WD Green SSD Review: Entry Level. This has never happened, and here it is again - all about the new SSD Western Digital Ssd wd green 240gb reviews

Undoubtedly, one of the most significant events in the IT industry in 2016 was Western Digital's acquisition of SanDisk, a major manufacturer of flash memory-based storage devices. This lucrative deal not only ensured WD's presence in the market for solid-state drives and memory cards, but also gave access to SanDisk assets, including the joint production of NAND chips with Toshiba, which is already actively preparing to supply multi-layer 3D NAND on an industrial scale. Thus, the prospects for the alliance between Western Digital and SanDisk look very promising and the first fruits of this alliance can be considered the release of SSDs under the Western Digital brand. Currently, the vendor offers Green and Blue lines of solid-state drives. “Green” SSDs are positioned as inexpensive, universal entry-level solutions, while “blue” series devices are intended for more affluent users who place increased demands on the performance of the disk subsystem. Who knows, perhaps in the future we will see drives from the Black line for enthusiasts or specialized Red modifications for data storage systems. Thanks to the efforts of the Ukrainian representative office of Western Digital, our test laboratory included Green PC SSD 240GB and Blue PC SSD 250GB storage devices, a detailed review of which we will introduce you to today.

The current lineup of WD SSDs includes only five items, the main characteristics of which are shown in the following table.

	WDS120G1G0A	WDS240G1G0A	WDS250G1B0A	WDS500G1B0A	WDS100T1B0A
Products webpage	wdc.com
Capacity	120 GB	240 GB	250 GB	500 GB	1000 GB
	540			545
	430	465	500	525
	37 000	63 000	97 000	100 000
	63 000	68 000	79 000	80 000
Total Bytes Written (TBW)	40	80	100	200	400
Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF)	1 750 000
Connection interface	SATA 6 Gb/s
Power consumption (read/write)	2/2 W	2/2.5 W	2.35/3.4 W	2.85/4.0 W	2.85/4.4 W
Form factor	2.5″
Dimensions	7 x 69.85 x 100.5 mm
Weight, g	32		37,4		59,7
Cost, $	50	82	91	170	315

It should be noted here that each model can have one of two designs: in a 2.5″ case or M.2 2280 format. As for the range, the “green” line contains only two modifications with a capacity of 120 and 240 GB, while “blue” drives are offered in three sizes: 250, 500 and 1000 GB. Traditionally, the higher the capacity, the higher the speed performance and resource, while the average time between failures of 1.75 million hours is the same for all devices, and the warranty period is also the same - 36 months from the date of purchase. Regardless of the form factor, all SSDs are compatible with the SATA 6 Gb/s interface.

We received the older of the two “green” SSDs for testing, namely the WDS240G1G0A, which arrived at the test laboratory in retail packaging decorated in a white and green color scheme. All details, including the model name, its volume, production date and serial number of the device are printed on a sticker located on the back of the box.

As for the delivery package, it is actually missing: inside the package there is nothing except the drive itself, wrapped in an antistatic bag and placed in a plastic blister, so I suggest moving straight to the design of the new product. The SSD case is entirely made of plastic, which ensures a low weight of the product - only 32 g. Dimensions are typical for the 2.5″ form factor - 7x69.85x100.5 mm. This is good when using the drive in thin laptops, but when installing it in a standard laptop compartment, a frame that increases the height to 9 mm would not hurt.

Most of the back side of the WD Green PC SSD 240GB is occupied by a sticker with service information. One of the ends of the SSD is dedicated to the SATA 6 Gb/s interface, combined with a power connector. By the way, the maximum power consumption of the drive in read and write mode does not exceed 2 and 2.5 W, respectively, while the average value is about 0.05 W.

Inside the case, the halves of which are connected without screws using a number of latches, there is a miniature printed circuit board, occupying barely 1/3 of the total usable area. By the way, the SanDisk inscription on the RSV in turquoise indicates the true origin of the solid-state drive. On the front surface there was a place for a pair of SanDisk 05498 064G chips, which are based on 15-nm TLC NAND semiconductor crystals, manufactured at a joint venture between Toshiba and WD (SanDisk).

