For those who can’t stand mechanical drives in their computer, but at the same time don’t want to skimp on storage space, a potentially interesting SSD appears on the market. Indeed, Western Digital presents an 8TB version of its powerful NVMe module WD Black SN850X. That’s a fast PCIe 4.0 x4 module, and its 8TB version is still based on TLC NAND memory (versus other 8TB models that sometimes already use QLC), so it should have top-notch performance for, say, a gaming library.
Western Digital also directly presents the modules, they are written WD_Black SN850X Game Drive. The WD Black SN850X is the most powerful SSD of this series for PC so far, as WD has not yet released any PCIe 5.0 modules. The new 8TB version should probably use the same PCIe 4.0 ×4 controller (which is directly developed in-house by WD, it is an eight-channel high-end controller with DDR4 cache). Western Digital confirms that even the 8TB module still uses TLC NAND memories, which is the most important management. It is probably a 112-layer 3D NAND of the BiCS 5 generation.
Performance is practically the same as for the 2TB and 4TB versions. The module is supposed to achieve a sequential read speed of up to 7200 MB/s and a sequential write speed (into the pseudo-SLC cache) of up to 6600 MB/s (2TB and 4TB versions have 7300 MB/s and 6600 MB/s). In random access, up to 1,200,000 IOPS should be achieved both during reading and writing.
The modules are guaranteed for five years, with a fairly standard guarantee of overwriting cycles. The 8TB module is said to handle 4800TB of total writes. That’s double what’s listed for the 4TB version and corresponds to today’s typical 600 cycles per cell. Realistically, it will probably be more, of course.
Otherwise, the module has a standard M.2 2280 design and can be purchased both with a passive cooler and separately for installation in a board that has its own cooler or in a laptop.
However, the price is not low, the official “recommended amount” is $850 for an 8TB module without a cooler, or $900 for a version with a cooler, which is not very worthwhile (you can get quality passive coolers for a fraction). With us, the basic price would correspond to the amount of CZK 23,750 or €941 after VAT is added. However, these modules are not yet available in our e-shops.
WD Black SN850X
However, it must be said here that with SSDs, it is usually the case that manufacturers announce rather inflated prices when they are released, so that in practice the modules are quickly available in stores at better and more competitive prices. So here, too, one can hope that this SSD will eventually be available for a more reasonable price, although it will probably never be completely cheap or competitive with the price per gigabyte that you get with an HDD.
Resources: WD, Tom’s Hardware
Source: www.cnews.cz
