WD Blue SN580 NVMe SSD is the next generation of M.2 format storage that Western Digital has designed to power notebooks and desktops.
Available with capacities between 250 GByte and 2 TByte, this generation of storage units takes advantage of the popular 2280 format and can therefore easily find a place in modern desk workstations, usually equipped with one or more compatible slots, as well as in the most recent notebooks.
The designated target for this kind of product are professional users, those who process documents and large files, designers, creators and office users and Soho in general.
The “WD Blue” family has always been particularly flexible and offers the latest technologies at mainstream prices. The main improvement compared to the previous generation SN570, available for just over a year and a half, concerns the adoption of the fourth generation PCI Express communication channel (PCIe Gen4 NVMe 1.4b) and WDC TLC NAND memories.
Integration processes made it possible to deploy high-capacity units with components Soldered on one side only, M.2 form factor M-key.
This has also made it possible to create thinner storage, easily installed in limited space conditions (as, for example, on ultrabooks and ultra portables) as well as units capable of operating with slightly lower average temperatures.
Performance is complemented by Western Digital stability and durability, with sustained random performance of 750mila IOPS in write and speeds of approximately 4.15 GB/s for the 1 TByte (tested) and 2 TByte models.
For the drive under test (WDS100T3B0E), the expected lifetime is 600 TBW (Terabytes Written) calculated using the client workload JEDEC (JESD219).
The entire family boasts an MTTF of 1.5 million hours. We are talking about a fundamental parameter (Mean Time To Failure), based on internal tests using Telcordia stress test (Telcordia SR-332, GB, 40°C).
The WD Blue SN580 NVMe SSD boasts an average power draw of just 65 mW, a value that drops to 3.3 mW when idle. Efficient energy management in all conditions is the prerequisite for better managing hosts and endpoints, ensuring low energy consumption and compliance with cooling and conditioning parameters.
From our tests, integrating the WD Blue SN580 NVMe SSD unit inside a properly ventilated desktop location, we recorded parameters of around 43°C when the device is idle. Without adopting thermal pads or radiators we recorded peaks of 65°C under continuous stress e an average temperature of 51°C.
WD Dashboard
Like most of the brand’s units, the test product can also be monitored via the Western Digital Dashboard, freely downloadable from the manufacturer’s website.
The software component, constantly updated in terms of graphics and content, allows you to intervene under various aspects and offers the basic information (expected life, temperature, remaining capacity) of the installed storage. The platform allows you to search and update the drive firmware and initiate secure erase tasks.
The “performance” section highlights the speed of the drive as a function of the temperature and can be very useful in the “fine-tuning” phase of your workstation, to evaluate the layout and speed of any additional fans.
Not only that, the panel allows you to view the enable status of the TRIM integrated among the Windows commands or to program the execution of the command on a daily/weekly/monthly basis.
For even more advanced management, Western Digital allows users to choose whether enable write caching in Windows environments and write buffer cache flushing. The two settings must be modified carefully and only in case of specific needs, since they significantly affect the general performance of the drive.
Finally, the possibility of downloading is interesting Acronis True Image Western Digital Editionto clone partitions and the entire disk architecture.
Test e performance
The device was tested on a high performance Core i7 4.2GHz system, 16GByte RAM and Windows 10 Pro environment.
By adopting CrystalDiskMark 7.0 we have detected values of sequential read and write of 4,022 MB/s and 4,115 MB/s respectivelywith excellent access performance even during fetch and write in random mode (2.26 GB/s read and 2.95 GB/s write).
Similar performance has been achieved with ATTO Disk Benchmark 4.01, which records 3.98GB/s read, with a clear increase starting from blocks larger than 32 KByte.
AS SSD 2.0 shows 3.14 GB/s sequential read and 3.12 GB/s write, decreasing to 2,467 MB/s and 1,879 MB/s read and write in 4K-64Thrdrd block mode.
With the same test, the hypothetical loading of ISOs, programs and games occurs respectively at the speed of 2.8 GB/s, 949 MB/s and 2.1 GB/s. Respectable values, which make us understand the real increase “in the field” compared to a Serial ATA unit, bound to a maximum of 500/580 MB/s.
When compared to a 1 TByte WD SN570 drive, currently on the market at a price of 58.99 euros (compared to 67.99 euros for the test model), SN580 is able to offer 16% more in almost any context. This version is therefore to be preferred if the available hardware is capable of supporting fourth generation PCI Express connectivity.
Overall this NVMe storage has proven itself for building or expanding business setups, but also for Soho use. The price-to-capacity ratio is very interesting and today more reasonable, even compared to the much slower 2.5” SATA SSD counterpart.
PRO
Excellent cost/performance ratio; high speed sequential reading; five-year warranty; WD Dashboards; WD Acronis software.
AGAINST
Temperature at the limit under stress, without pads or radiators.
General characteristics Manufacturer Western Digital Model WD Blue SN580 NVMe SSD Website Price (VAT included) 67.99 euros (1 TByte version) Dimensions 22 x 80 x 2.38 mm Weight 5.5 grams
Specifications Capacity 1 TByte Interface PCIe Gen4 NVMe 1.4b Format NVMe M.2 2280 Duration / MTTF 1.5 million (hours) Endurance / TBW 600 TBytes written Certifications BSMI / CAN ICES-3(B) / NMB-3(B) / CE / FCC / KCC / Morocco / RCM / TUV / UL / VCCI WD SSD Dashboard Software for Windows Environments