On the reverse side of the printed circuit board there are two more of the same flash memory chips and an SM2258XT microcontroller manufactured by SiliconMotion. This chip, optimized for TLC NAND flash memory, is designed to build low-cost, energy-efficient drives for both consumer and industrial grades. The SM2258XT provides quad-channel connectivity of 16 TLC and 3D NAND storage devices with ONFI 3.0 and Toggle 2.0 interfaces, TRIM command and DEVSLP hardware power management are supported. To ensure data integrity, a special cyclic code with NANDXtend error correction is used, and the only thing that distinguishes this microcontroller from more advanced solutions is the lack of hardware encryption. However, the absence of the latter can be accepted if you take into account the positioning of the device. The SSD is running firmware Z3311000, the latest version available at the time of testing.

Four TLC NAND chips with a capacity of 64 GB each provide a total volume of 256 GB, of which 240 GB is available to the user, and the remaining space is used to level out uneven cell wear. In addition, the WD Green PC SSD 240GB allows a small portion of the total disk space to operate in SLC mode, which significantly improves write speed, which is usually a weak point for TLC flash memory. Judging by the readings in the AIDA64 Disk Benchmark test, the size of such an “SLC buffer” depends on the nature of the load: with continuous recording within the first 4-5 GB, the speed is about 450 MB/s, after which the average performance is set at 147 MB/s, which can be considered a very worthy result for an SSD in the entry-level price range. When randomly writing 4K blocks, the drive can write about a quarter of the volume at a stable speed of 130 MB/s, after which the average productivity decreases to 107 MB/s, but dips of up to 30 MB/s occur. However, in real conditions this type of load does not occur often, and besides, the drive needs very little time to rebuild the data and prepare the “SLC buffer” for writing the next portion of data.

Thus, the WD Green PC SSD 240GB is a typical representative of inexpensive SSDs based on TLC NAND with all its operating features. As for reliability, the manufacturer has set the storage device resource at 80 TBW, which means that up to 1/3 of the drive’s capacity can be rewritten daily during the 3-year warranty period.

Despite formally belonging to a higher class, the box of the “blue” series solid-state drive is no different from the WD Green PC SSD 240GB except for the color scheme. The design of the packaging is also laconic: the most necessary information is indicated on the reverse side, and the delivery package is just as ascetic.

As for the design of the device itself, unlike the younger model, the top cover of the case is made of aluminum alloy. At the same time, the 2.5″ form factor and dimensions 7x69.85x100.5 remained the same, while the weight of the drive increased slightly - only by 5.4 g to 37.4 g.

The front surface of the SSD is occupied by a colorful sticker, and the back cover is entirely devoted to a sticker with service information. Underneath there are four Phillips-head screws that hold the case halves together, so it’s most likely impossible to disassemble the devices without voiding the warranty. The WD Blue PC SSD 250GB is equipped with a SATA 6 Gb/s interface; in read mode it consumes 2.35 W, while in write mode the power consumption increases to 3.4 W.

After opening the case, the structure of the newcomer becomes visible. As in the case of the WD Green PC SSD 240GB product, all components fit on a small printed circuit board of the same azure color, on which the SanDisk inscription proudly flaunts. The drive is based on a Marvell 88SS1074 microcontroller, which is in contact with the metal top cover through a thermal interface gasket. The control chip has four channels for connecting MLC/TLC and 3D NAND flash memory with Toggle Mode 2.0 and ONFI 3.0 interfaces, and the maximum number of storage devices reaches eight per channel. The controller supports DEVSLP low-level power management and hardware encryption with the AES-256 algorithm, and LDPC code is responsible for data integrity and error correction. A 256 MB DDR3-1600 SDRAM chip is used to store the address translation table. In addition, on the front surface of the RSV there are two SanDisk 05478 064G chips of 64 GB each, inside of which there is 15 nm TLC NAND manufactured by Toshiba.

Two more TLC NAND chips with a capacity of 64 GB are installed on the back side of the RSV, so the total amount of flash memory of the newcomer is 256 GB, with 250 GB available to users. Despite the fact that less than 2.5% of the total capacity is allocated to level out the wear of memory cells, for the Blue PC SSD 250GB the vendor claims an impressive resource of 100 TBW, which allows you to rewrite the contents of the drive at least 400 times!

As for compensating for the low write speed of TLC flash memory, as in the case of the WD Green PC SSD 240GB, some cells operate in SLC mode. According to the results of the AIDA64 Disk Benchmark in linear operations, the drive is capable of writing the first 5 GB at a maximum speed of 504 MB/s, after which the performance level drops to 197 MB/s, while when randomly writing 4K blocks, performance remains relatively stable throughout the entire disk space, which is strikingly different from the model of the “green” series. However, the operating algorithm of the “SLC buffer” may change with the release of updates to the control firmware, so the above described only applies to the firmware version X41000WD.

