Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Extremely quick artificial benchmark outcomes — at occasions
- DRAM for wonderful random efficiency
- 5-year, 600TBW guarantee
Cons
- Write speeds assorted from 300MBps to 13GBps on our regular take a look at mattress
- Pricey
Our Verdict
This fantastically speedy PCIe 5.0 SSD will ship the 14GBps items. But it had compatibility points on our take a look at mattress with write speeds everywhere — as excessive because the marketed 13GBps, however as little as 300MBps.
Price When Reviewed
This worth will present the geolocated pricing textual content for product undefined
Best Pricing Today
Price When Reviewed
1TB: $180 I 2TB: $280 I 4TB: $550
Best Prices Today: WD SN8100
With WD’s 8TB Black SN850X being our top-rated PCIe 4.0 SSD, and the WD Black SN7100 holding sway because the second-ranked HMB (host reminiscence buffer) PCIe 4.0 SSD, I used to be anticipating nice issues from the corporate’s newest: the PCIe 5.0 WD Black SN8100. Well, I bought nice issues, but in addition some not-so-great issues — for causes that stay unclear.
Note that I’ll revisit this overview if and when the “things” state of affairs (learn the efficiency part) with the SN8100 clears up. Also, it appears Sandisk, after a current “split” from WD, is now advertising and marketing WD drives — i.e., that is the Sandisk WD Black SN8100.
Read on to be taught extra, then see our roundup of the best SSDs for comparability.
What are the WD Black SN8100’s options?
The WD Black SN8100 is a PCIe 5.0, NVMe 2.0, 2280 (22mm extensive, 80mm lengthy) M.2 SSD. It makes use of stacked BiCS8 TLC NAND and a Sandisk controller plus DRAM for quick random operations.
Sandisk offers a five-year guarantee on the WD Black SN8100, mitigated by a 600TBW-per-terabyte-of-capacity score — in different phrases, if you happen to write greater than 600TB to the drive, it might go into read-only mode and the guarantee is void at that time.
Note that the majority SSDs are good for a lot extra writes than their score, and it’s unlikely you’ll write wherever close to that a lot in even 10 years.
How a lot does the WD Black SN8100 value?
Sandisk sells the WD Black SN8100 in three capacities: 1TB for $180, 2TB (examined) for $280, and 4TB for $550. That’s greater than the Samsung 9100 Pro and the equally quick Crucial T705 (that are each on sale for $170 and $142, respectively, on the time of this writing), however in the identical ballpark as their MSRPs. I’d count on the SN8100 to settle in at a aggressive worth. All issues being equal, that will make it an excellent worth, however…
How does the WD Black SN8100 carry out?
When working accurately, the SN8100 was proper up there with its quickest PCIe 5.0 opponents. However, scorching on the heels of the Sandisk Extreme Pro SSD with USB4 (that’s the precise identify) not at all times connecting at full pace, I skilled a considerably comparable difficulty with the WD Black SN8100. Albeit solely with writes.
When utilizing the identical M.2/PCIe 5.0 slot with which I’ve efficiently examined all NVMe SSDs during the last two years, the 8100 initially carried out as much as snuff. Subsequently, nonetheless, write speeds in artificial benchmarks dropped to 2GBps/PCIe 3.0 ranges, after which mysteriously to 600MBps/SATA ranges and even decrease.
The phenomenon was additionally wildly inconsistent: One day efficiency was as anticipated, the following day it will fall off the planet. Reboots would appear to remedy the problem, then it will reappear.
Moving the WD Black SN8100 to a ROG PCIe 5.0/NVMe adapter card nestled within the take a look at mattress’s sole PCIe 5.0 slot, write efficiency constantly reached anticipated ranges — monitoring with out fail at 13.5GBps in all of the artificial benchmarks.
Thermals weren’t a problem because the SN8100 by no means cracked 50 levels Celsius. However, Sandisk touts the drive’s excellent vitality financial savings, so possibly there’s another excuse for it throttling down writes, which require way more vitality than reads.
One day efficiency was as anticipated, the following day it will fall off the planet.
I retested the 2 competing drives, Crucial’s frantastic T705, and Samsung’s blazing 9100 Pro on the adapter card, however each carried out barely worse, so the numbers on the charts are from the unique exams within the regular M.2 slot. No must punish them for WD/Sandisk’s difficulty.
With these caveats, the SN8100 did fairly nicely, even taking the highest spot in a few exams.
Once once more, the SN8100 was proper up there with its opponents and even managed two first locations in CrystalDiskMark 8’s random exams.
Our 48GB switch exams had the SN8100 falling barely behind the competitors. Not by a lot, however nonetheless simply outdoors of the margin of error.
The SN8100 once more lagged behind the opposite two drives within the real-world 450GB write take a look at, although not by lots. Note that the top-performing drives on this take a look at are nearly all HMB (host reminiscence buffer) designs. And largely PCIe 4.0. Go determine.
Although barely slower within the real-world switch exams, the SN8100 remains to be a really quick SSD. The points with our motherboard M.2 slot are mysterious, and a reasonably lengthy cellphone name with Sandisk did not make clear the matter — the corporate was unable to copy the problem and a second SN8100 exhibited the identical habits.
I’m inclined to chalk it as much as motherboard/drive incompatibility that you just’re unlikely to expertise. But that’s actually not a promise, so run CrystalDiskMark 8 a number of occasions throughout boots earlier than the return window closes. It might be tough to identify SSD slowdowns with the bare eye, and as I stated, the problem was inconsistent.
Should you purchase the WD Black SN8100?
The WD Black SN8100 is likely one of the quickest NVMe SSDs in artificial benchmarks that I’ve ever examined. But consider me once I say that it provides me no pleasure to advocate that you just examine compatibility utilizing CrystalDiskMark 8 or comparable earlier than totally committing to your buy — WD/Sandisk has created nothing however stellar storage merchandise up till lately.
Again, I’ll revisit this overview if the state of affairs modifications — hopefully with an answer to the uneven write efficiency thriller and a greater star score.
How we take a look at
Our storage exams at the moment make the most of Windows 11 (22H2) 64-bit working on a Z790 (PCIe 5.0) motherboard/i5-12400 CPU combo with two Kingston Fury 32GB DDR5 modules (64GB of reminiscence whole). Intel built-in graphics are used. The 48GB switch exams make the most of an ImDisk RAM disk taking over 58GB of the 64GB whole reminiscence. The 450GB file is transferred from a Samsung 990 Pro 2TB, which additionally comprises the working system.
Each take a look at is carried out on a newly formatted and TRIM’d drive so the outcomes are optimum. Note that as any drive fills up, efficiency will lower as a result of much less NAND for secondary caching, and different elements.
The efficiency numbers proven apply solely to the drive we had been shipped in addition to the capability examined. SSD efficiency can range by capability as a result of extra or fewer chips to learn/write throughout and the quantity of NAND out there for secondary caching (writing TLC/QLC as SLC). Vendors additionally sometimes swap elements. If you ever discover a big discrepancy between the efficiency you expertise and that which we report (methods being roughly equal), by all means — tell us.