Western Digital has launched a trio of new WD-Black storage solutions broadly targeting PC gamers. The products include; its first NVMe SSD with next-gen PCIe Gen4 technology, a fully bootable Gen3 x8 add-in-card, and a Thunderbolt 3-powered NVMe SSD gaming dock. Last but not least, all three new products feature RGB lighting controlled via the WD_Black dashboard fow Windows.
WD_Black SN850 NVMe SSD
This is WD's first PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, following hot on the heels of the likes of Samsung, TeamGroup, and Sabrent. As a reminder, the last HEXUS review of a WD NVMe SSD was of the WD Blue SN550 NVMe PCIe SSD (1TB), using PCIe Gen3 technology, in late July.
Headline performance figures for the WD_Black SN850 NVMe SSD, provided by WD, indicate that this SSD is capable of read/write speeds up to 7000/5300MB/s (1TB model). WD says it has designed and implemented its new WD_Black G2 controller and this drive has been optimized for top-tier and high-intensive gaming (it isn't intended for NAS or server use).
Low queue depth performance is said to have been boosted by WD's latest design. Additionally WD teases use of a new caching technology to make your game load times and file transfers faster than ever.
The WD_Black SN850 NVMe SSD non-heatsink version will be available in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB capacities starting at an RRP of £129.99 from the end of the month. We don't have pricing for the RGB-enabled heatsink model, due in Q1 2021, at the time of writing.
WD_Black AN1500 NVMe SSD Add-in-Card
WD has created a fully bootable plug and play add-in card based upon PCIe Gen3 x8 technology. The new WD_Black AN1500 NVMe SSD Add-in-Card is powered by two internal SSDs in RAID 0 and PCIe Gen3 x8 technology - a good way to max out your current gen (PCI 3.0) PC rig.
Thanks to this AIC, gamers can expect read speeds up to 6500MB/s and write speeds up to 4100MB/s (2TB and 4TB models). Customisable RGB lighting and an integrated heatsink is standard on this product.
The WD_Black AN1500 NVMe SSD Add-in-Card is available in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities starting at £228.99. WD says you can grab it today from the usual resellers or direct.
WD_Black D50 Game Dock NVMe SSD
This cute box of tricks houses a 1TB NVMe SSD (but there is a cheaper HDD version too). The WD_Black D50 Game Dock NVMe SSD connects to your PC system via a single Thunderbolt 3 for power/data. As a dock it provides; 87W of pass-through charging, 2x Thunderbolt 3 ports, DisplayPort 1.4, 2x USB-C 10Gb/s ports, 3x USB-A 10Gb/s ports, Audio In/Out, and Gigabit Ethernet.
This docking storage with NVMe SSD inside is said to deliver up to 3000MB/s read speed and 2500MB/s write speed, meaning faster load times.
Again we have customizable RGB lighting controlled via the WD_Black Dashboard for Windows. The 1TB NVMe SSD packing version has an RRP of £429.99, if you are OK with an HDD version it is considerably less pricy at £279.99. WD says you will be able to pre-order this TB3 gaming dock starting today.