As an intermediate result, it can be noted that, judging by the hardware capabilities, the WD Blue PC SSD 250GB can take its rightful place among drives of a similar class. We will find out how justified these hopes are very soon, after we get acquainted with the proprietary WD SSD Dashboard software.

Software

One of the strong competitive advantages of Western Digital solid-state drives is the availability of a powerful SSD Dashboard software product, which can be used to solve many problems related to the maintenance and operation of storage devices. In general, this program is freely available, but all features, of course, are available only for systems equipped with WD products. In terms of the capabilities offered, SSD Dashboard is a leader among similar software, second perhaps only to Samsung Magician, which can still be considered the standard of functionality. The utility's interface is laconic and pleasant, devoid of the clumsiness that many vendors from Asia are guilty of. The upper part of the window displays the name of the drive model and firmware version, as well as indicators of the status of the storage device, while in the lower right corner there are buttons for calling the system functions “Disk Management”, “System Properties” and “Device Manager”. On the “Status” tab, the user can monitor the use and layout of disk space, obtain information about the quantitative indicator of the device’s state and its temperature, as well as the operating mode of the interface.

The “Execution” tab allows you to view performance indicators; to do this, you need to activate the “System Monitor” built into Windows. This tool allows you to monitor with great accuracy the actual performance when performing various tasks.

In addition to monitoring productivity, the “Performance” tab allows you to manage the TRIM command, which is used to return the drive’s performance to its original state. Users can enable or force this command, or schedule it to run periodically using the OS System Scheduler feature.

The “Service” section, as the name suggests, is responsible for maintaining the drive. Here you can check for firmware updates on the support server or specify the path to a local firmware file, create a bootable USB drive to perform the Secure Erase and Sanitize procedures. Both procedures are aimed at guaranteed destruction of data on the SSD, only in the first case the table with markup is deleted, and in the second case the data is completely erased.

The Tools tab allows users to run quick and advanced S.M.A.R.T tests. to determine the status of the drive, and also view current internal monitoring indicators. It also displays comprehensive information about the storage device and brief information about the system configuration.

And finally, the “Settings” menu is responsible for checking for updates to the application itself, selecting the interface language, and setting up alerts via email or SMS, for example, if there are new firmware versions or problems with the SSD.

Thus, the WD SSD Dashboard software offers a complete set of tools for monitoring and maintaining SSDs, eliminating the need to use third-party utilities, except when migrating data to a new drive.

Test bench

To evaluate the performance of WD Green PC SSD 240GB and Blue PC SSD 250GB solid state drives, a test bench with the following configuration was assembled:

processor: Intel Core i5-4690K (3.5 GHz, 6 MB);
cooler: Intel Box;
motherboard: MSI Z87M Gaming (Intel Z87);
RAM: GoodRAM GY1600D364L10/16GDC (2x8 GB, 1866 MHz, 10-10-10-28-1T);
system disk: WD WD1500HLHX-01JJPV0 (150 GB, SATA 6 Gbit/s);
power supply: Chieftec CTG-750C (750 W);
operating system: Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit.

To ensure stability of the results, the EIST and C1 State energy saving technologies, as well as Turbo Boost, were disabled in the UEFI Setup of the motherboard. The paging file and the built-in Windows Defender antivirus were deactivated in the operating system settings. The tested drives were connected to the SATA 6 Gb/s chipset port of the motherboard, after which standard Windows tools created a partition formatted in NTFS with the default cluster size on the entire disk space, after which the alignment relative to 4K was checked.

To evaluate performance, the following set of software tools was used:

AIDA64 5.80.4000 (Storage Benchmark);
AS SSD Benchmark 1.9.5986.35387;
CrystalDiskMark 5.2.0 x64;
Futuremark PCMark 8 2.7.613 (Storage test).

