crucial MX300 for a bit cheaper. WD has been known for slightly higher prices than its competition, but in the SSD game, we will see how that works for them. It has been very cut throat lately and the market is saturated with options everywhere. It isn’t like the hard drive business quite yet.
That said, if you are looking for a good performer with a quality name behind it, we have no qualms in recommending the WD Blue for those interested in it. Just know that you can currently buy the SanDisk X400, which is basically the same drive, for a bit cheaper and it comes with a longer warranty and encryption support. In the end, if you feel the WD Blue is the right choice for you, then be sure to…
Check out the WD Blue SSD at Amazon Today!
Been so quiet thought you’d all gone on holiday together.
WD will need to learn the SSD pricing game really quick.
Wonderful to see someone else reaching 10K-4K iops.
thro in other reviews it’s all over the place-Crystal 10K+
AS-SSD 7K7 and Anvil 7K9………………………….
Be interesting to see how smaller drives go…………….
EDIT
as to your surprise how well this drive performed fol planer TLC.
Thro Sammy were first out the door-we all know the problems
the 840 series had.And Crucial’s BX200 sits just above the lemons.
Sandisk produced a good midrange drive with the Ultra2 quite a while ago.
c’mon, 2d tlc needs to die quick. 3d tlc can’t come soon enough for budget drives.
I came across this file transfer tool called Binfer. I have used Binfer to transfer large files with Binfer several times and recommend it highly. It does require the senders computer to stay online.