After buying Sandisk, WD retook a couple of months a product line in vogue: SSDs. He did it with models of different ranges and associated with something classic brand: the colors. The Blue WD, but consumer level, is before us today in our analysis. We tested the SSD 1TB WD Blue, solid disc model which moves in the price range of between 250 and 300 euros, as the vast majority of its direct rivals.
WD Blue SSD 1 TB, technical features
The market for SSDs is growing. We will not tire of repeating the benefits that these storage units and their possibilities give us, with an increasingly attractive price. WD launches to this segment after the acquisition of Sandisk with the idea of repeating the success that their units have in the sector of mechanical disks.
| WD BLUE | WD GREEN | |
| FORM FACTORS AVAILABLE | 2.5 inch or M.2 2280 carton | 2.5 inch or M.2 2280 carton |
| PHYSICAL DIMENSIONS | Box 2.5 inches x 69.85 x 100.2 mm M.2 2280: 1.5 x 22 x 80 mm |
Box 2.5 inches x 69.85 x 100.2 mm M.2 2280: 1.5 x 22 x 80 mm |
| AVAILABLE CAPACITIES | 250 GB, 500 GB and 1 TB | 120 GB and 240 GB |
| SEQUENTIAL READING SPEED | 250GB: 540MB / s 500 GB: 545 MB / s 1TB: 545 MB / s |
120GB: 540MB / s 240GB: 540MB / s |
| SEQUENTIAL WRITING SPEED | 250GB: 540MB / s 500 GB: 545 MB / s 1TB: 545 MB / s |
120 GB: 405 MB / s 240 GB: 435 MB / s |
| RANDOM READ SPEED | 250GB: 97K 500 GB: 100K 1TB: 100K |
120GB: 63K 240GB: 68K |
| RANDOM WRITE SPEED | 250GB: 79K 500 GB: 80K 1TB: 80K |
120GB: 37K 240GB: 37K |
| OPERATING TEMPERATURE | From -55 to 85 degrees Celsius | From -55 to 85 degrees Celsius |
| WORK TEMPERATURE | 0 to 70 degrees Celsius | 0 to 70 degrees Celsius |
| INTERFACE | SATA III 6Gb / s | SATA III 6Gb / s |
| RESISTANCE | 250GB drive 100 TBW unit 500 GB: 200 TBW unit 1TB: 400 TBW |
Unit 120 GB: 40 TBW unit 240 GB: 80 TBW |
| MTTF | 1.57 million hours | 1.57 million hours |
| VOLTAGE | Box 2.5 inches :: 5V ± 5% M.2 2280: 3.3V ± 5% |
Box 2.5 inches :: 5V ± 5% M.2 2280: 3.3V ± 5% |
| VIBRATION DURING WORK | 5.0 gRMS, 10-2000 Hz | 5.0 gRMS, 10-2000 Hz |
| NON-OPERATING VIBRATION | 4.9 gRMS, 7 – 800 Hz | 4.9 gRMS, 7 – 800 Hz |
| REPOSE | 42 – 52mW | To be confirmed |
| DEVSLP | 4.9 – 9.7mW | To be confirmed |
| AVERAGE ACTIVE POWER | 70 mW | 50 mW |
His first two lines are the SSD Blue and Green, mainly differentiated by the ability and some performance parameters. While WD Green, more affordable line is addressed to consumers who favor balance between price and performance, WD Blue convince those who aspire to make a greater investment in its SSD, as they could be players and creative.
The selling point of the WD Blue is not so much the capacity / price ratio as the resistance and reliability of its SSD, something that for certain sectors is paramount
For these users, the long-term durability is less critical than the resistance or reliability in the day to day, being in these WD Blue between 20 GB / day and 80 GB / day depending on capacity. As for speeds of writing and reading, the theory tells us that the SSD WD Blue are able to reach 545 MB / s and 525 MB / s per second in reading and writing respectively, with a SATA III connection 6GB per second.
The WD Blue SSD uses FTA technology, exactly the same as the SanDisk X400 model. The Marvell 88SS1074 has been included as driver. WD justifies the release of his new team for the renewed firmware enjoying this “own” SSD, which lowers the other hand guarantee only three years, but with a resistance of 400 TBW , its main selling point and a figure to Reach of few SSDs in this price range.
The formats that are available WD Blue SSDs are M.2 and 2.5-inch profile 7 mm.
Test team and competitors
To test actual performance of WD Blue 1TB SSD we have analyzed in Engadget we have used our usual testing equipment, donated by ASUS.
The desktop PC ASUS G11 has a basic equipment consisting of the Intel Core i7 6700 (Skylake) 3.4 Ghz accompanied 16GB DDR4 2126 Mhz RAM memory and an Nvidia GTX980.
As SSD benchmark against which to have taken the SSD 850 EVO Samsung, the MX300 Crucial and OCZ TR150, all hard drives of 1TB and similar to the WD Blue 1TB price, which costs currently slightly above 300 euros.
The WD Blue SSD test unit has been connected for benchmarks and test directly to the motherboard.
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WD Blue 1GB SSD Performance
To measure the performance of the 1 TB WD Bluw SSD, we set up a test battery with the specific reference software for this type of measurement: ATTO Disk Benchmark, CrystalDiskMark, PC Mark 8 and AS SSD.
The results obtained in our tests with the base team, where the WD Blue 1TB maintains a speed of both writing and fairly close reading in reality what they say its characteristics , especially as far as reading is concerned.
Just synthetic battery test with the WD Blue 1TB SSD suite using PC Mark 8 , specifically its storage test. In the scoring test there is maximum equality, with all comparative tests in similar numbers. The WD Blue gets 4828 points for the 4922, 4932 and 4901 of Samsung, OCZ and Crucial respectively. The trend seen in previous tests remains.
If we measure the bandwidth with the test PC Mark 8, the results are as follows:
Looking at the average speeds of the SSD WD in our tests, no significant differences involving neither advantage nor disadvantage compared to its rivals theorists in the day. They are pretty much on a par overall.
Moving large amounts of data very frequently with high reliability and sustained speed in the short term are the strengths of this WD Blue against rivals, at the cost of a slightly higher price
However, it is in the warranty (only three years in the WD Blue) where we find the differences with other models. While this WD Blue is a loser if we want a long-range SSD model (although the guarantees are limited) with which we are mainly storing information, the same is not the case with the resistance, which far exceeds that of all rivals in a Price range of 300 euros.
Although not as fast as the SSD with the possibility of being connected via PCI Express, its reason for purchase is clearly the strength of 400 TBW model 1TB (at 10 GB of information per day, this WD Blue could resist above Of 100 years), obtaining good capacity for intensive tasks of writing and reading of data where the main thing is not the storage and large transfers with consistency in the speed, just the tests where the best score has taken this SSD of WD.