New products from Western Digital will compete with GeIL Zenith R3 240 GB and Kingston SSDNow UV400 480 GB solid state drives, and the former will have to compete with the WD Green PC SSD 240GB, while the Kingston product will compete with the WD Blue PC SSD 250GB. The specifications of today's test participants are below:

Storage device	WD Green PC SSD	WD Blue PC SSD	GeIL Zenith R3	Kingston SSDNow UV400
Capacity	240 GB	250 GB	240 GB	480 GB
Sequential read speed, MB/s	540	540	550	550
Sequential write speed, MB/s	465	500	510	500
Maximum random read speed (4 KB blocks), IOPS	63 000	97 000	n/a	90 000
Maximum random write speed (4 KB blocks), IOPS	68 000	79 000	n/a	35 000
Controller	Silicon Motion SM2258XT	Marvell 88SS1074	Silicon Motion SM2256K	Marvell 88SS1074-BSW2
Memory type	TLC, 16 nm, SK Hynix	TLC, 15 nm, Toshiba	TLC, 16 nm, SK Hynix	TLC, 15 nm, Toshiba
DRAM	-	256 MB, DDR3-1600	128 MB, DDR3L-1600	512 MB, DDR3L-1600
Total number of bytes written (TBW), TB	80	100	n/a	200
Connection interface	SATA 6Gb/s	SATA 6Gb/s	SATA 6Gb/s	SATA 6Gb/s
Cost, $	82	91	72	127
Price per gigabyte, $	0,34	0,36	0,3	0,27

Test results

Our testing today opens with the CrystalDiskMark 5.2.0 x64 program, which allows you to evaluate the performance of drives when working with various types of data

In linear read operations, all drives demonstrate equally high results, lying at the upper limit of the throughput of the SATA 6 Gb/s interface. As for working with 4K blocks, when forming a queue of requests, the WD Green PC SSD turned out to be an outsider, obviously due to the lack of SDRAM buffer memory. In a random reading, the best results came from the WD Blue PC SSD, which outperformed even the Kingston SSDNow UV400, and third place was shared by GeIL and the WD “green” series.

Since the test data volume of 1 GiB was selected in the CrystalDiskMark settings, which completely fits into the “SLC buffers” of storage devices, the results in the recording tests were very high. When forming the queue of commands, the WD Green PC SSD again turned out to be an outsider, while its more advanced brother took first place, and in linear operations, drives based on Silicon Motion controllers shared third place. As for recording 4K blocks, the Kingston SSDNow UV400 was the best at processing the request queue, followed by the WD Blue PC SSD with a minimal margin, and its younger brother again rounded out the top four competitors. At the same time, in the operations of randomly recording 4K blocks, the difference between the leader and the outsider did not exceed 5%, so here we can talk about approximate parity.

Another synthetic test optimized for testing solid-state drives, AS SSD Benchmark 1.9.5986.35387, showed the following results.

In the linear reading subtest, the last place unexpectedly went to the WD “blue” series drive, while in the other three disciplines it took a well-deserved first place. As for the results of the WD Green PC SSD, it has nothing to brag about, especially when measuring access time.

The situation is completely different in the recording subtests, where the “green” WD model performed decently, taking third place in scenarios operating with 4K blocks, but again set an anti-record when assessing access time. As for the WD Blue PC SSD, it looked much more confident, sharing the victory with the Kingston SSDNow UV400 in two disciplines, and demonstrated an advantage in the random write subtest.

In addition to measuring throughput, AS SSD Benchmark allows you to measure the copying speed of various sets of files.

When copying large files, all drives, with the exception of the WD Green PC SSD, which managed to lag behind the other participants by 10%, showed more or less the same performance, while when moving the folder with installed software, the pedestal went to the GeIL Zenith R3 drive, followed by “ green" Western Digital, and SSDs based on Marvell controllers round out the peloton. In the subtest for copying a folder with games, the Kingston SSDNow UV400 turned out to be the fastest, followed by the WD Green PC SSD and WD Blue PC SSD, the firmware of which requires optimization when working with a mixed load.

Our testing ends with a performance assessment in the Storage test from the comprehensive Futuremark PCMark benchmark. First of all, we suggest taking a look at the integral productivity indicator and the average throughput that the competitors provided.

Despite the fact that the spread in points between the leader and the outsider did not reach 4%, the difference in performance turned out to be very significant. Now, let's see what ensured the WD Blue PC SSD a landslide victory, and what the WD Green PC SSD lacked for worthy competition with its classmates.

As they say, comments are unnecessary: in most disciplines, the “blue” WD demonstrated an overwhelming superiority over its rivals, but its younger brother just as confidently settled at the bottom of the standings. There is nothing to add here; programmers need to work on the WD Green PC SSD firmware to improve its performance.

conclusions

Considering that at this stage Western Digital brought the well-known SanDisk solid-state drives to the market under their brand, the debut could not fail. This was especially successful in the case of the WD Blue PC SSD 250GB, which provides excellent performance in most disciplines, has a decent resource, and at the same time offers a cost of 1 GB of disk space at $0.36. If you add to this excellent software support and a 3-year warranty from a reputable manufacturer, you get a good candidate for purchase as the main drive in a “charged” laptop or productive PC.

As for the younger model WD Green PC SSD 240GB, not everything is so simple with it. On the one hand, the drive provides performance, which will be sufficient for the vast majority of users, especially in the case of a transition from a traditional HDD, a resource slightly shorter than that of the “blue” SSD, powerful software support and a 36-month warranty, but on the other hand, its cost seems unreasonably high. With a ratio of $0.34 per 1 GB, it is advisable to turn your attention to the same WD Blue PC SSD 250GB, which is capable of providing much higher performance and even a slightly larger volume. In general, for the WD Green PC SSD 240GB to become a bestseller, you need to either significantly improve productivity by optimizing the firmware, or revise its retail price downward.

Western Digital Blue SSD Review | Introduction

Western Digital has bought flash memory technology before, but most of these acquisitions were aimed at the enterprise market. almost immediately secured WD second place after Samsung in the list of largest SSD manufacturers.

Armed with extensive flash memory resources, including SanDisk fabs and the industry's largest patent portfolio, WD is committed to bringing affordable, high-capacity SSDs to the consumer market. All this wealth doesn't come cheap, but buying an important mainstream SSD manufacturer like SanDisk can remove most of the barriers to market capture.

Western Digital made its first timid attempt to enter the SSD market in 2010, releasing the Silicon Edge Blue drive, which cost $999 for a 256-GB modification. The SE Blue suffered from the shortcomings of the JMicron controller and was not a success. At that time, Western Digital understood little about solid-state technology, so for development they acquired SiliconSystems Inc, which, as it turned out, also did not know much about creating consumer SSDs.

Exclusive Western Digital models like the Raptor series hard drives were not bestsellers. These are devices for enthusiasts, not for reporting sales volumes. Even if we remember that everyone we know has ever used Raptor wheels, they were still sold much less than regular mass-produced models - in the ratio of one per several hundred copies. SSDs fell into a similar “1% of products” category for a whole decade, so hard drive manufacturers simply ignored this technology. In the first quarter of 2016, shipments of hard drives fell by 20%, so it became impossible to ignore flash technologies any longer. Fortunately, WD has acquired several core assets to help move it in the right direction.

Today we are testing a new series of SSD drives WD Blue, and later we will get acquainted with the models of the budget Green line. Since the Green series SSDs will only go on sale next year, their review will have to wait.

Western Digital Blue SSD Review | Specifications

Model	WD Blue SSD (1TB)	WD Blue SSD (500GB)	WD Blue SSD (250GB)
Price in USA, Amazon, $	279,99	139,99	79,99
Form factor	2.5" / M.2 2280	2.5" / M.2 2280	2.5" / M.2 2280
Interface	AHCI SATA 6 Gb/s	AHCI SATA 6 Gb/s	AHCI SATA 6 Gb/s
Controller	Marvell 88SS1074	Marvell 88SS1074	Marvell 88SS1074
DRAM	Micron 512 MB LPDDR3	Micron 512 MB LPDDR3	Micron 256 MB LPDDR3
NAND flash memory	SanDisk 15nm TLC	SanDisk 15nm TLC	SanDisk 15nm TLC
Sequential Read Speed	545 MB/s	545 MB/s	540 MB/s
Sequential write speed	525 MB/s	525 MB/s	500 MB/s
Random Read Speed	100,000 IOPS	100,000 IOPS	97,000 IOPS
Random write speed	80,000 IOPS	80,000 IOPS	79,000 IOPS
Resource	400 TB	200 TB	100 TB
Guarantee period	3 years	3 years	3 years

To series Western Digital Blue includes SSD drives of three capacities from 250 GB to 1 TB. The hardware of these drives is identical to that installed in the SanDisk X400, which we recently tested. As Western Digital told us, they feature modified firmware, but we don’t have any specific details. The drives are available in two form factors - 2.5" and M.2 2280 (AHCI SATA).

Aimed at enterprise customers, the X400 series drives were tailored to the consumer market due to the vacuum created by SSD manufacturers rushing to conquer the ultra-low-end segment without paying enough attention to the middle class. Compared to the X400, Blue has slightly better performance and reliability. The peak sequential read speed of the Blue series SSD reaches 545 MB/s, the maximum sequential write speed is 525 MB/s. Random access performance reaches 100,000/80,000 IOPS read/write. The two older models provide maximum performance, but the 250 GB modification is only slightly inferior to them.

The drive is built on a 4-channel Marvell 88SS1074 "Dean" controller, which supports low-density parity check (LDPC) error correction code. The LCPC algorithm implements a two-way (hardware and software) approach to error correction in SanDisk's 15nm TLC (3 bits per cell) NAND memory. LCPC provides greater endurance for this type of flash memory than BCH ECC, which extends the life of low-cost planar NAND.

Western Digital Blue SSD Review | Price and Availability

SSD series Western Digital Blue are already on sale (in the US). It is expected that the discs will initially be sold at recommended prices, and then become cheaper. The best deal is the 500GB model for $139.99. Oddly enough, the 1 TB model we tested today costs more than twice as much - $299.99.

Western Digital Blue SSD Review | Warranty period and service life

All three versions come with a three-year warranty limited to the amount of data written to the disc - the TBW rating (terabytes written to the disc) serves as a general guide to how much data you can write to the disc before voiding the warranty. For Blue series drives, an increased resource is declared compared to X400 drives of the same capacity: for example, for the terabyte model it is increased from 320 to 400 TB. The resource of a 500 GB drive is 200 TBW, a 250 GB drive is 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 Western Digital’s corporate colors, which will work with the new series of drives.

Just like the original SanDisk, this program does not allow you to securely erase data in Windows 8 and newer operating systems. With its help, you can only create a bootable USB disk that will clean the disk without logging into Windows.

Western Digital Blue SSD Review | Package

New SSDs Western Digital Blue They have an attractive design, but the manufacturer does not provide any specific details about their product. According to the corporate color scheme, the SSD belongs to the blue line, that is, to mass consumer products for PCs. It will hardly surprise anyone that a company known as a manufacturer of hard drives offers on the packaging an “ideal” two-disk SSD/HDD system configuration, in which the hard drive is supposed to be used for long-term data storage. However, such configurations are for advanced users, and we do not think that many ordinary buyers will install this “ideal” configuration. In any case, web browsers and a collection of family photos usually do not take up much disk space.

Western Digital Blue SSD Review | Appearance

Externally Western Digital Blue no different from X400 drives, except for the label. The thin plastic case does not claim to be a premium design, but it is well suited for installation in desktops and generally for consumer purposes. The Marvell 88SS1074 controller does not generate much heat and will be comfortable in an isolated space. To transfer heat from the components to the thin plastic housing, Western Digital engineers used a full-length thermal conductive pad.

Western Digital Blue SSD Review | Hardware Features

Western Digital sent us only the 1 TB modification for testing. This drive has eight SanDisk 15nm TLC NAND chips on one side of the PCB and two LPDDR3 DRAM cache chips, which are located next to a 4-channel Marvell controller.

Western Digital Blue SSD Review | Products for comparison

Model	ADATA SP550 (960 GB)	Corsair Force LE (960 GB)	Crucial MX300 (1050 GB)	Mushkin Reactor (1 TB)	OCZ Trion 150 (960 GB)
Price in USA, $	224,99	229,99	243,00	233,99	269,99
Price in Russia, rub.	from 17500	from 19000	from 20100	from 19900	from 18500
Review of the site	Review	-

SSD drives from the American company Western Digital, popular on the Russian market, have proven themselves to be reliable, high-quality and productive drives. The line of solid-state storage devices is divided into series, making it easy to find the right drive for specific requirements and tasks.

WD Black – fast SSD drives for desktops and PCs with a small form factor. The drives in this series with TLC memory are made in the M.2 2280 form factor and support the M.2 PCI-Express interface, providing lightning-fast data transfer. The speed of sequential data reading reaches 2050 MB/sec, and writing speed – up to 800 MB/sec. These characteristics ensure maximum performance when performing complex tasks. A mean time between failures (MTTF) of 1.75 million hours ensures long-term reliability of 512 GB and 256 GB drives.

WD Blue – reliable solid state drives for personal computers and laptops with 3D TLC memory. High endurance up to 400 TB for write operations and 1.75 million hours of mean time between failures ensure data protection on drives of this series for many years. Such drives are available in M.2 2280 and 2.5-inch form factors with M.2 SATA and SATA 6Gb/s interfaces, respectively. Available in 250GB, 500GB, and 1TB capacities, these lightweight, compact, and powerful SSD drives support TRIM and deliver excellent read and write speeds of up to 560 MB/s and 530 MB/s.

WD Green – economical SSD drives for upgrading PCs and laptops. With drives of this series, browsing the web, playing games and starting the system will happen in the blink of an eye. They use TLC and 3D TLC memory and a Silicon Motion controller that supports SATA 6Gb/s and M.2 SATA interface. Made in the M.2 2280 and 2.5-inch form factor, these drives provide high speeds for reading and writing information - 540 MB/sec and 465 MB/sec, respectively. These lightweight and shock-resistant SSDs have no moving parts, meaning you won't lose data even if the SSD is bumped or dropped. 240 GB and 120 GB drives support TRIM and reach up to 80 TBW.

At the end of 2016, Western Digital Corp. (WDC) entered the SSD market with two lines - WD Blue and WD Green. Last year's SSDs were not a breakthrough, but simply filled a gap in the model range of the famous drive manufacturer. Of course, WDC decided not to stop there and continued to develop a new direction for itself.

We saw the result of its work in the spring of 2017, when an update to the WD Blue line was announced, which received new memory with a vertical cell layout (3D NAND). At the same time, the controller remained unchanged - it is a four-channel Marvell 88SS1074 microcircuit. The drives will be supplied in two different formats (2.5 inches and M.2 2280) and with four variations in volume. The new type of memory made it possible to increase the volume to 2 TB even in the compact M.2 2280 format. Let's evaluate their other capabilities and speed potential.

Specification

Episode title
Form factor
Interface		SATA 6 Gb/s
Controller used		Marvell 88SS1074
Type of memory chips
Operating temperature range, °C

Volume, GB
Maximum sequential read/write speed of incompressible data (CrystalDiskMark), MB/s
Random read/write speed of 4 KB data, IOPS
Maximum amount of data recorded (TBW), TB
Typical power consumption, W


Weight, gram
Dimensions, mm		80 x 22 x 2.23
Manufacturer's warranty, years
Product page

Packaging and equipment

The drive comes in a small cardboard box in the WD Blue line's signature colors. On the front side there is a three-year warranty, as well as the amount of memory. The reverse side is reserved for a sticker with service information and a short description of WDC's product lines.

The WD Blue model (WDS250G2B0B) is securely fixed in a plastic form, designed to protect it from mechanical damage during transportation.

Appearance of the device and its features

The SSD drive is made on a blue printed circuit board in M.2 2280 format. It has a single-sided layout. All microcircuits are covered with a sticker with the name of the manufacturer, the serial number of the device, as well as marks on the passage of various specifications. In turn, the reverse side of the board is completely devoid of any elements.

The controller is a four-channel Marvell 88SS1074 chip, which supports the following technologies:

NCQ (native command queuing) - hardware installation of command queuing, which allows you to optimize the performance of the drive;
S.M.A.R.T. (self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology) - a monitoring system that monitors the condition of the drive, thanks to which it is possible to predict the time of its failure;
DEVSLP - allows you to completely turn off power to the SATA interface, allowing you to save more power than the partial power outage or sleep (Slumber) methods, which involve continuing to power the physical layer;
TRIM allows you to directly delete data stored in flash memory and immediately free up unused space (free blocks) for use by the system for recording information.

As for memory chips, the drive uses four chips in total labeled “SanDisk 05138 064G”. The volume of each of them is 64 GB, which gives a total of 264 GB. At the same time, 14 GB are used for internal system algorithms.

The cache memory is implemented on the basis of a Nanya NT5CC128M16IP-DI DDR3 chip with a capacity of 2 Gbit.

The SSD comes formatted in the NTFS file system. Its effective capacity is 249.9 GB or 232 GiB.

Testing

The following stand was used for testing:

Motherboard	ASUS PRIME Z270-A (Intel Z270, Socket LGA1151, DDR4, ATX)
CPU	Intel Core i7-7700K (Socket LGA1151, 4.5 GHz, L3 8 MB)

RAM	2 x 8 GB DDR4-2400 HyperX Fury HX424C15FBK2/16
Video card	ASUS GeForce GTX 980 4GB GDDR5 Matrix Platinum
HDD	WD Purple (WD10PURX), 1 TB
power unit	Seasonic X-660 Gold (SS-660KM Active PF), 650 W, 120 mm Fan
operating system	Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit

When working with compressed data, the ATTO Disk Benchmark recorded high maximum results - 567 MB/s when reading and 525 MB/s when writing.

The speed of reading and writing 4 KB data in the ATTO Disk Benchmark is at a quite decent level, slightly ahead of last year's WD Blue SSD. Let us remind you that the higher they are, the faster the OS and application applications will work.

As for CrystalDiskMark, we got results almost identical to those in ATTO Disk Benchmark: 564 and 536 MB/s for reading and writing, respectively. The figures declared by the manufacturer are 550 and 525 MB/s.

AS SSD Benchmark, like CrystalDiskMark, evaluates work with incompressible data. It showed 518 and 137 MB/s read and write. The read speed turned out to be higher than that of its predecessor, but the benchmark has obvious problems with the write speed assessment, which we have seen not for the first time.

In general, the speed performance of WD Blue (WDS250G2B0B) cannot be called a record when compared with competitive 2.5” drives. Nevertheless, the drive demonstrates a decent level of performance and low data access latencies. It fits perfectly into a compact laptop or mini-PC, providing the user with fairly fast and capacious storage.

Support for SLC caching technology is not officially announced for this model. However, in the HD Tune Pro 5.60 and AIDA64 tests for recording the entire available volume, we see that at first the speed reaches 280 - 350 MB/s, but after recording approximately 10 GB it falls into the range of 200 - 215 MB/s. Let us remind you that cheaper models, after a drop, can reach 60-80 MB/s, so the WD Blue (WDS250G2B0B) looks decent compared to them.

According to the readings of the built-in sensor, the storage temperature during idle time was about 56°C. The air temperature in the test laboratory did not exceed 25°C.

Softwaresecurity

The proprietary WD SSD Dashboard software boasts not only a pleasant design, but also excellent capabilities, which include monitoring the status of the drive, updating the firmware version, diagnosing performance, remaining service life, temperature and other parameters. There is also the possibility of forcibly wiping the drive without subsequent data recovery and passing S.M.A.R.T. test in fast and normal modes.

conclusions

Let's summarize the consideration of a compact 250 GB SSD drive. Firstly, it is made in the increasingly popular M.2 2280 format, so it is suitable for ultrabooks or mini-PCs, which simply do not have room for a 2.5-inch model. But if desired, it can also be used in regular desktops or laptops equipped with the appropriate interface. Secondly, it uses 3D NAND chips, thanks to which it was possible to increase the total volume (up to 2 TB) and increase reliability indicators. In particular, the resource of the test model is 100 TB.

Speed indicators are very ambiguous. On the one hand, in ATTO Disk Benchmark and CrystalDiskMark we see more than 500 MB/s for reading and writing data, and on the other hand, in complex tests and other benchmarks the device loses to selected competitors. But in general, the performance is very decent, especially when it comes to switching from HDD to SSD. I was also pleased with the relatively high data writing speed under continuous load, which remained at the level of 200 - 215 MB/s, while for models with SLC caching technology it drops to 60-80 MB/s.

Another important advantage of WD Blue (WDS250G2B0B) is the proprietary WD SSD Dashboard software with a pleasant interface and high functionality. As a result, the SSD drive will not have an easy time in the fight against competitors, but it has its own strengths, so it will definitely find its way to buyers.

Advantages:

3D NAND memory;
actual read and write speeds exceed the stated figures;
decent speed for continuous recording of information;
support for a number of useful technologies;
ability to download useful proprietary software.

We express our gratitude to the companyWDC for the drive provided for testing.

We express our gratitude to the companiesASUS, Intel, KingstonAndSea Sonic for the equipment provided for the test bench.

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Excellent Reliability

High capacity and improved reliability
The 3D NAND technology used in the WD Blue SATA SSD not only provides higher capacity (up to 4 TB in a 2.5", 7 mm form factor1) compared to the previous generation of WD Blue SSDs, but also helps reduce mutual cell interference to improve reliability.

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